I need your help - no really...

The App is rolling along, selling nicely and collecting advocates as it snowballs. But there has, all along, been a gaping omission. Something we knew about but I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to ignore and leave 'til last.

Any ethno-app worth it's salt, a user told me (and I knew this already) must have a web based service to receive and allow manipulation of the captured events. So you can get back to your desk, log in to your secure project area in the edlAPP site and begin analysis, interpretation, editing, sharing, etc. The App, all by itself, she continued, is like an ice-cream without a cone. It will wither and die. It will never become widely adopted as the ethnographic App of choice. Point taken.

In a couple of weeks we will have this resource, repository, whatever you want to call it (what do we call it?) ready for BETA testing. It will be a basic layout with basic functionality. The idea being that users suggest functionality we might not have considered before we launch the all bells and whistles version.

But here is what I need help with. Pricing - how do we charge? And we will have to charge something to cover the bandwidth charges. I have been looking at various online services to see what their fee structures look like. This is a good potential model. Different levels of functionality with a monthly fee. Or do I, perhaps, go down the route of a fee per respondent used? But what if I have an academic using the tool to explore an entire community? It's a tough one. So I am appealing to you, the reader to help me, the terrible business person that I am, figure out a charging structure.

If you have thoughts about how much I should charge that would be helpful too.

I so look forward to your advice.