Developer

Commercial Groups on DIYD

Posted by Bill Bonney on November 21, 2015 at 9:43am

I think we need to discussion about 'commercial' groups like this new one i just noticed (especially since as the site is getting bigger)

http://diydrones.com/group/outdoor-robotics

A quick visual search through gave me these 'commercial' looking groups

http://diydrones.com/group/volta

http://diydrones.com/group/ugcs

http://diydrones.com/group/uavsa

Should we not be thinking that groups created by commercial enterprises require some form of sponsorship of the site or development work in the DiyDrone community?

The other groups for Iris/Solo etc... seem to be started by individuals so are impartial and not moderated by the companies involved, so have benefit IMHO.

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Replies

  • Developer
    Randy November 22, 2015 at 6:21pm

    I'm personally happy for commercial groups to use ardupilot and congregate on diydrones.  For example the Volta group seems to be a small commercial operation selling companion computers that work with ardupilot which is something I think we really need and I hope they make some money doing it.  They've also started contributing to the diydrones/companion computer repo.

    I think there's a real risk of us being overly restrictive and thus driving people away to other sites.  Also although I think we probably all prefer open to closed, I don't think that's ever been a requirement of posting on diydrones.

  • Admin
    Thomas J Coyle III November 21, 2015 at 9:59am

    @Bill,

    The ugcs group is for the UGCS Open (free version) so I think that you can take them off your list of commercial groups.

    The uavsa group appears to be just a group for the UAV Systems Association and just gives them a place to congregate. The group only has 5 members.

    The other two groups, we will have to discuss about your suggestion of site sponsorship or give back to the sUAS community.

    Regards,

    TCIII

    • Developer
      Bill Bonney > Thomas J Coyle III November 21, 2015 at 12:31pm

      The ugcs group is for the UGCS Open (free version) so I think that you can take them off your list of commercial groups.

      It's not an Open Source Software initiative. They have a 'lite' version that is a free to use, but thats just away of selling commercial licenses. I don't see that as any different, they don't contribute towards development of Ardupilot or any other open source autopilot initiative. 

      I would have Volta as a edge case as it OSS.

      This is what I mean by it needing discussion, since it's not always that clear.

      Outdoor Robotics is just using  group as a marketing link and so I don't think it offers any value as it is.

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