Where are the Users?
K.S. Bhaskar
Where are the users? Most assuredly, they are here on our planet, but where on Earth are they? For software released under proprietary licenses, one knows ones licensees at least in theory. But for code released under a free / open source software (FOSS) license that is free to anyone to use and redistribute, as all YottaDB software is, that is not as easy. To best serve users, whether or not they are customers, software developers should really understand the applications for which their software is used.
To that end, we are capping our user base! We have a supply of caps, pictured here, and modeled on our blog page by Sam and Bhaskar at the YottaDB table at All Things Open, and we can order more. Please e-mail us, and tell us about your interest in YottaDB. Ideally, we would like to know more about applications for which you are using, or intend to use, YottaDB. Even if your interest is just to get a cool cap, e-mail us with your mailing address, and we will send you one (or more, if you are writing on behalf of a group) for free, wherever the postal services can find you. Incidentally, although the caps come from the manufacturer with a flat brim, you can curve it to suit.
Even if we don’t know who our users are, or what application YottaDB is being used or contemplated for (i.e., those who don’t want our cool caps!), we will be using Scarf to help us deduce the country and organization from the IP address metadata, conforming to both European and California privacy regulations. Note that we are not tracking you: we are only gathering statistical information. The folks at Scarf are easy to work with, by the way.
If you do not wish to add a data point to the statistical information, you can use a VPN, or get our software directly from our GitLab project pages. Scarf also has instructions on configuring your browser so that Scarf does not look at the IP address metadata. But we sincerely hope you will help us further our ambitions to be fashion purveyors, not just software developers!
Published on December 09, 2022