This page was created as an information center for the WWDC 2005 Mac SB Gathering. Following is the original email sent to the Mac SB mailing list.


Greetings,

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in attending or helping organize a Mac SB Birds of a Feather session at WWDC this year? I'm sure there are quite a few subscribers on this list who will be attending WWDC, and I thought it might be beneficial to get together to share thoughts and ideas in person. I'm thinking of something fairly informal, just an open forum where we can discuss topics relating to owning a Mac Software Business. There are quite a few topics that have come up on this list that could be discussed further at a BoF session. Some topics I am thinking of include:

• Registration Systems and Pricing
• Licensing Schemes and License Agreements
• Advertising
• Forums vs. Mailing Lists
• Business aspects such as forming C/S-Corps versus LLCs or Partnerships
• Balancing time between software support and new development

There are certainly numerous other topics that we could discuss, so if anyone has something particular in mind definitely let me know. I would be willing to help organize something, but I would prefer not to do it alone. Send me an email if you're interested in helping organize.

I haven't seen anything on the WWDC website mentioning there will be BoF sessions again this year, but I can't imagine them not taking place. I spoke with someone at ADC, and all they said is that nothing has been announced yet. I figured that even if Apple doesn't plan BoF sessions into the program, it should not be too difficult to meet outside of the official conference.

I look forward to hearing what people think.

Mike

Tentative list of attendees:

  • Scott Ahten
  • Robb Allan
  • Jeff Biggus
  • Rainer Brockerhoff
  • James Duncan Davidson
  • Steve Dekorte (if outside the conference)
  • Jiva DeVoe
  • Daniel Jalkut (if outside the conference)
  • Marko Karppinen
  • Dave Koziol
  • John Labovitz
  • Bertrand Mansion
  • David Masters
  • August Mueller
  • Mike Piatek-Jimenez
  • Luis de la Rosa
  • Stephen Sebeny
  • Brent Simmons
  • Chuck Soper
  • Lemont Washington
  • Mike Zornek

Topics
Here’s a list of possible topics to discuss at the gathering. Please get in touch with me if you would like to add a topic to the list (otherwise, just ask at the gathering).

  • Registration Systems and Pricing
  • Licensing Schemes and License Agreements
  • Advertising
  • Forums vs. Mailing Lists
  • Business aspects such as forming C/S-Corps versus LLCs or Partnerships
  • Balancing time between software support and new development
  • Analyzing web stats (using Urchin) related to events such as releases or announcements. Compare web traffic to sales, etc.
  • Market testing new ideas.

Venue
It appears that Birds of a Feather sessions will not be offered at WWDC this year, so an outside venue has been selected. The meeting time will be on Monday (June 6th) after the keynote, from 12-2pm. Meet outside the main door of Moscone West, lunch in hand. From there we will walk across the street to the park behind the Metreon. If 2 hours isn’t enough time, we can plan to meet again at some other point that week.