A new model and market for Fair Trade Software

I believe that the world is ripe for a whole new way to getting great software products from creative developers world-wide into the hands of consumers who will in turn be willing to pay for quality delivered. And I am not the only one, based on many writings that have been bubbling around lately.

The version of this idea that I am the most intrigued by based on the following premises/assertions:

Microsoft has ruined the market for software developers. Customers assume that software must be free or almost free. We have come to think that it’s reasonable to pay $99.00 for a piece of software that cost $1 Bullion to develop. This phenomenon makes it near impossible to make a living and developing software
There is a large pool of creative and passionate people all around the world who have great ideas and the ability to deliver them as software products. However they are not getting into the game, because of the preceding point, and others.
And yet, there are products to be invented and built which would be of great value to large numbers of people. Under the right circumstances they would be willing and able to pay for software if it delivered real value to them.

So, can you conceive of a new way to build, test, distribute, pay for, support and distribute software based on the above assumptions? It might consist of the following elements:

A brand which stands for high quality software at a reasonable price. Software that is well supported, that is upgraded, that is useful, that plays well with others. A “Good Housekeeping”-like badge of approval which stands for that promise.
A set of developer guidelines for developers to meet in order to participate in this new market.
A basic base of technology that would be provided and required to be used by all apps. It would provide a certain level of consistency as well as registration, the ability to be upgraded automatically, to be reviewed, to have bugs reported, and other capabilities as we think of them.
A recruitment effort that would identify developers around the world who either had applications that might be brought up in this new model, or who have applications in mind that they would like to build for us.
An open mind to new payment models for software, such as pay per use, monthly rental, barter, etc., all to maximize the value to the purchaser while giving the developer a chance at making a fair living.
A consumers’ report-like model of review, peer review, customer review feedback etc. that would allow users to find out what the best applications were for their purposes.

A lot more thought is needed, and I have spent hours playing with ideas like these with my friend Paul English. There are clearly many issues that have to be figured out before this is a viable project. Please send your comments and ideas to me and I will continue to try and evolve and refine this vision.

In summary, what is so appealing to me is that thought of the amazing number of creative and enterprising software people around the world who have been kept on the sidelines because of the dynamics of the present day models. If we could provide a way for them to get back into the game and bring a whole new generation of diverse software to all of us.