Again and again ? Well, seriously speaking I think that a computational
tool should have a human interface, i.e. a person whom I can go to and ask,
besides some end-user accessible computer interface with on-line individual
interpretation of the results gathered instantaneously with a iconized
interface.
Rubbish. The question is what biologists can afford. Certainly all and
everything is desirable, and occasionally you can even produce it. The
only question is how many will buy it so that the development costs can
be covered. My suggestion above would be about 10 man-years, equivalent
to 1 mio SFr (equipment, logistics and overhead not included, add another
million for this, and then think on rent for office space and networking).
If I would want to sell this into a market which is already taken by well-accepted (though not always well-appreciated) products, I would need
to price it competetively for, lets say, $1000 per seat. Now as only the creation of such a package would cose approx $1,5m we have not considered
new features and bug fixing, documentation writing, training material
preparation... But even a one-shot experience would force me to sell
1500 licenses almost instantaneously.
Maybe we'd better discuss on how to extend existing facilities and products
rather than reinventing wheels.
My 5 Rappen on this :-)
Reinhard
--
+----------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Dr. Reinhard Doelz | RFC doelz at urz.unibas.ch |
| Biocomputing | DECNET 20579::48130::doelz |
|Biozentrum der Universitaet | X25 022846211142036::doelz |
| Klingelbergstrasse 70 | FAX x41 61 261- 6760 or 267- 2078
| CH 4056 Basel | TEL x41 61 267- 2076 or 2247 |
+------------- bioftp.unibas.ch is the SWISS EMBnet node ----------------+
-----------------------------------------
