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August 31, 2001

Share(ware) the wealth

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As high-tech workers you are probably always on the lookout for tools to make your job a little easier. Perhaps it is that simple utility that saves you 10 minutes every time you have to update a report or a program that monitors your network and lets you know when there are problems. Often, these useful little programs are distributed as shareware, meaning you can try before you buy. Unfortunately, too few high-tech workers actually take the step of paying for the software they find so useful. I think we owe it to all the great programmers out there to find some way to ensure that they get the rewards, however small, that they deserve. In this way we can insure that these little software gems continue to be produced.

Cash on the barrel

Take a few minutes this week to look at your computer, and those under your care. How many shareware utilities are you using? How often do you use them? You might be surprised just how important some of this software has become to your business operations. In these cases it is very easy to justify paying the shareware fee for each and every copy.

Imagine your life if this utility was not available. How many minutes or hours would be lost if you had to perform these tasks manually? Could you complete the task at all? In cases such as these it is relatively easy to make a case to your management for fulfilling the shareware terms for using the software. The software obviously allows the company to be more productive, especially if there are no other alternatives currently available.

Shareware that is used only occasionally is more problematic. I would still urge you to pay for everything you use, no matter how infrequently, but there are financial realities involved. Too often, trying to make a $10 payment for a piece of shareware brings the entire weight of the corporate bureaucracy down on your head. You have to justify the need for the software, then fight the purchasing department to deal with a vendor that isn’t on their approved lists, then figure out how to process the payment through whatever mechanism is chosen by the shareware author.

Thankfully, most managers now have a certain amount of discretionary funding that they can spend on their own authority. Your department may have to charge the shareware fee to a corporate credit card and then deal with the purchasing department later, especially if the author only takes online payments. Regardless of how you pay your shareware fees, it is important that you do pay them. Sometimes it can seem like a hard fight over a little item, but it is worth it.

Why?

The single most important reason to pay your shareware fees is to give the shareware authors the freedom to continue developing great programs that you can use. Compression software such as ARC, PKZip and Stuffit are perfect examples of shareware utilities that directly effected the working lives of millions of computer users. Without the influx of money from shareware fees, our computing lives would be much different. These fees allowed the authors to continually improve their products, giving us greater and greater flexibility in how we managed our data. Eventually these shareware authors were able to develop entire companies based around their products. While this means we now have to pay for something that was once "free", it also provides us with the support and service we need when software doesn’t work quite they way we planned.

It is a common theme of life that you never can tell where the "next big thing" will develop. Today’s shareware author could end up being the next Bill Gates. Both personally and professionally, I would be happy to have a hand in encouraging this success. After all, the shareware author may have made my life better on a daily basis for years. It is the least I can do.

It can seem like a hassle sometimes to pay for your shareware software, but you must remember that when you use this software you are engaging in an agreement with the author, although you may never meet or even talk on the phone. The shareware author asks you to make your payment if you find the software usable. It is up to you and your sense of fair play to realize when these conditions have been met. Start today. Find one piece of shareware software you have not registered and do it! The $10-$15 you spend today might end up having a dramatic effect on your high-tech career.

 

about this column.

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Douglas E. Welch is a freelance writer and computer consultant in Van Nuys, California. Readers can discuss career issues with other readers by joining the Career Opportunities Discussion on Douglas' web page at: http://www.welchwrite.com/dewelch/ce/

He can reached via email at douglas@welchwrite.com

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