iWiccle (currently at v1.10) and Wiccle (v1.0 in development) are two separate products with two separate aims, albeit they share a good deal of technology. This text touches on the philosophies behind the two, clarifies a thing or two on copyright and licenses, and looks into our present and future contributions to both the open-source community and the world of business software.

iWiccle and Wiccle – One and different

iWiccle and future iWiccle spinoffs and extended versions are our contribution to the open-source world. They are licensed under a Creative Commons License, giving you a great deal of freedom to modify, experiment, share and distribute. iWiccle is well-suited and feature-extensive enough to cater to most common needs related with website page building, communities, and online publishing.

Wiccle, the product we originally set to develop, is a commercial software suite aimed for media sites, eCommerce sites, high-end community sites, dating sites, and other extensive online purposes, commercial or otherwise. This is where the bulk of our revenue will be coming from, granting us the resources and the capacity to expand and extend the scope of our Web 2.0 application development.

iWiccle is, in fact, a spinoff of the core we began originally developing for Wiccle. WIth the development of Wiccle core already at a fine stage, and with most eCommerce and many media features already dealt with, we decided to move ahead of ourselves and release an open-source spinoff of our commercially developed product even before the actual product's release. Talk about unusual business approaches!

If iWiccle is open-source, why the copyrights?

Licensing and copyrights are two separate issues. License is something you get from the copyright owner, detailing the terms by which you may use the product. A license may tell you to use the product only in Alaska, or on only one website — or a license may allow you to do with it just about whatever in the world you could imagine, or require that you send a post card to the author. They come in many forms and flavors.

Copyright is something that the creator of an original work gains by default with the act of creation. The copyrights of both iWiccle and Wiccle belong to Bridge Media, Ltd., an Irish company founded by Keith Killilea. To illustrate, anyone can download and use OpenOffice, a free open-source office software suite — but don't imagine the creators of OpenOffice no longer hold the copyright, just because it's open-source, or because you downloaded it from a website for free!

Yes, and something being out in the open and freely available to the public does not mean it is public domain. If a work or a software is in public domain, it means the public owns it — or in other words, that no individual or organization can hold a legitimate claim over its copyrights. Works only go into public domain when they are specifically released into public domain, and as the copyright-holder waives his rights — or as the legal copyrights eventually expire.

Well then, why the advertisement?

We are proud of our free product, and we wish to make a statement and show that it's spreading. The more iWiccle spreads, the better it is for for us, the larger our community, the better for the product, the bigger the associated resources, the final beneficiary being those who download and use it — which would be you.

The ads, or rather the ad, you see in the footer only displays a note about iWiccle and Wiccle with two sub-100px graphics on either side. While the wording may change from version to version, rest assured we have no plans for one day coming up with a "necessary" upgrade that blasts your free iWiccle full of third-party ads!

To be able to bring about progress, adaptation, absorption, and spread of new technologies, sufficient money is a necessary evil. To that end, sales and copyrights are necessary. Our iWiccle license comes with a clause requiring you to not remove the embedded iWiccle footer without purchasing an ad-free version, identical to the free version with the exception of our "signature".

This lets the free products contribute to the overall iWiccle development and growth. When something is given, something needs to come back — balance is a prerequisite of sustainability. A Yin-and-yang sort of thing, you know — the Tao of Wiccle. Remind me to return to that on a better occasion, but harmony and symmetry are the heart of all good design, including the design of Wiccle architecture.

One needs to to generate the resources necessary for producing something substantial — such as we intend to. Substantial, as in setting a new pace to the introduction of cutting-edge technology in a framework that empowers internet users from all walks of life to accomplish with ease most of what they'd ever need to set up on the internet for themselves or for their businesses or organizations. A mouthful of talk to walk, but our feet were made for walking.

The Best of Both Worlds

As our future products grow and develop, we also intend to release stable and patch-maintained versions of selected "last year" scripts and script suites, dropped to the public to pick apart or to create a spinoff from a healthy base product. Too much skill goes wasted in the world when people with talent, but without the necessary tools or the money to secure them, can't fulfill their dreams. It's like throwing away a pack of dry food because the expiry date was yesterday!

Software, too, needs to be recycled for the common good. I see no reason to not release slightly older but very useful software to the open --- and with our pace of development, I suspect we may be having old versions of commercial software dropping out annually... Along with the current freebies, whatever all that may feature in the future!

We believe in the merits of complete open source and  the overall idea of contribution to the shared good. That notwithstanding, random donations and pats on the back on internet forums are unfortunately not going to pay the bills, to say naught of creating sufficient room for any substantial expansion in the way and at the pace we wish to see it happen.

As far as business and open-source go, we employ a bit of both in our business models; that balance, again! A truly useful thing to have. Stick around and see what the future brings — we intend to become the best of both worlds when it comes to empowering people and businesses in the creation of their internet solutions!