having a free open source package is unsustainable. we want money. so, we have decided we will monetize PyLabRobot. here’s a rough idea for how we will implement it. our goal is to have charge on usage-basis so that pricing is fair for everyone.
code
- start by buying base package: this is the core of PLR
- additional packages like
pylabrobot.liquid_handlingandpylabrobot.plate_readingare sold as separate subscriptions- will be easy to manage in the PLR app
- eg “subscribe to
pylabrobot.liquid_handling”
- eg “subscribe to
- not everyone uses every module, so this is a fair way to do it
- will be easy to manage in the PLR app
- once you rent the subpackage, you get the frontend of that package (eg
LiquidHandlerorPlateReader) and unlock the ability to start renting backends in the package- Not everyone needs every backend, so, yes, they are separate products
- for example, once you have your subscription to the PLR base and
pylabrobot.liquid_handling, you can then subscribe to the STAR backend.
- we originally planned to make the
pylabrobot.resourcespackage one subscription. however, that would not be fair since not everyone uses every labware definition. for this reason, you rent each labware definition seperately. - even with backends, not everyone uses them in the same way. we want to be really fair, so we are working on a pay-per-use (PPU) basis. For example:
- pay per aspiration / dispense
- per uL?
- plate reading
- pay per data point
- imaging options on cytation5:
- low resolution
- medium resolution
- high resolution
- etc.
- pay per aspiration / dispense
anti fraud
how will we make sure people are not bypassing our payment system? (we can’t trust our users.) The all-new PLR Cloud!
this means: instead of running PyLabRobot on a computer you own, you will be renting a PLR Computer from us that we manage. This is actually industry standard in lab automation: when you buy a machine, you get a cheap Windows desktop with it that has the software installed. you will plug devices into this computer, and the computer will connect to the PLR Cloud. You can then go to our PLR Web Interface to write Python scripts. For each run, the Python script will be downloaded to your PLR Computer and run there. Accessing the PLR Computer directly is obviously prohibited.
transparency and price discrimination
we will have a hybrid of transparent pricing (good for you) and price discrimination (good for us): prices are advertised in ‘PLR coins’ (transparent) but you need to get a quote for buying PLR Coins. The PLR Coin <> Dollar conversion rate depends on how much money we think you want to spend on automation.
forum
- contributions will obviously remain free
- but the ability to read we will monetize
- the price of each post will be dependent on the number of words
- an image is worth a thousand words, so each image will be 1000x as expensive as a word
Here’s a screenshot of the new UI which will be rolling out later today:
enterprise
- same as above, except bigger, better and enterprise ready
moving forward
- you will need to call sales person
- and then sales person will call you back
Oh, and on the ml prep screen we will serve ads.
