Leo, the license itself is not the complicated bit, it's the pricing. The Stock Artists Alliance have developed a simplified pricing system, which would be the logical way to go. See http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/pluspacks/index.htm for details.

The calculator code is open source, and could be packaged as an optional WordPress plugin.

PicturEngine have implemented this, and it's more straightforward to use than, say, the Alamy or Getty systems.

Another thing completely new to me. These ideas are very good, and I'm happy to learn of these resources. After the initial release (and code-cleanup) hopefully a number of people will be interested enough to help me integrate these. Its not so much complexity, just time and detail.

To be honest (and sorry if it is stepping on anyone's toes), wouldn't it make sense to concentrate on getting the basics right and working with an RF licensing model (much simpler) then work on integrating RM licensing, perhaps as a plugin, later on.

I can see the project is very time consuming or Leo and am wondering if his time is better spent getting the backbone complete first.

For me the most exciting and different thing is the networking of contributors sites together into cooperative groups. That is the real differentiator and what will be new/ powerful about this as opposed to all the other solutions out there.

The integrated search should be the priority. Just my two cents.

+1

Thank you for the update, Leo. I guess everyone is getting as excited about this as I am. Even more exciting will be to where the community will have taken this in, say, about a year....   

Hypothetically it could support video. Except you would have to host the preview on an external service. I believe WP has a plugin for video as well. Video for a website is fairly depthy, but you could easily set up the "image" page as a video download. I've kept things loose enough so people could do things like that and 3d models.

Sounds awesome

forgive my ignorance on this subject but how will the search process work? Since this would be the focal point of this new site, shouldn't we have an actual valid discussion how this will come about? Not one or two minds working on it but a collective of thoughts and problem solving skills by many would make for a better search system put in place.

forgive my ignorance on this subject but how will the search process work? Since this would be the focal point of this new site, shouldn't we have an actual valid discussion how this will come about? Not one or two minds working on it but a collective of thoughts and problem solving skills by many would make for a better search system put in place.

Needle. Haystack. Magnet.

Edit...

Typical search will simply be results based on image tags...quite familiar territory.

Network search will have a row or two labeled according to the person's network, with maybe 20 images.

Example:

1. You do a search on your friend's site. His images show at about 50 in the first "box" of results.
2. Further down, you see another stack of boxes, with search results, and the top of the box says "results from 'so-and-so's' network, net next box likewise.
3. You like that result. You click on image. A window pops up with image, meta, and price detail. You still like it, so you click the "visit image" link.

One might say: That makes them leave my site! But the opposite is also true...people arrive on your site that way.

In fact, my original symbiostock mascot is this little bee...denoting how people fly around the sites like bees looking for nectar.



There is also an idea I have, but haven't worked it out yet, of a tracking window at the bottom of each site for customers to bookmark and backtrack, and keep track of their carts.

Ultimately this is a new way of looking at the customer/contributor relationship since there is no more agent. The customer enjoys searching, and its a fun travel.

Hopefully I would host everything for myself, I want to control my own images and access.

Keep up the project! Looks like it's moving along.

Since all of these are just another small operation, Audio?

Audio? So far i've added a zip so people can creatively extend the system to sell other things.

But yes, you'd have full control.

Quote from: KonaHawaii on February 14, 2013, 13:30

1. You do a search on your friend's site. His images show at about 50 in the first "box" of results.
2. Further down, you see another stack of boxes, with search results, and the top of the box says "results from 'so-and-so's' network, net next box likewise.
3. You like that result. You click on image. A window pops up with image, meta, and price detail. You still like it, so you click the "visit image" link.

I dont have a site up yet to sell my stuff but is very interested in starting one. Hence my lack of knowledge in areas like search.  Do i have to get a word press site in order to participate in this venture of yours?

Im just playing devils advocate here. If i were a buyer (which sometimes i am), two things really annoy me when searching.. keyword spamming and similar content from the same contributor. Is there any way for you to address this on your project? I like to be shown variety.

Maybe the way for a linked sites to work effectively would be to be selective on who i would personally like to join my network. So if a contributor is known to be spamming keywords or putting lots of similars that show up on searches, i can have the option to not have that contributor on my network.

Do i have to get a word press site in order to participate in this venture of yours? - Yes. In fact, as "contributors" start turning into their own agents, they will learn just a few new skills (much like they did when they learned ftp, embedding meta data, etc). I'm hoping the community makes that a fun journey though.

.. keyword spamming and similar content from the same contributor. Too true. I've thought about that quite a bit. The most important people in google are highly involved in this infinite game of cat and mouse... but then there is that next thing you say...

 i can have the option to not have that contributor on my network. You got it! Not only that, but I'll be putting in individual image exclusions. The self-regulation will be nice. If your network buddy is obnoxiously undercutting, obviously keyword spamming, or doing any number of things... "click" he loses that trust, and with it possible benefits by being connected with you.

Thinking one step ahead...when someone uploads content that is obviously based on yours (or worse, just yours re-uploaded) the microstock agencies are fairly good at policing that. However in this case, with things so easy to set up, you'll have more pirates too, and harder to police because they own their own website...

Solve one problem...create more! Not to mention fraud... agencies now withdraw money you made when someone used a stolen card or whatever. But now when you make that wonderful 100 dollar sale, and the buyer claims they never got their images - paypal never backs you up as the vendor. Some buyers know this...

So there are more issues. With greater power comes greater responsibility. But at least you won't have to hear "We're sorry...we have not found this suitable as..."

 i can have the option to not have that contributor on my network.[/i] You got it! Not only that, but I'll be putting in individual image exclusions. The self-regulation will be nice. If your network buddy is obnoxiously undercutting, obviously keyword spamming, or doing any number of things... "click" he loses that trust, and with it possible benefits by being connected with you.

Would the network that i am in be advertised on all the members sites? How would people know who is still linked or not?

I think networks when starting out should have certain rules that all members should abide by. The members themselves should enforce this.

That image exclusion idea sounds great! "that image of his is waaaay better than mine..." zaaap! haha jk.. theres the good and the ugly to this. Notification email goes out to the zapped image producer maybe?

Doesn't Wordpress limit file sizes to 10MB?

Here is a quick glance (remember! Bare bones - not finished product)

Upload-to-image:

http://www.clipartillustration.com/freefiles/2013-02-14_1817.swf

Some other general features :

http://www.clipartillustration.com/freefiles/2013-02-14_1823.swf

Note for some of the features in the videos, page refreshes are not needed (ajax, keeps things fast) such as the cart, the symbiostock admin area, etc.