I've spent a decent amount of time overhauling my home automation app Shion to included some new features that I've been planning for the past couple of months. The software is available here and I have a short post about it here.
This is the first software release under the aegis of my new venture Audacious Software. This is an entity that I've established for the purpose of consolidating and furthering my open source efforts. I need to make a few things crystal clear about this new arrangement:
1. At the present, Audacious Software is roughly structured as a company, but it is not (yet) a real company. Financially, Audacious Software exists as a separate checking account under my own name that that receives donations and affiliate income from my personal software projects. These funds are only used to support further development of projects under the Audacious banner and I do not pay myself from these funds. To give an idea about how these funds are used, I am planning on purchasing some X10 modules for creating X10 compatibility in Shion and I will purchase a Kindle electronic book reader for integration with Books.
2. I will begin distributing my personal (read: non-academic, non-research) projects under the Audacious Software banner so that my individual projects can complement and advertise each other instead of existing in isolation. I'm proud of the software that I create and I believe that it's time that Books users became aware of my other applications (like Shion) and vice versa. Over time, I would like to build a strong "Audacious Software" brand so that I can hit the ground running after I complete my graduate education (should I choose an entrepreneurial route and make this an actual software company).
3. I have no current plans to distribute my academic research projects under the the Audacious banner. This includes any projects that involve an academic collaborations or joint publication. This includes my current work in context sensing applications and ubiquitous user interfaces. I draw the eligible/not-eligible line at collaboration because I feel that for code I create on my own, I'm free to do with it as I like. Likewise, it would be inappropriate of me to post code and other work that I did not entirely create on my own.
Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, I'm happy to say that I'm pleased at how well this all came together over the past week or so. I've been doing quite a bit of infrastructure work (blog, forums, etc.), and I'm glad that's almost finished. However, I'd appreciate any feedback on the website, the products listed within, etc.
