The Dole is a British slang term for unemployment benefit, the subsistence wage paid by the British government to people who are out of work and seeking employment. These people are thus said to be "On the dole".

Thus we come to Doleware. It's a very simple idea. If every out-of-work software developer used some of their free time to write free software, the world would be a better place. The community as a whole would get loads of wizzy pieces of free software and the out-of-work developers would get some fantastic CV candy to impress future potential employers.

There are a lot of us about.

At this point I'd like to come out from behind the cloak of anonymity offered by the TT Web Site Manager docs. My name's John List, I'm based in Oxford, United Kingdom. I wrote the TT Web Site Manager and for most of the time at the moment I'm an out-of-work contract developer.

At the time I write this, the high technology industry in the UK at least is not a particularly secure place to be an employee. The dotcom bubble has burst and our government has seen fit to bankrupt the telecoms industry by auctioning licences for third generation mobile phone networks at unsustainable prices. The result has been wave after wave of redundancies across the industry leaving thousands of developers like me out of work. In my case this is not the first time this has happened, because I've had the misfortune to work for more than one company that went titsup I've been on the dole for short periods a few times since the start of my career. In an industry where venture capital funded companies can be run by comicaly incompetent people and a company's lifetime can be measured in minutes, sometimes so-called permanent jobs can have that air of impermanence about them.

The Doleware idea came from a determination to come out of it all this time with something to show for my time rather than have a period of playing console games to look back at.

(To be strictly accurate I am not on the dole this time, instead choosing to become self employed and pursue freelance or contract work. The shortage of work is the same, but this way I avoid having to talk to a patronising aparatchik in the job centre every few weeks. "I see you're looking for work with computers. Would you like me to enroll you on this basic computer skills course for employment seekers?" "What, do you want me to be the teacher?" -True conversation between me and job centre drone, 1996)

About the licence

These days there are a variety of licences under which a developer can release their code as free or open source software. Some of them reflect the views or politics of their authors with respect to free software and this one is no exception. There shouldnt be any surprises, save for the Doleware clause.

1. If the User intends to use the Software for commercial purposes or in a commercial environment then they must consider engaging the services of the Developer or any of the Contributors should they require any further extension of, modification of or development using the Software.

What does this mean? Simply this, I'm asking anyone who uses the TT Web Site Manager for commercial purposes to consider hiring its developer or contributors if they want any further commercial work done in connection with it. This should not be a clause which anyone might find unacceptable in an open source licence, after all they are only required to think about hiring one of us. Besides, speaking personally the vast majority of TT Web Site Manager users are not likely to be in my part of the world anyway. Perhaps that's as well:). Anyway, think about it. It's not such a bad idea, after all who could be more effective working with the software than the people who wrote it? You are free to hire who you like but you have to admit, that's a powerful advantage!