Mr17Hz 1 #1 July 19, 2007 I made a post over a year ago about a developing a new dropzone management product. I just finished uploading the first set of actual product screenshots to it's new home on the web, www.RealDropzone.com. The product has been being implemented one module at a time at Skydive Chicago throughout the summer, and I have already begun installing the second installation. For anyone that is interested, I setup a forum where you can ask questions about the product. I don't have full documentation available yet, but I'll send out a newsletter to those who register on www.realdropzone.com as documentation becomes available.Matt Christenson mattchristenson@realskydiving.com http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DougH 270 #2 July 19, 2007 .25 cents a jump? Are you paying HH .25 cents a view for this ad? "The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall" =P Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DSE 5 #3 July 19, 2007 Quote .25 cents a jump? Are you paying HH .25 cents a view for this ad? Well...if it shaves off an hour a day or even less, for the manifestor, or allows the DZ to use one less person behind the counter, a quarter a jump is very cheap. I'd think a sliding scale might be more effective, but either way, it's possible it could save a DZ a lot of money. We recently went to an online res system for our tandems, and it rocks. It saves a tremendous amount of time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sraja 0 #4 July 19, 2007 Hey Matt The screen shots are only thumbnail images. I think you mistakenly linked the incorrect files. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr17Hz 1 #5 July 19, 2007 QuoteHey Matt The screen shots are only thumbnail images. I think you mistakenly linked the incorrect files. You need to click on the "Download" link on the lower right hand side of the file listing to get the high-res image. I'll try to make this more straight forward. Thanks for your comment.Matt Christenson mattchristenson@realskydiving.com http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildcard451 0 #6 July 19, 2007 Hey. You. Yeah you, the OP. See those things up there? Yeah, at the top. Those are called ads. People pay to put them there so we can see their product. Maybe even buy it. I hope they yank this shit ad out of here and ban you til you pay for the cost incurred on page views. And if you say "Oh I didn't think this was an ad" Well, then... Yeah. /sigh Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AFFI 0 #7 July 19, 2007 Good progress Matthew.Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat… Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sraja 0 #8 July 19, 2007 Thanks - the software looks really cool. One question - you had mentioned about the ability to view and assign spaces on a load in realtime - is that still work in progress or has that been shelved for now. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cpoxon 0 #9 July 19, 2007 Quote Hey. You. Yeah you, the OP. See those things up there? Yeah, at the top. Those are called ads. People pay to put them there so we can see their product. Maybe even buy it. I hope they yank this shit ad out of here and ban you til you pay for the cost incurred on page views. And if you say "Oh I didn't think this was an ad" Well, then... Yeah. /sigh So says the non-Premier member! Seeing as "RealDropzone™ is currently being beta tested and is not yet generally available", unless I hear otherwise from my peers or higher, I'm going to consider this more informational than advertising. Please, if you are going to waste bandwidth whining about someone else wasting bandwidth, take it to a mod instead! Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slotperfect 7 #10 July 19, 2007 Sharing new products, designs, and technology is highly encouraged in the forums. We have the advantage of having a direct line of communication here with many manufacturers. The OP has not directly offered anything for sale, i.e. "Here's how much it costs and here's how to get it." He refers everyone to his website and his forums. That puts him on par with countless other dropzone.com forum posts from other manufacturers that have carefully posted information about their new products or technology. Ultimately they may just gather valuable feedback from experienced skydivers that will make the product better. The post in its current form will be allowed.Arrive Safely John Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RB_Hammer 0 #11 July 19, 2007 QuoteHey. You. Yeah you, the OP. See those things up there? Yeah, at the top. Those are called ads. People pay to put them there so we can see their product. Maybe even buy it. I hope they yank this shit ad out of here and ban you til you pay for the cost incurred on page views. And if you say "Oh I didn't think this was an ad" Well, then... Yeah. /sigh I don't see anything at the top of my screen. Must be that IE you are using that puts them there. My FireFox doesn't allow that kind of shit."I'm not lost. I don't know where I'm going, but there's no sense in being late." Mathew Quigley Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diverds 0 #12 July 19, 2007 Quote Quote Hey. You. Yeah you, the OP. See those things up there? Yeah, at the top. Those are called ads. People pay to put them there so we can see their product. Maybe even buy it. I hope they yank this shit ad out of here and ban you til you pay for the cost incurred on page views. And if you say "Oh I didn't think this was an ad" Well, then... Yeah. /sigh So says the non-Premier member! Seeing as "RealDropzone™ is currently being beta tested and is not yet generally available", unless I hear otherwise from my peers or higher, I'm going to consider this more informational than advertising. Please, if you are going to waste bandwidth whining about someone else wasting bandwidth, take it to a mod instead! And now we know why his user name isn't green Skydive Radio Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fast 0 #13 July 19, 2007 Quote Quote .25 cents a jump? Are you paying HH .25 cents a view for this ad? Well...if it shaves off an hour a day or even less, for the manifestor, or allows the DZ to use one less person behind the counter, a quarter a jump is very cheap. I'd think a sliding scale might be more effective, but either way, it's possible it could save a DZ a lot of money. We recently went to an online res system for our tandems, and it rocks. It saves a tremendous amount of time. Yeah so, at the hourly rate we pay our manifestor / office people it would have to save my small/mid sized DZ 370 hours a year. Considering we are really only open half the year, thats a couple hours a day. I don't see this or any software doing that. From the start I have really liked the idea behind this software. An integrated system that works well. I think the cost is out of hand though. For my DZ, the yearly cost would be around $3000 not including the set up cost. As a skydiver, I don't know that I am happy to know that a quarter out of my pocket for every jump from now untill the end of time would be going to a software developer. I would much rather see that quarter go somewhere else like facilities, maintence, cheaper jumps, cooler planes, anything. There is the argument that this will help bring in more tandems, but I think there are cheaper ways to accomplish that. I envision this software being out of reach for 95% of dropzones. I have only seen screenshots but it doesn't look that user friendly yet.~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildcard451 0 #14 July 19, 2007 Quote So says the non-Premier member! Wasn't whining about wasting bandwidth. Just looking to give him a hard time really for posting what I considered to be an ad. Obviously, someone's opinion out there means more on this subject than mine. As far as Premier membership goes, last time I checked it was precisely jack shit required in $$$ to belong to this community. If that is to change, I'll look into the value of my enjoyment/learning I get from this website. Carry on. The Green ones have spoken. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jdfreefly 1 #15 July 19, 2007 Congrats dude! I'm impressed. I talked to you at Summerfest last year when this was still just an idea. I'm definitely impressed that you took it from idea to product over the past year. Methane Freefly - got stink? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr17Hz 1 #16 July 19, 2007 Screen shot image sizes have been fixed to be more straight forward, and a number of questions are being answered in the Question and Answers forum.Matt Christenson mattchristenson@realskydiving.com http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jeremy_o 0 #17 July 19, 2007 Eh? Just another way to suck money outta this sport I guess? I personally like using a notebook and pen to manifest! Keeps more money in our wallets even if it isn't the prettiest way to get it done, oh well.. its free. http://planetskydive.net/ - An online aggregation of skydiver's blogs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CanuckInUSA 0 #18 July 19, 2007 $0.25/jump? Why so expensive? Plus no whitepapers whatsoever to tell people what technologies you are using? What about moving forward? What 3rd party tools are you using (database, app servers, etc, etc, etc). Are you using things like Oracle and WebLogic which come with their own licensing costs (hence this enormous $0.25/jump fee) which is obviously over kill for the small transactional business a DZ would need or are you using Open Source Tools? Once again no whitepapers? Who gives a damn about screenshots if we don't know what is driving the software. What about latency? No whitepapers on that either. Just talk of how much per hour you will be charging people for tech support when the software fails to work. Good luck. If there is a market for your software, who knows where it will take you. You're obviously out to dominate the DZ manifest business. It's just too bad the dropzones are not being told exactly what they are buying. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CanuckInUSA 0 #19 July 19, 2007 I just want to add that I do not wish ill will on Mr17Hz business venture. I am just speaking from experience working in the IT world which includes working at start up companies (I have been exposed to Vulture Capitalists and I know how ruthless they can be ... they think nothing of selling their mothers graves to make a buck). Anyway when you are the new guy on the block a lot of scrutiny is directed towards the product and it is best to produce these "whitepapers" which explain the architecture of the product, what 3rd party tools are used and what potential licensing these 3rd party tools may require. Plus it sounds like this product is using a front end client, not just a browser based thin client and it would be nice to know more about this front end client. Plus it would be good to know of what back end server latency is planned ... you know all that stuff a business wants to know to ensure that they are not left out to dry sitting on the ground when some server blows chunks. I honestly do wish Mr17Hz good luck. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maxx 1 #20 July 20, 2007 Seems like a well thought piece of software! Just to get the discussion going and to keep this an ad-free thread I throw in another link with a DZ Management Software.. http://www.dz-manager.com I have nothing to do with this, but this one seems simpler than yours and is a lot less expensive.. It sure doesn't have the same features, but more than enough for most DZ's.. Max Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
peek 21 #21 July 20, 2007 Matt, what does "enterprise class" mean? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr17Hz 1 #22 July 20, 2007 QuoteMatt, what does "enterprise class" mean? Software that solves an Enterprise problem, rather than a departmental one. A software suite with common business applications and tools for modeling how the entire organization works. Software that solves a problem for multiple organizations working together to provide a business service.Matt Christenson mattchristenson@realskydiving.com http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr17Hz 1 #23 July 20, 2007 Quote Seems like a well thought piece of software! Just to get the discussion going and to keep this an ad-free thread I throw in another link with a DZ Management Software.. http://www.dz-manager.com I have nothing to do with this, but this one seems simpler than yours and is a lot less expensive.. It sure doesn't have the same features, but more than enough for most DZ's.. Max JumpRun (~$1,500): IMO the most advanced application available (before realdropzonne) from the manifest perspective, 1999-2000 technology. weak when it comes to tandem registration and reservations; but capable of it. It's major downside is that it's no longer being improved upon, and it has 0 web integration. http://www.dztools.com/products.asp Manifest Master 2000 ($0) This is probably the only free application you're going to find. It is no longer supported and DOS based. It's free but very old technology. http://www.manifestmaster.com/mm.html Manifest XP: ($300) Decent. I don't have much hands on experience with this except to know that its limitations made it not an option for clients I've consulted with. http://www.digiacom.com/...anifest/MFW_Home.htm SkyWriter: ($500) Decent. I don't have much hands on experience with this except to know that its limitations made it not an option for clients I've consulted with. http://www.skydivesoft.com/ DZPro: www.dzpro.biz, i saw these guys at the 2007 PIA, not sure if they have a product ready yet. There are a few online reservation systems out as well: Tandem RS : www.tandemrs.com Dropzone CRS: www.dropzonecrs.com I researched all of these products (except DZPro) before I even began thinking about writing my own solution, let alone quitting my 8 year salaried position as an enterprise software architect in the horticulture industy a year ago to dedicate my full time efforts in the Skydiving industry. RealDropzone is a total solution; and the key to solving problems that have never been solved before, things like: How to effectivly handle business to business (B2B) availability/pricing queries, and accept reservations through a web service API that lets brokerage giants like travelocity, expedia, orbitz, and ticketmaster sell tandem skydives at a % commission, electronically. How to effectivly participate in pay per sale online advertising, meaning no upfront marketing costs to the dropzone. For a better description of where RealDropzone is headed I encourage you to check out the document "RealSkydiving Business Model" found here: http://www.realdropzone.com/Docs/tabid/62/Default.aspxMatt Christenson mattchristenson@realskydiving.com http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MarkM 0 #24 July 20, 2007 QuoteIn addition to license fees, there will be a one time installation fee of $2,500USD. Good luck with that. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr17Hz 1 #25 January 14, 2009 RealDropzone will be officially public on February 1st of this year. RealSkydiving will have a booth at the PIA Symposium in Reno, NV. I will be in Reno from Feb 6th to Feb 14th, and will be able to demonstrate the product. Additionally, just a few hours ago I switched over from an old product site that had not been updated in some time, to a new one at www.RealDropzone.com. At this new site you will find a variety of documents, as well as HOURS of training videos that demonstrate the use of the product. At the time of writing this there are 39 videos in total, however I will continue to be making more videos to demonstrate the capabilities that I have not already covered. I expect there to be over 100 videos, and a dozen or so additional documents available before the Symposium. Cheers, Matt ChristensonMatt Christenson mattchristenson@realskydiving.com http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
