Mycroft Core will be released soon. As part of Mycroft Core we are providing users with access to external APIs, STT solutions and centralized data management.

After the fiasco at Revolv this past month, we are hyper aware that we are going to need some form of monthly revenue to make sure Mycroft continues to be available to users. Cloud services aren’t free and we are going to be processing a lot of data.

We are also hyper aware of the open source ethos. Developers and users are contributing to the Mycroft platform and we have an obligation to provide them with unencumbered use of the software – that means no monthly fees.

After conversations with our advisers in the open source community we’ve decided to provide premium services to paying supporters exchange for a small monthly subscription fee. We realize that a vast majority of Mycroft users don’t want to pay a fee and we respect that. Users who want to use the service for free can do so, but users who want to support the project will get some perks.

We have been brainstorming as to which premium services to offer, but we would like feedback from the community.

With your input, we can be sure to include premium services that the community will find relevant in a way that is palatable to our community.

Here are a few of the ideas we’ve come up with:

Premium Voices – several additional high quality voices.

Early Access to New Hardware & Expansion Modules – get the opportunity to buy new hardware before we make it available in our store.

Advertising Free Audio Feeds – Some of the audio sources (the NPR news feed for example) have a short advertisement before or after the content. We’d eliminate these ads by negotiating access with the audio provider and sharing a small portion of the revenue with them.

Perfect Privacy – We respect your privacy. We already plan to anonymize and strip personally identifiable information from incoming data before using it to train the AI. “Perfect Privacy” will add one more layer of privacy to this process by immediately deleting all queries. No data will be stored even anonymously. No data will be used to further train the AI.

Before we implement this premium model, we want to get your feedback. How do we support the project’s ongoing financial needs while still respecting our community? What do you think of our ideas? Do you have any ideas of your own?

We really want to earn the respect of our community. That is why we are bringing these questions to you. We’d love to get your feedback.