PENLETS.com

Dec 19, 2011 - In recent weeks I have received dozens of requests for the LiveScribe Java SDK. First and foremost, to the best of my knowledge, the SDK license does not permit me or anyone else to distribute it without prior permission from LiveScribe. It has been a long time since I looked at the license, but I do recall that it even forbid me from deploying pre-compiled penlets. Secondly, I don't even know that I do have it. In short, I can't provide you with the LiveScribe SDK.

Now that we have that out of the way I do have some personal opinions that I want to share, but first some history. Back in 2008 I was introduced to the LiveScribe smartpen at the JavaOne conference. LiveScribe was introduced in the keynotes, and I recall both my friend and I buying the pen even before the keynote ended. I recall that I was on the fence about getting it, due to the $200 peice tag. It was a little steep, but there was a massive cool factor to be able to program your pen. In the emails that I have received in recent weeks I hear the same story, that you bought the pen because you could program it.

For those that don't know, I am the co-author of GWT in Action, and I had toyed with the idea of pitching LiveScribe pen book to Manning. Based on what has happened I am glad I didn't. Thinking back, I think what stopped me was the feeling that LiveScribe didn't truly embrace developers. They were typically slow to respond, seemed to hold back functionality because they planned on monetizing it themselves, and they were always very secretive about their roadmap.

In the end, I was fed up with the slowness of them fully developing the Java API and decided to focus on other technologies. I guess I just felt that because they kept everything so closed it just wasn't going to go anywhere, and now that they pulled the SDK completely it seems I was right. I think what has happened makes for an interesting case study for how to kill your developer community. I wouldn't be surprised if the executives at LiveScribe believed that it was the developers abandoned them, but I think that just shows how little they understand us.

So what to do now? If you just bought the pen, and only bought it so that you could program it, I suggest returning it. If you can't return it, then let LiveScribe know how you feel by posting a review on Amazon or ePinions, emphasizing why you bought it and how LiveScribe pulled the SDK. Even if this doesn't cause LiveScribe to reintroduce the SDK it will at least warn other developers about what to expect.

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