Freedom for business

some personal considerations on F/OSS & business

30 oct 2014 @ Brasov Tech Meetup

Doru Ilasi
solutions architect @ aplix.org
FLOSS organizations : Brasov Tech Meetup,
Open Air (former FLOSS Camp), Prolinux,
Summer school Macea
FLOSS contributor : AplixERP, Firebird SQL,
Mozilla
(TRUE: FLOSS and FOSS are used to be
neutral between free software and open
source)

Let's made things clear :

read it yourself :
free software definition: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
"open source" definition: http://opensource.org/docs/osd
Common Misunderstandings :
WRONG : free software = software you can get for zero price
RIGTH : free software = software which gives the user certain freedoms
TRUE: all existing free software would qualify as open source
TRUE: nearly all open source software is free software(, but there are
exceptions)
TRUE: there are many free software licenses aside from the GNU GPL
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
Complete material at https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
The GPL requires any derivative work to also be released according to the GPL while the BSD license does not. Good or
bad?

Get to the bussiness :

Prerequisites / License
Open Source definition :
1. Free Redistribution
2. Source Code
3. Derived Works
4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
7. Distribution of License
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Get to the bussiness :

Prerequisites / License
Free Software definition :
The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any
purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and
change it so it does your computing as you wish
(freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition
for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
neighbor (freedom 2).
The freedom to distribute copies of your modified
versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can
give the whol

Get to the bussiness :

Prerequisites / Expectations
What others will expect from you (to deliver):
Lower cost
Customization
Nimble
Openness
Fast bug and security fixes
And what they will check not to happen :
Questionable quality (invalid, btw)
No responsibility
Not aligned with corporate needs
Reference : http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/07/22/open-source-vs-proprietary-software/
2014 Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA)

Get to the bussiness : Prerequisites /

Things to keep in mind
Tell the truth all the time
Trust the team
Review everything, test everything
All developers are created equal
The fastest way through the project is to do it
right
Reference : http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/02/27/what-corp-projects-learnfrom-open-source.html
2014, OReilly Media, Inc.

Get to the bussiness : What

income model is appropriate ?
Dual-licensing
Selling professional services
Selling of branded merchandise
Selling software as a service
Partnership with funding organizations
Voluntary donations
Bounties (for implemented features or
bugfixes)
Pre-order/crowdfunding/reverse-bounty
model

Get to the bussiness : What

income model is appropriate ?
Advertising-supported software
Selling of optional proprietary extensions
Selling of required proprietary parts of a
software product
Re-licensing under a proprietary license
Obfuscation of source code
Delayed open-sourcing (provide the latest
version available only to paying customers)
Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_opensource_software#Challenges

Get to the bussiness : Payoff's

Richard Stallman interview: "Im not gone to claim that I got a way to make it
easier to raise money to pay people who write free software. We all know, that to
some extent there are ways to do that, but we all know that they are limited, they
are not as broad as we would like."

Software Producers : Lower Overhead &

Development Speed
Software Merchants : Closeness to the
Customer & Broader Market
Entrepreneurs : going open-source is a way
to grab mind-share
Reference : http://opensource.org/advocacy/case_for_business.php

Get to the bussiness : Ecosystem

Keep eyes open ... from many points of view :
company (are all sure?) : what do we want,
MINDSET, transparency, (right) plans, standards,
documentation
employee (are they ready? are you?) : MINDSET,
knowledge, will
customers (it is getting right ?) MINDSET, internals
others (suppliers, third parties, finance, state) commanding and benefits
competition : OSINT, implementation way

Get to the bussiness :

the right mindset
Remember ?
Tell the truth all the time
Trust the team
Review everything, test everything
All developers are created equal
The fastest way through the project is to do it
right

Get to the bussiness : Practical

example
were open, aren't we ?
what ?
with whom ? (company, employees, budget,
suppliers)
in which conditions ? (competition)
for who ? (customer) (can we get feedback?)
how ? (planning, osint, attract capital, work
with our eggs, hit the market)

Questions ?

Doru Ilasi
doruilasi@gmail.com / doru@aplix.org