Re: OSS and getting money for it (was: [tlug] Re: Why Vista Sucks)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Josh Glover writes:
 > On 02/04/2008, Attila Kinali <attila@example.com> wrote:
 > > "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com> wrote:
 > >
 > >  > I assure you, it is.  Remember, from the owner's purely selfish point
 > >  > of view, it's just an asset, and anything that makes giving away IP
 > >  > "not much of a problem" would do the same thing for your house.  Would
 > >  > you give that away?
 > >
 > >  So, to make OSS comercialy success full one has to make the
 > >  giving away part an economic advantage... which might be very
 > >  hard.
 > 
 > But this surely only applies when you are selling the code, not a
 > service, right Steve?

The part about "it's an asset" applies, period.  Without IP,
converting that intellectual capital into an asset requires trade
secrets or something like that, though.

 > What about the Google / Amazon model where you are selling a
 > service, so most of the code contains no IP of value to you?

If it's IP, then you have the exclusive right to sell it.  Money is of
value to everybody.

So what you're saying is that giving it away nets them more than
selling it, which is quite possible.

But the question I have is "are these contributions significant at
Google scale?"  If not, I have another question.  How do we fund
Attila's "welcome to Tokyo" party, with Attila at it? ;-)

 > > I don't know whether i'm very good (i actually don't think so),
 > >  but my hobbies always motivate me more than my work. :-)
 > 
 > But the market has failed in this case because the features you will
 > develop as a hobby are not the same ones (necessarily) that the market
 > demands.

Right.