The business behind open source

The business behind open
source

Graham Weldon
• PHP developer, 10 years

• Once-was-a-java-developer

• @predominant

• http://grahamweldon.com

• Working: CakeDC

• http://cakedc.com

What can generate
revenue?
Often project specific

Indirectly

• Making money directly from open source is
difficult

• Make money by operating your business
along side your project

• Allow the project to grow and evolve with the
community

Support

• The most obvious

• Premium support for businesses and
individuals

• Utilise high speed Internet for video sessions
and screen sharing

Development

• Build in and around your project, for clients

• Custom software

• Closed source (Yes, I said it)

Training

• Educate users

• Leads to better use, more contributors

• Provide courses aimed at various levels

• Again use high speed Internet to perform
remotely

Certification
• Might not suit all projects

• Offer professional structured testing systems
to qualify users of a high standard

• Offer certification as a "badge of merit"
publicly

Certification
• Might not suit all projects

• Offer professional structured testing systems
to qualify users of a high standard

• Offer certification as a "badge of merit"
publicly
Achievement Unlocked
Zend Certified Engineer

Achievement Unlocked
Certification for CakePHP 1.3

Donations
• Its not begging

• Method of giving back to the project for
people that can't contribute

• Encourages others to donate

• Optionally allow donors to publicly list
themselves

Donations
• Its not begging

• Method of giving back to the project for
people that can't contribute

• Encourages others to donate

• Optionally allow donors to publicly list
themselves
I Donated to CakePHP!

What doesn't work?
Common mistakes

People code for me,
for free
• Not going to happen if that's the "attitude"

• If the focus is more on your business
acquiring free developers, than making a
great product that will entice developers you
may need to rethink your motives

• Open source != free labour

Wrong Approach

“Communities don’t rally around closed
source companies to prolong the existence
of failed companies or projects”

Wrong Approach

“No-one wants to be a lackey to a
commercial open source project,
contributing their time to further some
companies interests.”

The idea is enough
• I have a great idea

• Someone will help me bring it to fruition

• This is not how to get people interested

• Everyone had great ideas

• What separates us, is some have the drive to
realise those ideas

Examples
• Nightingale http://getnightingale.com

• Ideas only

• Focused on processes and orgnaisation

• Still failing to produce anything

• No focus, no direction

Examples
• Xara Xtreme http://www.xaraxtreme.org/

• Initially commercial

• Wanted community help for port to Linux

• Not all the source released

• Not always an issue, but was in this case

Examples

• Xara’s approach

• We provided the source code

• You provide us with your developer time

• Communities don’t work this way

Examples
• Xara’s response

• Community complained about missing
CDraw source

• Xara persisted with CDraw closed source

• Essentially telling the potential community
that their concerns were wrong

• Xara is considered “stagnant” since 2008

How an open source
project starts
... or more correctly,
how it has always existed, and you identify it

How a project starts

• Successful projects

• Existing implementation, open up to
community

• Start working on a solution to a problem

• Some application/project that motivates you

Important Milestones

• Have a product for people to download

• Roadmap to show where you want to go

• Source code from the beginning

• Simplify feedback and input mechanisms

Bootstrap

• Have “something” available

• Something useful

• Even something wrong

• Its a place to begin, and comment

Resources
• Website

• Mailing List

• Bug tracker

• Wiki, or similar

• Source view / download

• Realtime Chat (IRC)

Generating interest
Building hype

Social
• Get out and talk to people about what you
are doing

• Don't be afraid to share an unpublished idea

• Get people interested

• Get feedback first hand

• User Groups

Social

• People retain interest in a topic if they can
associate a real life relationship with it

• Easier to communicate complex ideas

Playing fair
Don't alienate the volunteers

Money can't buy me
love

• Play by the same rules as volunteers

• Motivate people to contribute through paying
salaries

• Don't let that get confused with control rights

Separate the entities

• Operate the open source effort as a separate
entity

• Provides visible business separation

• Gives confidence and assurance to those not
working for the business

Example: CakePHP
• Product: CakePHP, under MIT License

• Cake Software Foundation "owns" CakePHP

• Contributed to by a group of volunteers

• CakeDC is a commercial business that hires
some of the volunteers for work on client
projects

• CakeDC provides code back to CakePHP

Careful balance

• Make it known what "hat" you are wearing

• Business cannot be the key motivating factor
for the projects development

• There are many ways to support a project
beyond code

What Project?
Choosing a project

Useful, engaging,
interesting, innovative
• The project should be something useful to
some business need

• You should have a personal interest in the
projects goal

• Solve an existing problem, or solve an old
problem in an interesting way

• Create something new

Types of projects

• CakePHP

• MySQL

• Subversion

• Linux

Community and
public image
(it's almost "marketing"... *shudder*)

Community appeal

• Your project should fill a need that people
have, and can build on.

• Allow them to take ownership of something

• Credit where credit is due

• Kudos where kudos is due

You're being watched

• The world is watching

• Don't say negative things about your
competitors

• But... Benchmarks and facts are okay

Participate and
engage
• Visit your community

• If its larger enough, consider starting a user
group

• If its going global, consider a conference

• Its difficult to measure the benefits gained
from people that meet and talk about your
project in person.. Almost invaluable

Communicate

• Learning to communicate effectively can be
a better long term goal than programming

• A good communicator can effectively
coordinate developers and manage a project

• Don't just talk lots. Learn to speak and write
correctly

Communicate
• Commit messages

• Social media

• Mailing lists

• Blog posts

• Documentation

Bad communication

• 1337 speak / Trendy short form

• Vague

• Aggressive

• Dismissive

Good communication

• Appreciative

• Correct punctuation

• Correct spelling

• Correct grammar

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