Reporting from Barcamp Pune
Barcamp Pune is currently happening in the premises of Symphony in Aundh. A good gathering of 100+ people , been interesting to meet several geeks and startup entreprenurs and some very interesting speakers.
Am just listening to Atul Chitnis's presentation on FOSS Business Models.
He has the following to say on making money from Open Source, and still being within the rules of the game of being free and open.
Commercial software
- nothing in gpl prohibits this to write closed source application on top of open source
Service and Support
- straight forward model
- charge for retail packing
- charge for service and support
- subscriptions ( renewing is a problem )
- professional services ( customization etc. )
Lowering Cost of End-of-Life
- End-of-Life'ing a product affects customerb base
- Customers react badly to obsolescence
- Offers post-EOL support ( at a cost )
- Option - Open Source the product
- Builds goodwil with customers
- gives ample time for migration to newer solution
- Lowers internal support costs
- keeps you focussed on strategic direction
- provides opportunity for third-party support
Enhancing Products
- Combine Propreitary and Open Source Software
- Adding fucntionality to existing system
- Bundling
- Supported solutions
- Adding value to proprietary software using OSS components ( e.g. add on products on SAP )
Enable Hardware Components
- Device Drivers
- Allow access by OSS platforms to hardware
- Two forms of device drivers
( open source and Propreitary )
Dual Licensing
How does mysql, sugarcrm money?
They follow dual licensing model.
They maintaing two versions of software, they may be same, but published in 2 licenses
- Open Source version
- Proprietary version
All copyrights should belong to you to have this model
Solution Integration
- Similar to Product Enhancement
( e.g. Linux Distribution, gather various linux components and distribute after integrating )
- Ongoing Support and Enhancement Revenue
- Zero development cost, with quick turnaround
- Vast Innovation Scope
Lowering Cost of End-of-Life
- End-of-Life'ing a product affects customerb base
- Customers react badly to obsolescence
- Offers post-EOL support ( at a cost )
- Option - Open Source the product
- Builds goodwil with customers
- gives ample time for migration to newer solution
- Lowers internal support costs
- keeps you focussed on strategic direction
- provides opportunity for third-party support
Support and Consultancy
- Availabile to you
- Available from you
- Very popular in India
- Huge Market, all you do is specialise in opensource and offer your services
- Collaborate, form groups, create a virtual company with many capabilities
Summary
Open Source is not a revenue killer, stick by the rules and still make lot of money.
Infosys is tapping into a 300 million dollar market, only with open source software. Similary story with TCS and all large IT companies.
Their customers are demanding that they are supplied with stuff with open source licenses.
