[Industry] development model vs business model

[Dirk Frigne]

reacting on the comments of Mateusz:

On 22-08-14 12:03, Dirk Frigne wrote:
> Sorry for crossposting, but this snippet from the thread 
> "[Conference-europe] when and where " in the
> conference-europe at lists.osgeo.org is very interesting for the industry
> list, which was created in response to a detected need on the first
> FOSS4G-Europe conference in Bremen last July.
>
> As summer holiday's  are coming to an end, maybe a good time to start
> discusing more in depth how open source as a development model could be
> integrated/used in bussines.
>
>
> On 22-08-14 11:27, Mateusz Łoskot wrote:
> [...]
>> Rather business than commercial (just words, I know)
>> Yes, I started wondering if we all mean the same.
>> To me:
>>
>> FOSS4G + commercial = uses of FOSS4G in commercial solutions (i.e. use
>> FOSS4G to make
>> money through integration, bundles, support, etc./)
>>
>> FOSS4G + proprietary = similar, but slightly different as it means
>> direct inclusion of FOSS4G
>> (where licence allows) in proprietary software solutions (i.e. I sell
>> my application X which uses GDAL)
I agree with the difference you make. I have a comment on:
"Where license allows":
this should be part of a separate discussion. Within the geomajas
community we have made the choice for the AGPL license model. Although
this seems a license where you at first sight think 'not allowed in
proprietary solutions', there is a way to license the technology through
a business company, combining best of both worlds. This results in
benefits for the geomajas community and the framework.

>>
>> Finally, we have general issue of FOSS4G vs business which to me
>> covers (FOSS4G + commercial) + (FOSS4G + proprietary)
>>
>> IMHO, it's important to discuss such differences as one may ask: can I
>> present, at the FOSS4G Europe,
>> my proprietary software based on OSGeo projects, explain why I use it,
>> and how I contribute back to Open Source?
IMHO this should be possible. Business is not bad. Earning money with
open source should be promoted by our community. But I think we should
declare some guidelines on "ethical and respectfull business". Just like
"Fair trade coffee" we should define rules what is ethical correct and
what not to call something "Fair Trade Open Source".
f.e. using open source work of a party, earning a lot of money with it,
and not contributing back seems not fitting under that principle.
I want to set up a thread about what do we understand under "Fair Trade
Open Source" business. And I think presenting examples of proprietary
software can help in defining these ethics.

Another topic I want to touch is why are we committing time and money to
open source? (for sure because it gives us something back, but is this
the only driver?)

As mentioned before, open source is a development process, not a
business model, but I think open source is more than a development process.

<*bold statement*>open source is/should be a humanitarian right. <*/bold
statement*>

As the world is evolving so fast, and we become more and more depended
on technology, technology should be one of the goods we should share
among each other.
It is never a good idea that one party becomes to powerful, that they,
as one party can decide on what software we should use, and control all
the data that is flowing in these proprietary software black boxes.

Open source gives the opportunity to small and medium businesses and
individuals to remain committed to the technological evolution, without
the obligation to belong to a big company, owner of a big proprietary
software stack , where they can continue build on top of what they
accumulated, making it more and more difficult for new kids on the block
to enter the market.

Of course proprietary  'parts' of a software stack are important,
because the world needs incentives to invest in new technology, new
systems, solving challenging problems. And the business world will look
for opportunities to help solving these problems, if they can protect
their investment and make money with it.

This is not wrong, neither that a company tries to protect her own business.
But the same as with all other systems (like the difference today
between the 1% rich people worldwide owning xx% of the money, and the
99% rest of the world owning almost nothing.

We also have to be careful we keep remaining the right to write software
for (open) hardware, processing (open) data.

And this is also the reason why business and open source is important.
And why we should think about "Fair trade open source" business. Which
can be business with proprietary software, based on open source. (FOSS4G
+ proprietary) or integration and bundel of processes (FOSS4G + Commercial)

my 2c

Regards,
D.



 

-- 
Yours sincerely,


ir. Dirk Frigne
CEO

Geosparc n.v.
Brugsesteenweg 587
B-9030 Ghent
Tel: +32 9 236 60 18 
GSM: +32 495 508 799

http://www.geomajas.org 
http://www.geosparc.com