commercial open source

Mike Diliberto

Commercial Open SourceImage provided by afsilva via Flickr

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

My Story

✤ Originally studied Computer Science

✤ Discovered that I was not passionate about writing code

✤ Started working in R&D

✤ Because I am passionate about solving problems

✤ Started my career in corporate America (Circuit City), later worked for a New Zealand startup, and now at MindTouch Mike Diliberto

@mikedilibertomikediliberto@gmail.com

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

From this

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

To this

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

My Story

✤ Originally studied Computer Science

✤ Discovered that I was not passionate about writing code

✤ Started working in R&D

✤ Because I am passionate about solving problems

✤ Started my career in corporate America (Circuit City), later worked for a New Zealand startup and now at MindTouch

✤ Working for a small, resource constrained firm taught me how to make the most of the resources on hand.

✤ Being accountable for the money I spent (and made!) made me passionate about business

Mike Diliberto @mikediliberto

mikediliberto@gmail.comTuesday, January 26, 2010

Today’s Topics

✤ What is Closed Source?

✤ What is Open Source?

✤ Why Open Source?

✤ Value in Support

✤ Building value in functional delineation

Image courtesy of mark van de wouw via Flickr

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What is closed source?

✤ Only compiled code leaves the building*.

*mostlyTuesday, January 26, 2010

What is closed source?

Source Code

Winword.exe

Compiled Code

CustomerTuesday, January 26, 2010

How do you build closed source?

✤ There are a lot of different development methods, here is one:

Requirements

Design

Write Software

Test Software

Ship Software

Image provided by tinyfroglet via flickr

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

How do you build closed source?

✤ There are a lot of different development methods, here is one:

Requirements

Design

Write Software

Test Software

Ship Software

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

How do you build closed source?

✤ There are a lot of different development methods, here is one:

Requirements

Design

Write Software

Test Software

Ship Software

All of these activitiesoccur internally

Issue:

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ok, So what about Open Source

Photo courtesy of bratmandeux via FlickrTuesday, January 26, 2010

The big difference: how it is built

Requirements

Design

Write Software

Test Software

Ship Software

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The big difference: how it is built

Requirements

Design

Write Software

Test Software

Ship Software

Some or all of these activities occur publicly

Difference:

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Open Source is different

Source Code

OpenOffice.exe

Compiled Code

CustomerTuesday, January 26, 2010

Why Open Source?

Photo courtesy of bratmandeux via Flickr

“Proprietary software developers have the advantage of money; free software developers need to make advantages for each other” - Richard Stallman

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Sharing is good

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Fast-track development

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

One more thing...

Photo courtesy of bratmandeux via Flickr

Vs.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Need more reasons?

✤ Consumer Driven Innovation

✤ Get the product out the door! (good, fast, and cheap!)

✤ Marketing / Leads (Community)

✤ Market penetration

Photo courtesy of bratmandeux via FlickrTuesday, January 26, 2010

So, if people can get it for free, how do you make money?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Revenue

✤ Services:

✤ Support

✤ Custom design and development (in moderation)

✤ Functional Delineation:

✤ Build a commercial offering using your Open Source product as a base or framework

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Support

✤ Paradox:

✤ Corporate users want a butt to kick

✤ Open Source is typically not supported

✤ The most popular commercialization method (for now) is to provide support to customers or provide a supported version for a fee.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Functional Delineation (huh?)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Functional Delineation: How?

Open  Source  Capabilities  

Open  SourceCapabilities  

Low  Value  Add

Low  Value  AddHigh  Value  Add

High  Value  Add

Version n Version n + 1

Internal Development Framework Commercial

Open SourceFunc

tiona

lity

User  requested  features  /  Community  contributions

New  OSS  Capabilities  

New  Commercial  Capabilities  

Graph Courtesy Gartner Research Group 2009Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Marketing. (Or, thank goodness for social media!)

✤ Open Source marketing budgets are usually pretty small

✤ So, spend where it counts:

✤ Google Ad Words

✤ Social Media

✤ Trade show (sometimes)

✤ Speaking engagements at RefreshSD

✤ Word of mouth

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Word of Mouth / Community

✤ Love your community, they are your most valuable resource!!

✤ In our recent survey, 75% of commercial Open Source firms have or plan to hire a community manager.

✤ Spend time in the community:

✤ Online

✤ Real life

✤ Spend time with the users

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Love your data

✤ Gather data like it is your job - even if you do nothing with it!

✤ CRM

✤ Lead tracking / lead scoring

✤ Know your people:

✤ What are they doing?

✤ Where can you help?

✤ Do you <3 statistics? learn.

✤ Every commercial Open Source firm that we surveyed is doing this

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

You can do that with our software?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

How do I get involved?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Mike Diliberto

Thank You! Image provided by afsilva via Flickr

Tuesday, January 26, 2010