commercial open source
DESCRIPTION
Mike Diliberto's presentation from the Refresh conference. A discussion of how to be a successful commercial open source company.TRANSCRIPT
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
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
[email protected], 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