RE: Open Source Developer Exchange (Economics)

>Well, yes and no. If the traditional Open Source development method
>relies on inspiration and people who are itching and scratching instead
>of conforming to deadlines and the rest of that silly capitalist
>nonsense, then Open Source development has no place in the business
>world. But if the license is what makes something Open Source, then a
>programmer who expects to make money developing Open Source (or
>proprietary) software had better be prepared to adhere to a schedule.

A major concern for an exchange catering to open source: most consumers
are looking for "freeware" and most developers aren't interested in the
requirements of business such as marketing, support, customer service,
and prioritizing the work of a finite set of resources using
requirements, estimates and deadlines to assist with that
prioritization.

This implies that in many cases the cost of developing software is low
enough, e.g. the time the developer spends and some tools, and that the
rewards are large enough, e.g. recognition, fame, altruism, to feed an
economy mostly interested in "free as in beer" software.

>Note that this is the free software *business* list, not the free
>software "let's do some cool stuff in our spare time" list.

I'm the sole developer of an open source project called WidgetWeb
located at http://www.widgetweb.com. I have licensed this product under
the CPL to encourage other developers to view this software and because
I am comfortable donating what I have done to this point to the free
community. I am also not concerned if a competitor picks up the product
and makes money from it. That just means that I wasn't able to
capitalize where they could and I would view that as a learning
opportunity.

I performed this work because it was cool stuff in my spare time, but
going forward I am interested in making money from my future efforts on
this project. To do that I could:
1) market all future enhancements under a proprietary license since I
own copyright to everything. And start a company that asked for a fee
per license.
2) leave it CPL and begin marketing for other developers to continue
working on it.
3) sell documentation, T-shirts, etc. attempting to pay for future
development (including my own time)
4) request customers to pay for future enhancements in a limited
fashion.

The first I consider has too much risk for me. My efforts are better off
starting a different company.
The second is unlikely without an angel developer to adopt the project.
The third might possibly work, but again it would require substantial
efforts on my part.
The fourth seems difficult given the lack of examples in the community.

Without assuming major risk on my part, it seems the only way to
facilitate this is through an exchange. The same as it would be
difficult for me to sell an old vase for any decent money except on a
large exchange such as EBay. In other words, an exchange keeps my risk
low while allowing me to seek out interested buyers from a global
market.

There is one other conclusion you could draw. That WidgetWeb is not an
interesting enough product for any business model. =)

-ron