I'm new to the list and have been following this topic closely. This is my first post.
I am surprised by the confusion related to the Open Source model. A common thread seems to be, "I am a software developer. How can I make money from Open Source." The blunt answer is that you probably can't. As has been stated, the primary stream of revenue related to Open Source is through the sale of services. Unfortunately, the concern seems to be that if some number of people are using the software the developer should get money from each of them. That's not what it's about. If you Open Source your product it is no longer yours. It is ours. Open Source isn't designed to favour the developers. It's designed to favour the users. The reason people contribute to Open Source projects is because they use the software and they need certain features. If enough people can contribute a small amount of software development expertise to a project, the development can scale rapidly. People aren't looking for financial reward to contribute to Open Source, they're looking for better software. And, they're getting it. Traditional software developers have a very good reason to be concerned. In many markets where a large Open Source community has developed, they become one of the primary players. Historically that has been in the infrastructure areas. Sendmail, Apache, Perl, and Bind all come to mind. They are all among the best in their class. The model empowers the users. The developers make up a subset of users. The developers don't think of the systems as their own creations that they deserve remuneration for. They are part of a larger community who all receive better software. It is in the strong tradition of volunteering. The model has been so successful that it is moving into new areas. The traditional user space has seen mature Open Source projects like Linux, Mozilla, and Open Office develop into "commercial quality" projects. (The reason most give that they can't use Open Office has nothing to do with its capabilities and everything to do with the fact that it can't perfectly handle Microsoft Office file formats that "everybody else uses." What will the excuse be when it can?) Do people make money around Open Source? Apparently it's possible. It's not, however, the motivation. If you're a software developer in a space that's seeing the beginnings of Open Source initiatives you have every reason to be concerned. Microsoft is and they have deeper pockets than you. See this recently released document: http://opensource.org/halloween/halloween7.php There are lots of growing Open Source CMS solutions. They are, to some degree, starting to share their knowledge and resources: http://www.oscom.org/ An organization investigating CMS options we'd be remiss not to investigate Open Source offerings along with commercial ones. And, if they choose one, they might be able to find ways to contribute back to the community. Regards, Greg Davies Web Producer London Health Sciences Centre -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
