Hi, We can talk about Open Source business models for ever - there are many and there are many people making money. We have been running a company purely around open source for quite some years now. There are many ways to build annuity income into your models.
There is nothing that says you can not charge for an open source application. If you open source your POS application you will eventually end up with a better product but still be able to bill your clients their monthly "rental" fee. Other people may also make money from your product but that's okay - it won't take away for your revenue it will only add to it. You are the expert and if others start using your application for their systems you can provide them with consulting, training, documentation, support and customisation. And others will add new fucntionality and contribute it back, giving you new opportunities. I would not go for the open and closed source versions. Regards, Lisa Ewald Horn wrote: > Howdy... > > A totally different thread, something that's been nagging at me for a > while now. I've been wanting to open-source a little POS > (point-of-sale) application that I wrote for two clients. The thing > is, right now they only pay their monthly support fee (R 90.00 :) > because the application refuses to generate reports if the license is > not valid. Which brings me to the question : How on earth do I protect > my income stream if I open-source the application. > > I know a lot of folks say that I need to focus on the support and bill > for that, but in the past 8 months I've had NO support issues. These > are simple applications where not much goes wrong. I do charge for > user training, but that's a once-off income. How do you go about > ensuring a residual income whilst contributing to the open-source > community ? Java is such a great tool to use and the Java community > has vast open source resources that I would like to contribute to. > > The current route I'm planning to take is to have two versions of the > application, one single-user open source and one multi-user > closed-source application. Does anyone have any experience in this field ? > > Regards > Ewald > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CTJUG Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CTJUG-Forum -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
