>In Inkscape I frequently make the case that our customer and audience is >*not* the ordinary user. Unlike commercial software, where an ordinary >user equals some dollar value, with open source that user is just a free >rider. Rather, value comes from the users who participate in and >contribute to open source. Thus I emphasize that Inkscape's target >audience and customers are anyone who contribute back - translators, >coders, documenters, bug reporters, testers, etc. Increasing the count >of those people is the measure of success; if we get stronger there, >then we'll have all the free rider type users we can shake a stick at. ;-)
Yes, I agree with such an analysis. It's interesting to note in this regard that you can insert a commercial company in this equation which can convert paying [1] end users into contributions. The problem with the disconnect between the asian markets and current open source development communities is that in the above analysis these markets classify as a whole in the "free rider" category which makes them essentially uninteresting for the development community. A loose-loose situation for both sides. [1] Payment can be for a packaged product or for services around the product Cheers, Waldo _______________________________________________ Desktop_architects mailing list [email protected] https://lists.osdl.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop_architects
