Although the links provided touch on this. The most successful
argument I have used is that the client may be able to defer and/or
share the maintence costs of the module. The first time that they
don't have to pay a developer to upgrade the module to the next
major rev of drupal (because someone else has contributed the port),
this can be a powerful argument. Of course as others have already
mentioned, it should be pointed out that they are taking advantage of
other consultants paid development by using drupal, and that it is
fairly common practice for code that is paid for by other
organizations to be released back into the drupal community.
There are many success stories to be told, where an important feature
to a contributed module was developed (and therefor paid for) wholly
by another person. Depending on the complexity and reusability of
the module, they may FULLY recoup the cost of development in
maintenance cost savings. I often describe open source software as
bartered software developement, where you lose the overhead
associated with contract management. ;)
Given all that, continue to point all this out, every time you get an
opportunity. Sometimes it takes a while to sell, and the proprietary
module could be released into the community at any time. No rush.
I'm still selling it at my shop, not cause the people don't get it,
but because its an easy thing to take for granted. It's the bills you
pay that get your attention, not the ones you manage to avoid.
Good luck, and keep trying....
Dave
On Jul 13, 2009, at 6:06 AM, Fred Jones wrote:
Regarding the legal issues here, it's definitely interesting and I
will now take care to make contacts, but as far as this job, we have
no contract but anyway the owners of this group are friends of ours
and there is no fight going on--we just suggested to release the code
and they asked us not to. So now we have to convince them to agree. :)
I think your job is to let him understand the advantages of having
such modules "supported by the community" and what does it mean
"replicating and maintaining your work".
So that's what I'm asking about here--I can tell him the advantages
are:
1. Testing and Bug reports.
2. Potential patches being submitted that he won't have to pay for.
That's what I know. What does "replicating and maintaining your
work" refer to?
Does the client have a site/service that would be of interest to
the general
public? If so then I would try to sell it from the angle that you can
release the module with a "supported by" attribution that links
back to them
from the D.O. project page. That could help give them more
recognition and
give their company a higher standing within the O.S. community.
No, their service is only for other organizations in their particular
business. I don't think a link on d.o will interest them *at all.* I
would like one, but I'm a nerd. lol.
Does he realize that he's the beneficiary of millions of hours of
work
paid for by others?
Of course he realizes that. Does he care, however? Seems like not. :(
Well, it could be that he knows and appreciates BUT he still doesn't
want to lose his own money over it. lol.
See this related article:
http://civicactions.com/blog/
most_important_decision_developing_site_Contributed_vs_custom_develop
ment
and the "Contribute back" section here:
http://drupal.org/node/51169
OK, great--this is the kind of thing I was looking for. Thanks.
Fred
