Hi Andrea,
Not quite the same question, but an easier metric to measure, is the
"estimated cost of software to develop", using David Wheeler's method
for evaluating the cost of Linux to develop
http://www.dwheeler.com/sloc/redhat71-v1/redhat71sloc.html
You can find OpenHub metrics for OSGeo projects referenced from:
http://live.osgeo.org/en/metrics.html
On 9/07/2015 3:53 pm, Andrea Giacomelli wrote:
Hi Brian, and thanks for the inspirational overview. I totally agree
with it.
But if I go back with this to my colleague (I won't meet him at the
cafe after close-of-business today because I'm travelling, but
tomorrow might well be), he will claim that this is too much of a
quasi-philosophical explanation.
A simple way of getting the number is simply checking the revenue of
the key companies involved in the business.
The next "quantum leap" in innovation might be round the corner and
completely change our paradigms for estimating the size of a market,
but until this happens, if we are assigning a value to it, we are
making a bet.
The "third level" you mention is what my colleague calls "ecosystem
services". Interestingly, their value can be estimated as well (I have
started to work a few years ago on one of these cases);
but for the time being, I will stick to "level 1", considering the
thread open for a couple of days, should any other folk wish to drop a
line.
Thanks also for the "good travels" in Italy...in fact I am an Italian
citizen and a resident, but I travel quite a lot up and down "The
boot", as we call it (today towards the AC/DC gig in Imola...)
Best regards!
Andrea Giacomelli
http://www.pibinko.org
2015-07-08 21:22 GMT+02:00 Brian M Hamlin <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>:
Hi Andrea -
like so many good questions looking for a simple answer, there
is no simple answer..
Let's make a "thought experiment" .. and divide economic acitivity
into three different groups..
Each one could be measured in currency, but I wll argue that only
one of them makes sense..
* in the first case, the market is like a physical market .
someone has eggs to sell, or furniture, or a service like medical
service..
a customer pays in currency, and all transactions are recorded
(somehow).. the ecomonic value is the sum of all transactions..
* the second is a market like a legal federation of many
marketplaces..
things are available from multiple sources, so prices go up and down..
the prices change for a variety of reasons. But, what if someone
"gives" something essential, for non-market reasons..
the price may go down.. but what if a machine is invented that
make one million times more of a good or service?
does the price go down ? what if the machine makes something that
was never available before.. is there a price ?
* the third is the natural world we live in.. a unique collection
of clear air, clean water, things to eat and places to live and
make babies.. what is the "price" of clean water ? does it go up
or down.. what is the "price" of a rhinocerous or an elephant,
that is a living being not in the human market at all .. what if
the actions of the market kills or poison things that are not in the
market, to make room for things that are in the market..
what if software can be used to understand these relationships
outside of any market ?
what is the "price" of this software ..
So, in the first and most simple case.. you could take the sum of
economic activity inside the exchange of currency..
However, on a larger scale, the second and third measures are very
important.. I say that the OpenSource Geospatial
software worlds are very much in all of those.. so any number you
count in the first one will be a poor measure of the
others..
good travels in Italy
Brian M Hamlin
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Brian M Hamlin
OSGeo California Chapter
blog.light42.com <http://blog.light42.com>
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