there are a number of models for foss one of these is the sharing for the continual development of the software among peers
these works when the original author do not have enough resources to do it alone. resources could be developers, testers, users, marketing / awareness, etc in the case of krimnet, we open source what we have so that we will have more testers and hopefully more developers. for sure we dont have enough people to do it on our own. we make money on localised deployment - the fields that we concentrate are on economics, demographics and textual analytics - where the subject matter is more important than the sum of the programmers. therefore for us we open source the generic horizontal layers so that we are able to concentrate on the vertical industries. the other avenue for money is from knowledge sharing such as training or publication of books. these are physical services and products that people still need to pay in either foss or proprietary models. another reason for oss is customer driven. there is a large demand for applications and source codes. this is to prevent vendor lock-in. before foss became popular, companies used to pay a premium to acquire the source codes. by the way, we released our codes on the bsd license... On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 9:01 PM, Boh Yap <bhy...@gmail.com> wrote: > > hi all, > > if the branding war relates to IT, then I'd rather phrase it more > poetically: > > "Are we being left behind in the e-dust of the k-economy" ..TM ;-) > > > @Marcus, > > re: marketing of your product, you should talk to MDec, afterall their > charter is to produce Msian success-stories, and you are ahead of the > curve, in the sense that you already have a proven product, when the > rest that MDEC is funding, are still plans on paper... > > Rafe if you're reading, can help Marcus on this? > > > 1. A Malaysian SW product, should it be FOSS? > --------------------------------------------------------------- > The case for OSS is tricky one, there are viable biz models for both > Open and Proprietary, I will concede. After a very brief ponder about > it, OSS has an advantage in the early-cycle of the product's market > maturity, where it is in the 'disruptive technology' stage and > innovating like crazy... or where there are opportunities for revenue > from recurring support & services, like ERP and where you rapidly > wanna gain market share. In more 'commoditised' SW, like an Accounting > Pkg, you may want to FOSS it, to build revenue from service, ie: > hosting & setup, the Gillete model, give the shaver to sell the > blades, or the laser/ink-jet printer model - cheap printers but > revenues from consummables. But otherwise proprietary model may still > apply.. > > Perhaps an economists can better define this issue... > > > > I'll address the other points, specifically on the "losing of > Branding' of MSC, and not only that the question of are we actually > falling behind - in another thread - > > Are we being left behind in the e-Dust of the k-Economy? > > > > On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 4:13 PM, Raja Iskandar Shah > <rajaiskand...@gmail.com> wrote: > > i would certainly rank ubs as among the top 5 accounting software for > small > > business along with peachtree and quickbooks. ubs is so good, that sage > > software international bought into the company. and in malaysia it > retails > > from rm700. in usa, quickbooks retails from us$100. > > > > if i am not mistaken, ubs started out as a software by a chinese > secondary > > school teacher in penang to teach his students about accounting. his > passion > > has made learning and using accounting software so easy and affordable > for > > malaysian business. > > > > the value of software is not in the price but in how many have benefited > > from it. just ask the thousands of business owners that are using ubs. > > > > > > > > On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 2:31 PM, red1 <r...@red1.org> wrote: > >> > >> Hi Marcus, > >> Your email account seems to kick back after last mail to u. So i will > use > >> this instead. Thanks for the link u gave in it. > >> > >> Yes, it was very interesting talking to you about your project for many > >> reasons: > >> 1. It is a Malaysian development effort > >> 2. It uses its own business model (saying its not FLOSS is not relevant > >> here. It is the business experience and insight that you bring that i > value) > >> 3. We can enrich our own experience as to how best to replicate > skillsets > >> locally. > >> Ok, i accept your point on post-uni developer training. We must make a > >> note to caveat that - no freshie training or join in during secondary > school > >> level or younger as i alluded to about Azrul's weekend Java course for > kids. > >> > >> Marcus wrote: > >> > >> Malaysia does have its own sofware , the UBS accounting > >> and InternetNow MailServer :-) . InternetNow had fairly good success in > >> Malaysia, handful in Singapore and now working out a distribution deal > in > >> Iran for the latest MailNow!5 and with USA's After logic. > >> What Inow don't have is branding and mentality advantage attributes to > our > >> foregin competitors such as Merak, Mdaemon and well in some ways , MS > >> Exchange. > >> > >> As a developer in a company pushing locally developed software for years > >> in Malaysia (not project based, not customized one off solutions), i > guess > >> the biggest challenge we face > >> is : > >> 1. Matching salary Vs Multinational offers. You guys have any idea what > >> CodeMaster offer fresh grads...go take a peek. > >> 2. Lack of System developers, (tons of webs developers though..) > >> 3. No recognition from Gov so far, ok we won the PIKOM award and an > award > >> from APMIITA (in my year apmiita first prize went to a kid who did a > >> football website, since then we decided > >> its not worth joining such awards) > >> > >> I would want to apologize as Inow sofwares are not in Open Source, so > far > >> in reality, none of our customers ask for the source nor bothered about > it. > >> I had a talk with Red1 during the mygosscon BOF > >> and tried to learn as much as i can about how Open source helped him, > in > >> some ways though, he is still unique since he is not just dling and > pushing > >> what everyone else can do, he has somehow (despite not being a > developer!) > >> end up as a head of the project. We have met a lot of people with all > kinds > >> of emnity against us succeeding as local software, some just put as on > the > >> wayside as "re-inventing the wheel", some "no match for US products" but > at > >> the its the local reseller here and corporate market welcome us the > most. > >> > >> As for competent developers, i doubt pumping 8k a month can make > anything > >> out. Programming has always been a very individual choice and talent. > What > >> can be done is maybe at the uni levels, > >> open up their standard and exposure, correct the wrong mentality that > >> programming is a beginner's job or "uncool" and put competitions that > >> matches against foreigners programmers. If one can't compare, one cant > >> understand. > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > #------- > regds, > > Boh Heong, Yap > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Join Open Source Developers Club Malaysia http://www.osdc.my/ Facebook Fan page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=98685301577 http://www.facebook.com/OSDC.my You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OSDC.my Mailing List" group. To post to this group, send email to osdcmy-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to osdcmy-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/osdcmy-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
