Podcast on Open Source Business Models
Markus Völter of the Software Engineering Radio podcast show interviewed me about open source business models. Why not listen to the Open Source Business Model podcast while running rather than reading it as papers or blog entries?
This was an interesting interview that gave me a few things to think about on my commute. There was no mention of Sun open-sourcing Java - isn't this a bit of an "elephant in the room" when discussing open-source business models? I'm not sure they were revenue-shifting - indeed, I think the major advantages for a large corporation to open source some of their code are to do with (a) easing adoption of their platform, towards a services & licensing play, and (b) improving platform quality from community bugfixes & enhancements. Is anyone at SAP beginning to have these thoughts?
Best regards,
Darren
Well, yes, no, I think, by making the Java part of the stack cheaper, they make more money available at some customers that could be shifted into hardware.
But this is a very hybrid solution. You typically revenue-shift only by creating a community open source project that gathers everyone. So IBM is competing with its own solution. SUN would have to let everyone in on Java, which means they could not play a dual-license strategy if they wanted. AFAIK SUN holds the complete rights still. That opens up their Java offering for a commercial open source strategy against IBM etc. Not exactly a complete community project 😉
Cheers,
Dirk