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Oliver SteeleMay 4, 2005
The Business Case for Open Source
Contribution Status
Metrics Contributors Contributions Related projects
2
33Laszlo Systems, Inc.
Customer value: Closed-source model
! Value of a customer:
! Revenue
! Market feedback
! Reference
! Closed source model: conversion is a bottleneck for value
! Review – prospects may not say why they stopped the eval, especially inan unguided evaluation
! Reference – Only customers are referenceable
44Laszlo Systems, Inc.
User value: Open-source model
! Open source distinguishes between users and customers
! Open source model:
! Revenue: open source model increases the pool of evaluators, length oftime during which a prospect can convert – but decreases chance that anyindividual prospect will convert
! Review: non-customers and unfunded developers provide a larger pool formarket feedback feedback
! Reference: Referenceable users > referenceable customers
! Other values of increased user base
! External contributions
! External evangelism
55Laszlo Systems, Inc.
User contributions
! Positive feedback loops increase pool size for conversion
! Increased market feedback
! More developers – remove revenue conversion as a bottleneck for marketfeedback
! Grain of salt – sampling bias from nonpaying customers
! Increased marketing
! External contributors have an interest in the success of the project
! External marketing contributions are more credible than internal marcom
! Removal of revenue conversion as a bottleneck for deployments
66Laszlo Systems, Inc.
Contribution Sequence
Marketing
Contributions
Development
Contributions
Program management
Event organization
Event participation
Books
Technical articles
!White papers
!References*
!Demos
Market feedback*
!Public response*
!Blog postings
Project management
Technical leadership
Feature design
Feature implementation
Feature review
Code review
! Vendor integration
! Component contributions
! Bug fixes
! Bug fix verification
! Bug reporting
Degre
e o
f engagem
ent
* Referenceable applications, market feedback, and effective response to public critiques
can’t effectively be accomplished in-house even with infinite resources.
77Laszlo Systems, Inc.
Development Resources
! Activities above the line support activities below the line
! Closed development requires direct funding of activities below
the line
! Open development requires (less) funding of activities above
the line
! Bold items are active
88Laszlo Systems, Inc.
Enabling Contributors
Marketing
! Program management
! Incentive programs
! Collateral
! Data sheets
! Logo program
! Promotion
! Articles
! Blog entries
! Applications
Development
! Project management
! Technical leadership
! Incentive programs
! Community infrastructure
! ! Mailing lists
! ! Wiki
! Code exchange
! Recipe exchange
! Build infrastructure
! Test infrastructure
99Laszlo Systems, Inc.
Proposed Contribution Metrics
! Downloads
! Forum activity (posters, new posters, posts)
! Mailing list activity (posters, new posters, posts)
! Site traffic (ol, laszlo, and a representative project)
! Technorati traffic
! Contributors
! Contributions
! External bug reporters
! External bug reports
1010Laszlo Systems, Inc.
Proposed Next Steps
! Define adoption & contribution metrics
! Create community site! Component exchange
! Searchable, commentable documentation
! Regular news and announcements
! Remove development barriers! Build system
! Test system
! Directory structure
! Facilitate marketing contributions! Describe platform features on web site
! Publicize commercial and non-commercial successes
! Create logo/branding program (if we can iron out the issues)
Risks
Cannibalizing paid support Expenses (managing, enabling external developers)* Distraction
11
* Although, many of these expenses are the same as those necessary to competently manage and enable internal developers too.