How can we make a living if we give it all away? Mike Taylor Index Data

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, It's not about Why open source? any more. It's about How open source?

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, It's not about Why open source? any more. It's about How open source? Won't programmers starve?

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, But briefly on why... Six Myths countered by Ingres 1. OS is a niche IT sector 2. OS cannot support mission-critical applications 3. OS companies do not own their intellectual property 4. OS technology does not offer professional level support 5. OS is unregulated and anyone can contribute code 6. OS software is not secure

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, But briefly on why... Six Myths countered by Ingres 1. OS is a niche IT sector 2. OS cannot support mission-critical applications 3. OS companies do not own their intellectual property 4. OS technology does not offer professional level support 5. OS is unregulated and anyone can contribute code 6. OS software is not secure Remember, this was Ingres, not Index Data!

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, The key question: How can we make a living if we give it away?

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, The key question: How can we make a living if we give it away? Because after we give it away, we still have it!

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, After we give it away, we still have it This only works because copying is zero-cost for software. Because copying is expensive for hardware, it took people a long time to grasp this. (And even now, not everyone gets it.)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Another take on the key question: How can we make a living if we give it away?

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Another take on the key question: How can we make a living if we give it away? It depends on what you mean by it.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, It depends on what you mean by it. In fact, we don't give away ownership of the software, and we don't give away our time. We just give away a perfect copy. We still own the software – no-one can sell a proprietary derivative. (The GNU GPL makes this very clear.)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So what is the point of open source? It changes the vendor/customer relationship No longer adversarial but in partnership.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So what is the point of open source? It changes the vendor/customer relationship No longer adversarial but in partnership. We make a living by giving you what you want Proprietary software earns money by denying you what you want.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Free as in freedom Free speech vs. free beer. Free beer is bad for the barman, but free speech is good for everyone.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Free as in freedom Free speech vs. free beer. Free beer is bad for the barman, but free speech is good for everyone. (Except George W. Bush, of course.)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Information wants to be free

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Information wants to be tied up and spanked

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Information wants to be anthropomorphised

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for customers? * No vendor lock-in

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for customers? * No vendor lock-in * Change the product yourself

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for customers? * No vendor lock-in * Change the product yourself * No product end-of-life

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for customers? * No vendor lock-in * Change the product yourself * No product end-of-life * Level playing field

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for customers? * No vendor lock-in * Change the product yourself * No product end-of-life * Level playing field * Open source => open standards

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for us? * Our customers trust us (in the post-FUD era)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for us? * Our customers trust us (in the post-FUD era) * We don't spend on closed-source overheads

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for us? * Our customers trust us (in the post-FUD era) * We don't spend on closed-source overheads * We catalyse contributions

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for us? * Our customers trust us (in the post-FUD era) * We don't spend on closed-source overheads * We catalyse contributions * We get to make cool things

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Back down to earth – some practicalities What's in it for us? * Our customers trust us (in the post-FUD era) * We don't spend on closed-source overheads * We catalyse contributions * We get to make cool things * It's just a better way to live

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Perhaps an important question librarians should now be asking their vendors is: Who are the highest paid the people in your organization? Your salespeople or your service people? – Carl Grant.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Perhaps an important question librarians should now be asking their vendors is: Who are the highest paid the people in your organization? Your salespeople or your service people? – Carl Grant. (Since I am not a sales person, I want the answer to be support people.)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools * Integration (e.g. with existing auth systems)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools * Integration (e.g. with existing auth systems) * Hosted solutions (small but growing)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools * Integration (e.g. with existing auth systems) * Hosted solutions (small but growing) * Custom development

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools * Integration (e.g. with existing auth systems) * Hosted solutions (small but growing) * Custom development * Support

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools * Integration (e.g. with existing auth systems) * Hosted solutions (small but growing) * Custom development * Support * Training

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, So how do we actually make money? * Sponsored development of core tools * Integration (e.g. with existing auth systems) * Hosted solutions (small but growing) * Custom development * Support * Training * Non-free licences for proprietary derivatives (only works with GPL.)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Software is largely a service industry operating under the persistent but unfounded delusion that it is a manufacturing industry. – Eric S. Raymond.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Software is largely a service industry operating under the persistent but unfounded delusion that it is a manufacturing industry. – Eric S. Raymond. IBM understand this.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Software is largely a service industry operating under the persistent but unfounded delusion that it is a manufacturing industry. – Eric S. Raymond. IBM understand this. Anyone who doesn't, provides lousy service.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Do not underestimate the power of the dark side We will never get very rich through OS. You can only do that by selling the same thing many times. We only get paid for work that we actually do.

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, The temptation to go proprietary We have tried this a couple of times: * Z'mbol * Metaproxy It just makes us miserable. Showed us the costs of not being open. (But we might do it again one day, given the right product.)

How can we make a living?Mike Taylor, Index Data, Summary * Software is more about service than product * Giving away product costs us very little (probably less than nothing) * This catalyses service contracts * The vendor-customer relationship is completely different in OS projects.