Dear AOO dev community, I'm impressed!
As you describe your "value" in public blogs and elsewhere, it would be very helpful if you emphasize the impact you are having on the welfare and education of the world's less wealthy populace who can't afford commercial software. To put this in context, the IRS [1] is currently asking non-profit software foundations to demonstrate that they are serving the public benefit and not merely the economic interests of software developers and corporations. So while it is entirely honest to say that we're donating the equivalent of $21 million per day of free software, it is also important to emphasize that this goes largely to the benefit of the world's most deserving. /Larry [1] IRS = U.S. Internal Revenue Service Lawrence Rosen Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com) 3001 King Ranch Rd., Ukiah, CA 95482 Office: 707-485-1242 -----Original Message----- From: Rob Weir [mailto:robw...@apache.org] Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 8:50 AM To: dev@openoffice.apache.org Subject: Re: $21 million per day On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 11:42 AM, janI <j...@apache.org> wrote: > On 6 February 2013 17:33, Rob Weir <robw...@apache.org> wrote: > >> On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 10:45 AM, RA Stehmann >> <anw...@rechtsanwalt-stehmann.de> wrote: >> > Am 06.02.2013 14:43, schrieb Rob Weir: >> >> Yes, yes, we're a non-profit organization. We don't charge for Apache >> >> OpenOffice. We don't pay developers. But we still do produce >> >> something of value, and that value can be estimated. >> >> >> >> People need office productivity software. The main alternative to >> >> OpenOffice is Microsoft Office, perhaps the "Home and Student" >> >> edition. The latest version (2013) sells for $139.99 on Amazon. >> >> This is for the downloadable version. >> >> >> >> We have averaged 153K downloads per day of Apace OpenOffice over >> >> the last week. That is an average value to the public of $21.5 >> >> million per day. Or $7.833 billion (7.833 thousand million) per year. >> >> >> >> To put that in perspective, here are comparable annual sales >> >> figures for some familiar companies: >> >> >> >> -- Campbell Soup Company: $7.882 billion >> >> -- Royal Caribbean Cruises: $7.657 billion >> >> -- Mastercard, Inc: $7.391 billion >> >> -- OfficeMax: $7.094 billion >> >> >> >> >> >> So we're providing tremendous value to the public. We should be >> >> proud of what we've accomplished over the past decade. >> >> >> >> Note: We could certainly debate the exact value provided to users. >> >> Determining what a user would do if they did not get AOO for free >> >> is tricky. But the logic above is similar to how the BSA >> >> estimates losses to Microsoft from software piracy. They assume >> >> that the person who pirates Office would buy it if they did not >> >> pirate it. So it seems fair to use that same logic to estimate >> >> the value provided to users by a legal free alternative like Apache >> >> OpenOffice. >> >> >> > >> > Freedom is far to expensive. >> > >> > (I think you have to multiply the download figures, because people >> > have the really used right to share AOO and they have the right to >> > install it on any number of computers.) >> > >> >> Of course, Microsoft also has multi-user and multi-PC licenses as >> well, which sell at a discount to the price of a single-user license. >> So it is not strictly a multiplication. But it does make our value a >> little greater. We also have Base and Draw, so we have additional >> applications than just Home and Business has, but we're not quite >> Office Professional since we don't have Publisher. >> >> But I think the numbers are a good rough estimate. >> >> -Rob >> > @Rob. > > Nice work as usual, digging out these numbers. I think however (along > the lines of Dave) that this is realy something the press could use > for a good story, and it would be so much better to tell it to the > world, instead of just us in here (we already know we provide a great > service). > > I can already see the title "how non-profit organisations help > goverments and companies save billions to counter the crisis". Any > reporter would like that :-) > OK. I'll form this into a blog post. -Rob > rgds > Jan I > > >> >> > Regards >> > Michael >> > >> > >> > >>
