Hi Richard,
If you do want to make it collaborative, my suggestion would be to
find at lease one other equal collaborator for each project. Even if
you both put in money to get stuff done, then at least you will put in
processes that make the project openly developed and this will create
an environment where others feel free to join in.
Also finding a co-developer is also a good test of how viable the
project will be long term, in the same way as finding your first
customers is a good test of how viable a startup might be. If no one
seems keen to join, maybe there isn't enough mutual self-interest to
make the co-development work.
However personally I think niches are better served by traditional
development methods (which you could always dual license if you want)
and commodity products is where co-development can thrive (such as
CMS's).
---
Dylan Jay
Plone Solutions Manager. www.pretaweb.com
P +612 80819071 M +61421477460
skype - dylan_jay twitter - djay75
On 20/12/2010, at 3:51 AM, Ryan Cross wrote:
open source != non-commercial
Look at projects like SugarCRM, RedHat, Netbeans, MySQL, or Zimbra
for decent examples. There are also examples like Wave or Etherpad
which were commercial projects first, then released into the open.
open source also doesn't mean there aren't proprietary parts
involved (though this is where some aspects can get messy legally)
There is lots to cover here, but a decent starting point is the book
"Producing Open Source Software" (itself open source): http://producingoss.com/
(free download)
My point here is that open source is not only built by "volunteer
hobbyists with an itch", which is the common misconception, but you
do need to consider the reasoning behind releasing the software and
how to make sure it gets traction. An open source project with no
community (both contributors and users) is pretty useless and seen
as dead - though this can still be beneficial as other people can
come along later and find uses for it after you've left it.
I think what you're hoping to do is jump start a project/community
by paying for some initial development work and then letting it grow
from there. This is a viable approach I think, but the initial
commitment may be more than you expect. I would factor enough to get
an initial prototype built, and time/money for building up the
community (and improvements to the software) for a least 6 months,
likely a year before you could stop nurturing and ideally hand the
lead to someone else. It is the time to build the community that is
really key to making sure your initial develop doesn't just become
another dead project. This could of course be mitigated if you find
the right person to lead the project from the start and/or an
existing community that would rally around it.
The specifics you cite sound like pretty small niches with both
small user bases and small number of people who would be technically
able/interested in contributing (compared to web site development or
media players), but I could be wrong and that doesn't preclude the
projects from working it just means its less likely to organically
happen.
Richard, I'm heavily involved in open source and I'd be happy to
talk about this more offline. I'll be back in Sydney after the 10th.
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