[Linux-aus] Request for information on benefits of moving to FOSS for small development house.

[anthony hornby]

Hi Everyone,
I am after pointers to resources that explain in simple terms the
elements that should be considered and possible advantages to a small
business owner that develops a niche application
(that has the potential for much wider usefulness) in moving to an open
source license.

The end game is to get to a stage where all parties (and the community
generally) can take advantage of the wider exposure that moving to an
open source license will bring while still preserving the ability for
some participants the ability to make good money from the provision of
supporting services or possibly some commercial-only elements to the
software suite.

See the included email from David Murtagh below.

<snip>

Hi Anthony, thanks again for your advice regarding our development.
Memory Place (http://sourceforge.net/projects/memoryplace) is a project
designed to
present many types of media (ie photos, audio, video, maps, language
vocabulary,
etc) in an Indigenous cultural context. This is done using Ruby on Rails and
Postgres.

We are currently in discussions with another group who has their own
similar software which they sell to indigenous communities. Their software
has
come to the end of its life and they hope to move onto a different platform.
We
are hoping to refer them onto some web resources that describe the FOSS
business model (ie how they would make money out "free" software).

These people have worked in cultural preservation for some time and are
part of an Indigenous organisation. I think they are very protective of the
software they have developed and consider it to be an asset that has the
capacity
to provide ongoing income to this  Indigenous organisation. We are trying
to convince them the asset is their corporate knowledge and not the actual
software. They hope to be able to interface their software to the open
source project to provide added value on top of Memory Place. This can be
done
in a technical sense but may hinder a fuller development of the Memory Place
software.

We both recognise the strategic value of an alliance in terms of funding
submissions, reduced workload, etc. Are you able to add weight to our
assertion that the FOSS approach to software development engenders a
cooperative
and inclusive use of scarce resources and allows individuals and groups to
generate income through professional support and advice?

Cheers
David Murtagh
NT Library

</snip>

If you can send responses to me I'll collate them and forward on to
David.
If you know of groups who could assist David directly I am happy to pass
your details on to him.

Regards Anthony.

Mr Anthony Hornby
Associate Director, Resources and Technology
Library and Information Access
Charles Darwin University (CRICOS 300K)
Phone: +61 8 8946 6011
Email: anthony.hornby at cdu.edu.au.no-spam
(remove the .no-spam)
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