<span class="gmail_quote"></span>Hi Everyone,<br>I am after pointers to resources that explain in simple terms the<br>elements that should be considered and possible advantages to a small<br>business owner that develops a niche application
<br>(that has the potential for much wider usefulness) in moving to an open source license.<br><br>The end game is to get to a stage where all parties (and the community<br>generally) can take advantage of the wider exposure that moving to an
<br>open source license will bring while still preserving the ability for<br>some participants the ability to make good money from the provision of<br>supporting services or possibly some commercial-only elements to the<br>
software suite.<br><br>See the included email from David Murtagh below.<br><br><snip><br><br>Hi Anthony, thanks again for your advice regarding our development.<br>Memory Place (<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/memoryplace">
http://sourceforge.net/projects/memoryplace</a>) is a project designed to<br>present many types of media (ie photos, audio, video, maps, language vocabulary,<br>etc) in an Indigenous cultural context. This is done using Ruby on Rails and
<br>Postgres.<br><br>We are currently in discussions with another group who has their own<br>similar software which they sell to indigenous communities. Their software has<br>come to the end of its life and they hope to move onto a different platform. We
<br>are hoping to refer them onto some web resources that describe the FOSS<br>business model (ie how they would make money out "free" software).<br><br>These people have worked in cultural preservation for some time and are
<br>part of an Indigenous organisation. I think they are very protective of the<br>software they have developed and consider it to be an asset that has the capacity<br>to provide ongoing income to this Indigenous organisation. We are trying
<br>to convince them the asset is their corporate knowledge and not the actual<br>software. They hope to be able to interface their software to the open<br>source project to provide added value on top of Memory Place. This can be done
<br>in a technical sense but may hinder a fuller development of the Memory Place<br>software.<br><br>We both recognise the strategic value of an alliance in terms of funding<br>submissions, reduced workload, etc. Are you able to add weight to our
<br>assertion that the FOSS approach to software development engenders a cooperative<br>and inclusive use of scarce resources and allows individuals and groups to<br>generate income through professional support and advice?
<br><br>Cheers<br>David Murtagh<br>NT Library<br><br></snip><br><br>If you can send responses to me I'll collate them and forward on to<br>David.<br>If you know of groups who could assist David directly I am happy to pass
<br>your details on to him.<br><br>Regards Anthony.<br><br>Mr Anthony Hornby<br>Associate Director, Resources and Technology<br>Library and Information Access<br>Charles Darwin University (CRICOS 300K)<br>Phone: +61 8 8946 6011
<br>Email: <a href="mailto:anthony.hornby@cdu.edu.au.no-spam">anthony.hornby@cdu.edu.au.no-spam</a><br>(remove the .no-spam)<br>