[kwlug-disc] the business model for open source

[Richard Weait]

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 2:42 PM, Robert P. J. Day<rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>
>  yes, i realize there's lots of this out there, but a friend wants a
> small number of references to online explanations that lay out the
> compelling reasons to adopt open source IT infrastructure, as opposed
> to proprietary solutions -- as much as possible targeted at the
> *business* people, not the techies.  for example, simply saying that
> the source is available has no interest to these people.  after all,
> they never read their developers' code, so why would they care?
>
>  so ... any pointers to high-level *business* defenses for open
> source in the corporation?  relatively recent stuff preferred, of
> course.

I'll start with only two reasons, there are hundreds.  Personal
attention and Continuous improvement.

Personal attention.

This anecdote was told in the first person at KWLUG some time back.
One of our members was using a particular FLOSS project at work.  He
decided that adding a specific feature to the project would make
things better for him at work.  He contacted the project leader and
asked about the new feature.  Our member provided a modest feature
bounty to the developer and was provided with the improved software
within days.

Continuous improvement.

This anecdote was told in the first person at a software course.  A
developer found a bug in a FLOSS project and had time to file a bug
report before attending a previously scheduled event.  The bug report
included how to reproduce the bug, what the expected result was, what
the actual result was and the version of the software that exhibited
the bug.  When he returned from walking on the beach with his family,
another developer had found the bug, created a patch and submitted the
patch for approval from hundreds of miles away.