A discussion about various techniques and mechanisms for generating revenue in and around open source projects. This presentation uses the Cake Software Foundation (http://cakefoundation.org) who own the rights to the CakePHP framework (http://cakephp.org) as an example, and how a separate company (Cake Development Corporation http://cakedc.com) works with the Cake Software Foundation, but as a separate entity to generate money, and pay employees to with with and on open source software.

1. The business behind open
source

2. Graham Weldon
• PHP developer, 10 years
• Once-was-a-java-developer
• @predominant
• http://grahamweldon.com
• Working: CakeDC
• http://cakedc.com

3. Money
The primary motivator

4. What can generate
revenue?
Often project specific

5. Indirectly
• Making money directly from open source is
difficult
• Make money by operating your business
along side your project
• Allow the project to grow and evolve with the
community

6. Support
• The most obvious
• Premium support for businesses and
individuals
• Utilise high speed Internet for video sessions
and screen sharing

7. Development
• Build in and around your project, for clients
• Custom software
• Closed source (Yes, I said it)

8. Training
• Educate users
• Leads to better use, more contributors
• Provide courses aimed at various levels
• Again use high speed Internet to perform
remotely

9. Certification
• Might not suit all projects
• Offer professional structured testing systems
to qualify users of a high standard
• Offer certification as a "badge of merit"
publicly

10. Certification
• Might not suit all projects
• Offer professional structured testing systems
to qualify users of a high standard
• Offer certification as a "badge of merit"
publicly
Achievement Unlocked
Zend Certified Engineer
Achievement Unlocked
Certification for CakePHP 1.3

11. Donations
• Its not begging
• Method of giving back to the project for
people that can't contribute
• Encourages others to donate
• Optionally allow donors to publicly list
themselves

12. Donations
• Its not begging
• Method of giving back to the project for
people that can't contribute
• Encourages others to donate
• Optionally allow donors to publicly list
themselves
I Donated to CakePHP!

13. What doesn't work?
Common mistakes

14. People code for me,
for free
• Not going to happen if that's the "attitude"
• If the focus is more on your business
acquiring free developers, than making a
great product that will entice developers you
may need to rethink your motives
• Open source != free labour

15. Wrong Approach
“Communities don’t rally around closed
source companies to prolong the existence
of failed companies or projects”

16. Wrong Approach
“No-one wants to be a lackey to a
commercial open source project,
contributing their time to further some
companies interests.”

17. The idea is enough
• I have a great idea
• Someone will help me bring it to fruition
• This is not how to get people interested
• Everyone had great ideas
• What separates us, is some have the drive to
realise those ideas

18. Nightingale

19. Examples
• Nightingale http://getnightingale.com
• Ideas only
• Focused on processes and orgnaisation
• Still failing to produce anything
• No focus, no direction

20. Example: Xara

21. Examples
• Xara Xtreme http://www.xaraxtreme.org/
• Initially commercial
• Wanted community help for port to Linux
• Not all the source released
• Not always an issue, but was in this case

22. Examples
• Xara’s approach
• We provided the source code
• You provide us with your developer time
• Communities don’t work this way

23. Examples
• Xara’s response
• Community complained about missing
CDraw source
• Xara persisted with CDraw closed source
• Essentially telling the potential community
that their concerns were wrong
• Xara is considered “stagnant” since 2008

24. How an open source
project starts
... or more correctly,
how it has always existed, and you identify it

25. How a project starts
• Successful projects
• Existing implementation, open up to
community
• Start working on a solution to a problem
• Some application/project that motivates you

26. Important Milestones
• Have a product for people to download
• Roadmap to show where you want to go
• Source code from the beginning
• Simplify feedback and input mechanisms

27. Bootstrap
• Have “something” available
• Something useful
• Even something wrong
• Its a place to begin, and comment

28. Resources
• Website
• Mailing List
• Bug tracker
• Wiki, or similar
• Source view / download
• Realtime Chat (IRC)

29. Generating interest
Building hype

30. Social
• Get out and talk to people about what you
are doing
• Don't be afraid to share an unpublished idea
• Get people interested
• Get feedback first hand
• User Groups

31. Social
• People retain interest in a topic if they can
associate a real life relationship with it
• Easier to communicate complex ideas

32. Playing fair
Don't alienate the volunteers

33. Money can't buy me
love
• Play by the same rules as volunteers
• Motivate people to contribute through paying
salaries
• Don't let that get confused with control rights

34. Separate the entities
• Operate the open source effort as a separate
entity
• Provides visible business separation
• Gives confidence and assurance to those not
working for the business

35. Example: CakePHP
• Product: CakePHP, under MIT License
• Cake Software Foundation "owns" CakePHP
• Contributed to by a group of volunteers
• CakeDC is a commercial business that hires
some of the volunteers for work on client
projects
• CakeDC provides code back to CakePHP

36. Careful balance
• Make it known what "hat" you are wearing
• Business cannot be the key motivating factor
for the projects development
• There are many ways to support a project
beyond code

37. What Project?
Choosing a project

38. Useful, engaging,
interesting, innovative
• The project should be something useful to
some business need
• You should have a personal interest in the
projects goal
• Solve an existing problem, or solve an old
problem in an interesting way
• Create something new

39. Types of projects
• CakePHP
• MySQL
• Subversion
• Linux

40. Community and
public image
(it's almost "marketing"... *shudder*)

41. Community appeal
• Your project should fill a need that people
have, and can build on.
• Allow them to take ownership of something
• Credit where credit is due
• Kudos where kudos is due

42. You're being watched
• The world is watching
• Don't say negative things about your
competitors
• But... Benchmarks and facts are okay

43. Participate and
engage
• Visit your community
• If its larger enough, consider starting a user
group
• If its going global, consider a conference
• Its difficult to measure the benefits gained
from people that meet and talk about your
project in person.. Almost invaluable

44. Communicate
• Learning to communicate effectively can be
a better long term goal than programming
• A good communicator can effectively
coordinate developers and manage a project
• Don't just talk lots. Learn to speak and write
correctly

45. Communicate
• Commit messages
• Social media
• Mailing lists
• Blog posts
• Documentation

46. Bad communication
• 1337 speak / Trendy short form
• Vague
• Aggressive
• Dismissive

47. Good communication
• Appreciative
• Correct punctuation
• Correct spelling
• Correct grammar

48. Questions,
Comments?