1. How to make money with open source
Two case studies
OSS Watch
www.oss-watch.ac.uk
twitter.com/osswatch
Sander van der Waal

2. About OSS Watch
•
Open Source advisory service in the UK
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Advice on all things open source
– Procurement, engagement, development, legal
•
Services
– Consultancy, events, presentations, community
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Publications
– Briefing notes, surveys, case studies, slides

3. Apache Wookie (incubating)
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Server for uploading and deploying widgets
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Implementation of emerging W3C standard
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Extracted from larger project context as a
discrete project
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A good fit with Apache Software Foundation
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Already some interest from outside the project

4. Networking opportunities
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ASF community
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Other interested projects
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Mobile apps/widgets community
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Android community
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W3C Social Web XG

5. New Partnerships

6. Results
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Very substantial value added by community
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Income generated for next 3 years: ~£700k
from two FP7 projects
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Only actually core funded from Dec 09-Sep10
@ 0.2FTE (around £12k)

7. TexGen
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Textile CAD modeller
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Developed at Nottingham’s Department of
Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing
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Generate geometric models of textiles and
their composites

8. Why open source TexGen?
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People can download TexGen and use it for free
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Better level of both knowledge transfer and
verification
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Encourage third-party use / citation
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Potential for collaboration
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IPR issues are simplified

9. Why not commercialise?
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Limited commercial value
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Commercial customers would expect support
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Small market - casual use does not occur
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All development has to be undertaken in-house
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Danger of inhibiting research collaborations

10. Results
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Over 5,000 downloads on SourceForge
•
Collaborations with previously unknown partners
•
Renewal of EPSRC's prestigious Platform Grant in
2009
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In total approximately £1m research income

11. Lessons learned

High ROI to open source code

Excellent marketing

Free publicity of research group’s expertise

Opportunity to create new partnerships

There’s no one single way of doing it

Best application of open innovation in
software

Funders love it

12. Any Questions?

Get in touch!
info@oss-watch.ac.uk
twitter.com/osswatch
www.oss-watch.ac.uk

http://incubator.apache.org/wookie

http://texgen.sf.net