Why Open Source Isn't an Enterprise Solution...why it can be...

Albert F. Case, Jr. [Stamford Research LLC,SourcingWorld Partners




Excuse me for a moment while I pull the arrows out ... Ouch! I think I've discovered that many Open Source advocates, pundits and consultants either don't read - or don't like to be offered advice. I feel like a pin cushion - but, masochist that I am, I persist. And now, I think I shall go kick a open source hornet's nest, just for fun!

OK, So There Could Be Open Source Enterprise Applications After All
Yes, Virginia, there could be an open source enterprise application in your future, despite my dire predictions of the death of the software business at the hands of open source programmers - and the related death of viable, non-custom enterprise applications as well. However, as the "dot bombers" needed a viable business model, so too do the open sourcists who intend to storm the enterprise application beach head.

Martin Mickos in his December 30, 2004 AlwaysOn post, "Open Source: Is It Time to Sell Out?" is headed in the right direction with dual licensing. But along with a licensing model, we also need a comprehensive, and viable, business model.



Excuse me for a moment while I pull the arrows out ... Ouch! I think I've discovered that many Open Source advocates, pundits and consultants either don't read - or don't like to be offered advice. I feel like a pin cushion - but, masochist that I am, I persist. And now, I think I shall go kick a open source hornet's nest, just for fun!

OK, So There Could Be Open Source Enterprise Applications After All
Yes, Virginia, there could be an open source enterprise application in your future, despite my dire predictions of the death of the software business at the hands of open source programmers - and the related death of viable, non-custom enterprise applications as well. However, as the "dot bombers" needed a viable business model, so too do the open sour cists who intend to storm the enterprise application beach head.

Martin Mickos in his December 30, 2004 AlwaysOn post, "Open Source: Is It Time to Sell Out?" is headed in the right direction with dual licensing. But along with a licensing model, we also need a comprehensive, and viable, business model.

Elements of the Model

The model must allows open source to remain open and available - preferably without license fees.
The model must encourage adaptation and inclusion of elements by disparate contributors
The model must allow open source technology to be embedded within and linked to commercial software without forcing the entire commercial package to be placed in the public, open source domain.
If money changes hands as part of a commercial transaction (see #3), some of that money needs to go back to the appropriate open source community ... even back to the developer.
As Martin Mickos says, there must be a quid-pro-quo ...
Then we can have a viable model.

How a Transportable Source Model Works
The concept is relatively simple in design, but not so trivial to implement. The first step is the need for both paid and unpaid licenses for the same product. However, this is a potential nightmare - so we suggest a modified GPU license with provisions for the inclusion of open source software within commercial software solutions.


There would be no up-front license fee for this, since that could eliminate small players (exactly the type of innovators you do not want to alienate).

There needs to be a clearinghouse, similar to the copyright clearinghouse, for payments for open source software included in commercial solutions.

Software developers "register" their open source with the clearinghouse, and license under the clearinghouse terms and conditions.

Software developers, registering with the clearinghouse may patent their software - and may have both free and paid licenses to the patents.

A "price range" is specified when a license is issued for a commercial product that contains embedded open source using the new license structure. The range contains a "minimum" price, and potentially graduated prices as the license price of the embedded software increases.

The commercial organization makes payments to the clearinghouse within 30 days of collecting the fees for the license. All embedded open source payments may be made in a single payment to a single source.

The clearinghouse keeps a small fee (say 1% to 5% ) of the fee paid by the commercial software company and remits the rest to the developer/developer organization.

The clearinghouse fee is spent on promoting the library and on auditing the commercial software firms that use the service.

Win ... Win ... Win ...