The crossroads of mediocrity and greatness
If open source isn’t changing the way we think about
business then we are wasting our time. We are in business. We should be
thinking about business. How can my business better serve my customers, my
community, my planet, etc? How can I
better serve my business in its mission to serve? When we look for ways to better serve and do
business, whether we like to admit it or not we often find ourselves chasing
after small potatoes, in pursuit of greatness, achieving mediocrity. “Staining
out gnats and swallowing camels (Mat
ERP, .com, and Open Source – rubber bullets
Is there a silver bullet to the application of OS? No, of course not; there is no such thing as a silver bullet (outside of the movies and beer commercials). Make no mistake, there are businesses looking for the elusive silver bullet. There are quacks and matchstick men that willing to sell these organizations exactly what they want (to hear). If we are honest with ourselves we can admit that we are all generally pain adverse and for many of us it is better to believe in a lie for the short time it provides relief. If you think open source is going to solve your problems simply for the fact that is open source and appears to be with in your price range; you can’t afford it. If you fall in to this category, the way in which open source may impact the way you think about business is generally that you will have learned (through much pain) that there are no silver bullets. It is likely, like many of us, you have tasted this bitter lesson before, and you may taste it yet again.
Sigh – What the heck is open source?
Some see open source as the marketing strategy of the moment. These are the folks who dump IP on a service like SourceForge and declare they are open source. We wish you luck. When you rely on “cheap” marketing to sell your product it is likely that you don’t have a product which truly serves your customers, your community, your planet; it serves only you. You add no value. It is unlikely that a company could really exist on this approach and for those that can we hope you have made / stolen the money you need to survive after your quackery is exposed. Dishonesty is not a sustainable model.
One question I ask myself time and time again is “what is open source?” Is open source about software, about IP, about community, about choices, about commoditization, about freedom (love, and liberty), about a focus on services rather then product, about catching more flies with honey then with vinegar?
Is open source about software, about IP?
Sun Microsystems is showing the world that open source, defined or not, is a concept which can be applied outside the realm of software. Sun is quick to admit it gets open source, but they are not saying what it is that they get about open source: and yes … they get it.
Is open source about community?
Of course you need community, but community doesn’t make open source. Oracle has OTN, Microsoft has MSDN, and Digital had DEC-Net. Community is necessary for open source but it doesn’t make open source.
Is open source about choices and commoditization?
Of course open source creates choices, and hastens commoditization. Are we really excited about something which is nothing more then a catalyst for the inevitable? If such is the case we are “swallowing camels...”
Is open source about freedom?
If open source is about freedom (as in free love) then it
has a limited scope in business. No
respectable CxO expects to get something for nothing. They are business men!
They don’t expect to give something for nothing. They don’t expect open source to give
something for nothing either. If open
source is about freedom (as in liberty); then great … as long as that liberty
can be leveraged to increase business.
Is open source about a focus on services?
If open source means only that we focus on services rather then product for generation of revenue then the question becomes motive. Why would anyone give up a revenue stream? Of course they would, if giving it up meant more revenue. If you think commoditization, and increased customer options is the key to selling services then I ask only how long is it until your services are sidelined by another competitor?
There companies which view open source as a way to show case product via an open source community version with the intention to up-sell them an enterprise grade product. These companies are attempting to “catch more flies with honey then with vinegar”. They are using open source as a carrot. These companies are leveraging open source. They are building a support structure that they don’t pay for. They are encouraging further development outside of their own. This is a sound approach. It certainly works (MySQL, SugarCRM, GreenPlum, Alfresco), are proving this. The bottom line is that the honey is bitter sweet to the community. Many of these organizations are in total control of what is considered for inclusion in the product (not the community). The company tends to come across as a benevolent organization and not a whole lot more. These companies see how open source can be used to generate / increase business. They get open source … sort of.
Don’t feel bad when others “Exploit” Open Source
Don’t feel bad when others “exploit” open source. Don’t be afraid to “exploit” open source. Businesses exist largely to make money. I am of the firm belief that businesses should exist for much more noble pursuits, revenue being the means to an end, but that’s me. The companies who have found a way to give to the community and leverage the community as a mechanism for generating / increasing business should be applauded. I firmly believe that if open source were only about freedom then no one would be able to make a dime on it, and it would remain in the realm of the bored and curious.
Open Source that makes a difference means Change in the way we think about business.
The companies that get open source are making money because of open source. There seem to be two fundamental approaches in play (with a many of variations / combinations).
- Community / Professional Versions (SugarCRM, Alfresco, MySQL, Redhat, etc)
- Services (Jboss, Liferay, Alfresco, MySql, Redhat)
There is endless debate about whether a company should only sell services versus sell a professional version (which includes non community code). I don’t see either of these two approaches or their blends as a problem. I think they may both indicate that traditional business approaches are being applied to open source. The issue is not that these companies will not make a profit; it’s that they are not going to make the kind of profit as the companies that are breaking the mold.
When an organization releases all of its IP and makes its revenues on services, it is not a given that gets open source. In deed, it may indicate that it doesn’t understand business because they are giving up sales revenue! As an OS Business -- you release 100% or your IP, it’s because it makes business sense to do so! This is likely because you realize the IP is not what is going to generate the most business.
When an organization uses open source as a carrot intended to up sell enterprise customers it may indicate that they do not understand open source. They understand it as leverage but not LEVERAGE!
The question is not whether to sell product, services, etc. This is a red herring! Companies that get open source realize the following:
Open Source is the STICK (CROP) not the CARROT!
IBM and Sun Microsystems have made this discovery and laid it out for the rest of us in plain sight. Seeing; we see not!
Focusing on the carrot is straining at gnats and swallowing camels. IBM has given away flag ship products and IP. In return it enjoys the benefit of huge services revenue and increased adoption of other flagship products. IBM enjoys the comfort of sitting on almost every major standard initiative. They are in control, lashing away with the crop while you chase the carrot. IBM raised itself from the dead through this discovery.
Sun Microsystems recently released a new chip design to open source. It is not enough to commend the genius of this design. Take a processor that works, recognize that the floating point functionality is a waste of power, cycles and money for nonscientific computing and simply do away with it resulting in a blazingly faster processor that consumes less power (half) and costs less. Obviously, engineers and business people should learn a valuable lesson concerning complexity. Sun is thinking outside of the box in terms of hardware and business. By putting the new architecture in the public domain Sun is opening up business opportunities with fabrication facilities on off shore locations that may not be practical or even legally available to them under a traditional model.
Sun has shunned the carrot and taken up the crop.
For those companies which are truly willing to lay their
models "on the altar" and change in their hearts, open source is
working wonders. The rest of us are
eating the scraps from the masters table or traveling down the path of self
deception and destruction.
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