[Asterisk-Users] "open" asterisk?

[BJ Weschke]

On 11/14/05, Lee Howard <faxguy at howardsilvan.com> wrote:
> Colin Anderson wrote:
>
> >This is the failing of the open-source business model
> >
>
> I disagree.
>
> The open-source business model fails when the business revenue is
> focused upon monetary sales of the (otherwise free) software.  The
> success in open-source business models comes when the business revenue
> is focused upon support and other products and services that utilize the
> software.
>
> If you're going to develop your software in an open-source environment,
> whatever you do, don't then try to earn your living re-selling that very
> same software (even with some flowers bundled-in).  You'll only go so
> far.  It's a very hard road to walk... trying to keep developers from
> forking at every opportunity... trying to keep your customers from
> concluding that your value-add to the paid-for version is not worth the
> pricetag... trying to maintain the codebase as "stable" in the face of
> the uncontrolled contributions... and so forth.
>
> If you're developing software that really has value to people where the
> real value isn't the software itself (as is the case with games), but
> rather the value is in the work that the software can do (as is the case
> with Asterisk), then a healthy business can be built around support and
> product services utilizing the software.  The value in a PBX, be it free
> or be it $25K, isn't in the PBX itself, but rather in the calls that the
> PBX connects.
>
> It seems a mistake by this rationale for Digium to expect long-term
> business success in attempting to sell the software... it will be a
> never-ending uphill battle and will repeatedly spawn discussion threads
> like this one.
>
> Sell hardware.  Sell tickets to conferences.  Sell support contracts.
> Don't sell free software.
>
> Lee.
>

 ABE exists for corporations that say "How can we consider
implementing open sourced software that has no commercial support and
isn't thoroughly tested?". The demand was there for corporations that
wanted a "commercial package" before they went ahead with
implementation.. They answered that call.

--
Bird's The Word Technologies, Inc.
http://www.btwtech.com/