Commercially OPEN for Business
Sat, Nov 17, 2001; by Andre Durand.
Perry Evans, former President of Webb and the founder of Mapquest first introduced me to the concepts of open source back in early 1999 when he and Chris Fanjoy came across the Jabber open source project while researching messaging technologies leveraging XML.
I must admit, for at least the first few months or so, I just didn't get it. After all, who in their right mind would develop software in their free time for fun, and never expect a penny from their labor?
In order to fully grasp open source, its value and the culture behind it, one must either experience it firsthand or connect with an individual who has. For those of you who don't have the time to do so, Eric Raymond's essay's are some of the best writings which summarize the historical view of open source and these works served as a foundation for my own understand and growth.
Since inception, it's been Jabber, Inc.'s goal to redefine the acceptable parameters surrounding the commercial and open source ecosystem. An entrepreneur by genetics and a creator by passion, I set out to expand these boundaries, and internalize my own formulas and opinions surrounding the open-commercial intersection.
Having been a biology major in college, I quickly gravitated towards the principle of mutualism, which describes the harmoneous interaction of two organisms which benefit through their involvement with one another, furthering their own health, security or wellbeing.
In our particular case, I came to appreciate the advantages of open source in fostering awareness and accelerating what Craig Burton describes as 'global ubiquity', a requirement for any technology to withstand the tests of time as it competes for a seat at the roundtable of Internet infrastructure. I also quickly came to appreciate what some would describe as the 'unruly' and 'unpredictable' nature of open source evolution, which I welcomed as an attribute well suited to combat and undermine organized competition in unpredictable ways -- kinda like guerilla warfare.
Likewise, I believe that Jeremie and others within the open source project came to realize the importance and advantages of having Jabber, Inc. fund development while simultaneously helping to promote awareness and attract additional developers and commercial entities in the process.
While still in the formative stages of development, Jabber, Inc. discussed the possibility of granting stock options to significant contributors of the open project, in a conscious desire to reward and accelerate community development, innovation and adoption. Unfortunately, our discussions were quickly quagmired in details surrounding the practicalities of how to retain both the reality and perception of fairness in the administration of such a plan.
While I don't disagree with our decision to shelve option grants to open source contributors, opting instead to hire the major contributors, I do believe the decision was based upon several factors surrounding Jabber, Inc.'s particular situation at the time, factors which need not effect an ability for future commercial endeavors from taking advantage of the concept.
While there are always things that could have been done better, we all know it's not a perfect world and we certainly didn't have access to perfect information. I believe that in the case of Jabber, Inc., we've done our best to balance a difficult tightrope between our requirement to generate revenue and our desire to remain true to our heritage of mutualism which requires trust, mutual respect and a recognition that goals and objectives need not be mutually exclusive.
So we get to the meat of this rambling...
I believe the objectives of revenue maximization in the 'next-generation' commercial software company are not odds with open source methodology, principles or goals, but instead only an evolutionary step removed from a mutualistic relationship which will serve to accelerate them both without compromise.
In the never ending pursuit to perfect a replicable formula for success, I believe there exists a roadmap for commercial software companies to spawn open source projects from the onset and attract the same voluntary and self-selected contributions that exist in open source projects today, but with a system of monetary remuneration which is considered neither mercenary nor evil, but a required component of a well greased machine.
It's this ideology that will dominate my thinking in future ventures. Think of it as Commercially OPEN for Business, and one helluva strategy to amass armies capable of changing the world! ... or at very least, competing with Microsoft in one remote corner of it. :)
 
Created 11/17/2001; 7:54:17 AM. Updated Saturday, November 17, 2001 at 10:09:25 AM
(C) 2008 Andre Durand - Federated Identity Management
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