[off topic] jcorporate and expresso

[David Duddleston <da...@i2a.com>]

> From: Jon Stevens [mailto:jon@latchkey.com]
>
> If you really boil it down, yes, they are making money off the sweat of
> others. You are working for them for free. No, I don't think it is fair.
> What they give back is the option to use their software for free under a
> pretty decent license.

It is not my intent to start a war over this issue, but I want to defend
jcorps economic model a little here over a friendly debate.

It seems they are more or less selling support. I don't think their model is
wrong. We all need to make a little money and they are just a small company
that is writing the majority of the code and trying to pay the bills by
selling support for those applications. I look at it like this, you have a
development model for a project where people and businesses can contribute
back to the project by writing code or giving money. I have been involved
with jcorporate's project and they give good support to everyone, so
purchasing support seems almost voluntary.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm making money off the sweat of other open
source developers by leveraging free open source code to provide solutions
for people who pay me for this service. I try and be a good citzen by
contributing back, but have to admit, that I have not contributed close to
my fair share. I'm going to try and contribute more... honest ;-)

> When you contribute code to Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the ASF also
> retains ownership of the code. However, the ASF is a non-profit
> organization, so it is a bit different because you know that the ASF will
> never take your hard work and attempt to make money off of it.

Right, the ASF is not making any money, but a ton of people and big business
are indirectly making money from ASF projects and this most likely includes
the majority of the ASF members. This is why the ASF license is business
friendly and not a license where making money would be prohibited. I don't
feel there is anything wrong with this model either.

I think it is good to have several economic models that in the end foster
the development of free open source code... or whatever. Speaking of
whatever I'm real interested to see how the concept of free and open source
will carry over into biotech.

As free open source developers you can only hope that everyone who benifits
will in good faith contribute back... unfortunately, I don't think that is
the case. Furtunately for those that are contributing back, they are doing
an amazing job.

-david