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"Just open-source it" is not realistic

rachelbythebay.com

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Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#31

Post by KC8ZKF »

aggronn wrote: post #11

just want to point out: if the reason for holding it back is almost entirely because she wants to get paid for it, she should actually explain how open sourcing it excludes her from income. after reading it, it sounded like she was concerned about the sunk cost--which would be irrational. so I'm curious, how is she earning income from it? it does she know she'll find people to licence it?

After reading the article, I got the impression that getting it ready for release would be a non-trivial amount of work, and it is that work she wants to be paid for, not the work done so far.

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#32

Post by swanson »

nhangen wrote: post #29
swanson wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted you - it is not the self-promotion, but rather the fact that except for mentioning "Fred", this whole comment reads like an auto-generated message. For example, an ancedote about a similar open source project that failed on kickstarter and found success on IgnitionDeck would probably be better received.

That's fair enough, I appreciate the feedback. Ironically, I avoided a lengthier comment because I worried it would seem fake.

I certainly can't speak for the whole crowd but I would approach it like this:

"Rachel - if you'd still like to pursue crowdfunding for open sourcing Fred, email me at nathan@ignitiondeck.com - we'd love to feature you in a new series we are doing called Kickstarter Redemptions"

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#34

Post by _b8r0 »

swanson wrote: post #22

Regarding the money thing, remember there are other currencies than dollars. When I open sourced my own RSS reader[1] some of the "non-monetary currencies" I received: * Several (non-robot) recruitment emails from well-known companies doing Ruby * Additional development time from strangers to fix things I wasn't interested in doing (i18n, performance improvements) * Additional testing time to iron out all the bugs *…

I just took a look at stringer and having recently set up tiny tiny rss wish I knew about this at the time, as fever support was something I really wanted. I'll take a look into it when I get a moment, but your post inspired me to create a /r/repos subreddit to post open source repositories worth checking out.

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#36

Post by andrewljohnson »

swanson wrote: post #32
nhangen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair enough, I appreciate the feedback. Ironically, I avoided a lengthier comment because I worried it would seem fake.

I certainly can't speak for the whole crowd but I would approach it like this: "Rachel - if you'd still like to pursue crowdfunding for open sourcing Fred, email me at nathan@ignitiondeck.com - we'd love to feature you in a new series we are doing called Kickstarter Redemptions"

I don't see any decrease in the smarminess of your approach.

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#37

Post by edderly »

wes-exp wrote: post #20
edderly wrote: post #15

I can't just help thinking that if this software was truly both non-trivial and useful that it would be relatively easy to pick up $30k "after" open sourcing it via consulting or customization work.

I feel like the OSS consulting model benefits from releasing buggy, hard to use software that requires the developer's assistance to get working. It sounds like she wants to release software that works well without needing any maintenance, which would tend toward a payment up-front model.

I don't think you get any guarantee that just because you pay for software that it works well and is not buggy.

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#38

Post by Sayter »

swanson wrote: post #32
nhangen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair enough, I appreciate the feedback. Ironically, I avoided a lengthier comment because I worried it would seem fake.

I certainly can't speak for the whole crowd but I would approach it like this: "Rachel - if you'd still like to pursue crowdfunding for open sourcing Fred, email me at nathan@ignitiondeck.com - we'd love to feature you in a new series we are doing called Kickstarter Redemptions"

Nathan's comment sounded like a genuine suggestion: the focus is on her to be able to utilize an alternative. With yours, the focus is on we'd "love to feature you." Sounds so much more self-serving, and also like impersonal marketing copy. Though, as with you, I cannot speak for the whole crowd.

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#39

Post by tillk »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #12
tillk wrote: post #9

Can anyone explain/summarize what this is? I gather it was/is feed reader, but I can't find much more and she (?) is very vague. Or I don't know how to navigate her blog.

I was wondering too so I found the kickstarter. It's some kind of personal feed reader server: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000892040/fred-feed-rea...

Thanks!

I am surprised by this trend — put a project on kickstarter and promise to open source it. Build it on tech that's been open sourced for free.

Trying to stay positive here. But haven't they heard of the millions of people who contribute to (quality) open source software every day?

Re: "Just open-source it" is not realistic

#40

Post by mwfunk »

mempko wrote: post #23

In other words, capitalism ruins it for the rest of us....

What's the alternative? Do you want your tax money to go towards supporting this particular developer so that she can open source this particular project? Because that's the alternative. Or are you saying that she shouldn't have the right to determine what to do with her code? Because that world sounds pretty awful too.
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