Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

*IF* you want to share your opinion on the GPL issue, this is the place for you.
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lobos
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Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by lobos » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:52 pm

Commercial GPL, see:
http://www.alledia.com/blog/interviews/ ... lnerd.org/
http://www.alledia.com/blog/interviews/ ... einit.com/
http://www.alledia.com/blog/interviews/ ... or.za.net/

There are other ideas as well.. and more interviews.. I just have not had time to read them all.
Nice to see you wanting to work on constructive options, good for you!
Brad,

Thanks for this info, I see a few possibilities here that I did not think existed. My main concern with the GPL service orientated income model is the fact that if one writes well documented, stable code with an intuitive API for extending, that there would not be any real need for people to purchase services. Even those that need extra functionality could easily shop around and find cheap programming from India or somewhere (due to the intuitive API)...

What would you suggest doing to counter my above concerns?

-Lobos
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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by brad » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:02 pm

I am not qualified to give you business advice.

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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by Geoff » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:08 pm

stable code with an intuitive API for extending
Don't document the API?
Would it be possible to "lockdown" the API so that no one else could use it?
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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by lobos » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:13 pm

brad wrote: I am not qualified to give you business advice.
So what advice are you qualified to give me? or can you direct me to another Joomla employee with enough knowledge to give me some advice?

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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by brad » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:15 pm

I am not employed by Joomla and neither am I qualified to give you advice.

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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by lobos » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:18 pm

igeoffi wrote:
stable code with an intuitive API for extending
Don't document the API?
Would it be possible to "lockdown" the API so that no one else could use it?
So you are saying that if I wanted to make lots of money with GPL, I should lockdown the API? This is not possible because you cannot lock down anything with GPL - it's very nature makes this impossible. Thinking along these lines I guess I could create a complex, uncommented codebase with extremely poor documentation and nasty UI. I should make the thing have killer functionality so that everyone wants to use it, but so hard to use or extend that people would have to pay me if they wanted to use it properly.

I guess I could do this, but I prefer to release nice code that is easily extendable and well documented. I guess the GPL paid service model is not for me then...

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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by brad » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:19 pm

I hope you find a business model that suits your needs. If Joomla is not for you, all the best on finding a project that is.

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Re: Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by lobos » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:24 pm

brad wrote: I hope you find a business model that suits your needs. If Joomla is not for you, all the best on finding a project that is.
I didn't think you were qualified to give me advice, but thanks anyway...

Don't get me wrong, Joomla! is still for me, I already have a business model that suits my needs and incorporates the Joomla! community, I was just seeing if I could make some money with GPL instead of Proprietary that's all.

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Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by LorenzoG » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:45 pm

I think the key here is a huge userbase (in this case Joomla's). My experience is that people need help and want make changes in the extension so they fit their needs and they need help from a community i.e. the community build upon the extension even if the extension can be run out from the box. Not everyone can afford or can take the time to find 3rd party "cheap programming".

Of course, with GPL extension you'll always find people downloading them from other sources, but if you provide people exclusive service, like an extension community, updates, let people give ideas for improvements, service, documentation, then I think you get a good number of users to sign up. Personally I value my time as professional and can I see that I can save time to pay a subscription (or buy an extension) in front of to spend time to figure out how to solve things at my own, when the answer already are there or I can get help.

I think Rockettheme with it's community is a good example. Now their templates aren't free. But even if they were free .. I would sign up to their community because it's so much knowledge in their forums.

But I guess in the end, you have to try to find your own way to go and your business model depending how your extensions looks and how you think you can attract new customers. I think it's a lot of place for creativity here. 

Just want to help  :)
Last edited by LorenzoG on Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: GPL, Joomla and Making money

Post by lobos » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:51 pm

LorenzoG,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your advice.

-Lobos
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