[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] business model
From:       Benjamin Rossen <b.rossen () onsnet ! nu>
Date:       2004-12-16 22:57:59
Message-ID: 1103237879.7568.18.camel () localhost ! localdomain
[Download RAW message or body]

On Thu, 2004-12-16 at 20:45, Aaron Seigo wrote:
> > DISTRIBUTE THE REWARDS
> > I propose a model for the parent company based on fluid pool ownership. The
> > means that the organization is a trust, in the way that KDE e.V. is, but
> > that the beneficiaries of the trust should be all those people who
> > contribute and maintain code. An objective method for calculating the 
> > relative weighting of the contributions would need to be developed, and
> > that may prove to be difficult, but is not the issue here. We shall assume
> > that such a system can be devised.
> 
> this is non-trivial in the extreme. =/ it would probably be easier to just 
> dole out funds on an ad-hoc "we think you're worth it because you're doing 
> cool stuff" way.

Yes, you are quite right. It is not trivial. However, I am more
interested in a business model for driving Linux, and not in solving all
the administrative details, at least not at this time. We can call this
a meta-model, and these are the main points. 

(1) The organization PUSHES DEVELOPMENT WITH REVENUE. It should be
possible for someone who loves the work and who does it well to live
from their efforts. Many more people shall find it possible to give time
to coding for Linux and KDE. The pool of people contributing may greatly
increase and so lead to more rapid development of the platform and the
application software. It MAY do that... it may also attract all kinds of
hopefuls without the knowledge and skills to do this in any useful way.
I think the organization shall have a difficult, but not impossible, job
deciding who can be recognized as having made useful contributions, and
what their share of the revenue should be. I suppose "we think its cool
stuff" might not be good enough; not even "We think its Kool." 

(2) The organization is NOT FOR PROFIT. It is dedicated to using this
formula to enhance the growth and development of the open source free
software world. 

(3) The organization is FREE OF RISK. It does not pay coders in advance.
It does not finance the franchisees into business... indeed, the
franchisees pay the organization for the training, certification,
assistance with finding start capital and so on. 


 
_______________________________________________
This message is from the kde-promo mailing list.

Visit https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-promo to unsubscribe, set digest on \
or temporarily stop your subscription.


[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]