Open Season

Making Money by Giving Stuff Away

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:13:50 +0000

“I’d just like to emphasise that these open source companies have all found ways of making money by giving away stuff.”

“Generally speaking, this has been achieved by accepting that the software they produce is abundant, and therefore cannot be charged for directly, but noting that there are associated products and services that are scarce, and can therefore support a non-zero price tag.”

“This is important, because the phenomenon is not limited to software. Basically, *any* digital good is subject to the same pressure to reduce its asking price to zero. We have seen the effects of this in two industries in particular: music and film.”

The one thing that Google Nexus One has over the iPhone

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:45:20 +0000

The one thing that Google Nexus One has over the iPhone:

“The biggest difference between the two is that Google has decided to open up the mobile market, where Apple has created a closed ecology. There are good reasons for both strategies…”

Rethinking Web Logins With OpenID Connect

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:29:42 +0000

Rethinking Web Logins With OpenID Connect:

“Consider OpenID in the shadow of Facebook Connect, its far more successful competitor based on Facebook’s proprietary platform. Forget that Facebook is much more widely known than OpenID — the real problem is that Facebook Connect is attached to an actual thing you can log in to, a website you can visit, a company you’ve heard of.”

“OpenID, on the other hand, is more nebulous. Your identity… on the web… portable… everywhere… what?”

The BBC's digital rights plans will wreak havoc on open source software

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:59:15 +0000

The BBC's digital rights plans will wreak havoc on open source software:

“Free/open source software, such as the GNU/Linux operating system that runs many set-top boxes, is created cooperatively among many programmers (thousands, in some cases). Unlike proprietary software, such as the Windows operating system or the iPhone’s operating system, free software authors publish their code and allow any other programmer to examine it, make improvements to it, and publish those improvements. This has proven to be a powerful means of quickly building profitable new businesses and devices, from the TomTomGo GPSes to Google’s Android phones to the Humax Freeview box you can buy tonight at Argos for around £130.”

“Because it can be adapted by anyone, free software is an incredible source of innovative new ideas. Because it can be used without charge, it has allowed unparalleled competition, dramatically lowering the cost of entering electronics markets. In short, free software is good for business, it’s good for the public, it’s good for progress, and it’s good for competition.”

“But free software is bad for DTLA compliance.”

Facebook privacy changes are not evil

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:10:43 +0000

Facebook privacy changes are not evil:

Another interesting (but flawed) viewpoint…

“It’s pretty obvious what they are doing. They want search inventory to sell to Google and Microsoft. They want to be as cool as Twitter.”

“I think the more important story is that they are turning their square into a triangle.”

Google’s ‘Meaning of Open’

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:01:30 +0000

Google’s ‘Meaning of Open’:

“Google senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg published a long memo “about the meaning of ‘open’ as it relates to the Internet, Google, and [Google’s] users.”

It’s the biggest pile of horseshit I’ve ever seen from Google.”

The new divide: Walled v. open

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:49:45 +0000

The new divide: Walled v. open:

“The new divide in media is walled v. open. Here’s why I think walls are bad for the builders and us all.”

How open standards are created

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:29:37 +0000

How open standards are created

Facebook's Great Betrayal

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:11:17 +0000

Facebook's Great Betrayal:

“Facebook’s privacy pullback isn’t just outrageous; it’s a landmark turning point for the social network. Facebook has blundered before, but the latest changes are far more calculated. The company has, in short, turned evil…”

fauxpen source

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:55:16 +0000

fauxpen source:

“Main Entry: fauxpen source
Pronunciation: \fo-p?n so?rs\
Function: noun
Etymology: a term invented by Phil Marsosudiro at a dinner party in North Carolina
Date: 2 May 2009

A description of software that claims to be open source, but lacks the full freedoms required by the Open Source Definition.

synonyms: see open core, neo-proprietary
antonyms: see Linux kernel, Apache, OpenNMS”

Redefining Open

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:53:53 +0000

Redefining Open:

“In my mind, there are four kinds of open.”

“This fragmentation has diluted the word open to the point where it almost has no value.”

“It’s time to re-define the word open.”

My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:10:59 +0000

My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement:

“There’s a theory that labels and publishers deliberately avoid creating the transparent accounting systems today’s technology enables. Because accurately accounting to my silly little band would mean accurately accounting to the less silly bands that are recouped, and paying them more money as a result…”

Identity Wars: Google & Yahoo! Bow to Facebook & Twitter

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:52:30 +0000

Identity Wars: Google & Yahoo! Bow to Facebook & Twitter:

“People have always said that Google does what’s good for the web, because what’s good for the web is good for Google. In this case I’m worried that the Royalty of the web’s last generation has crowned these two leading social networks as the Royalty of the current generation in a deal that offers traffic and money but that could suffocate the most creative developments of the open, distributed web. That could be called the web’s next generation.”

“Identity is a very important matter online, particularly as everything becomes more social. Online identity is your address book, it’s your wallet, it’s your reputation and it could become a lot more. Increasingly, you take that Identity from site to site, leveraging on the next site what you did on the last one. If a particular company provides that Identity for you, it sets the rules, regulations, “interest rates” (eg. use of your info for advertising) and determines things like what parts of your identity you can use on different sites and what parts you can’t…”

Open Source as a Model for Business Is Elusive

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:36:25 +0000

Open Source as a Model for Business Is Elusive:

“there is an open-source alternative, and usually a pretty good one, to just about every major commercial software product. In the last decade, these open-source wares have put tremendous pricing pressure on their proprietary rivals. Governments and corporations have welcomed this competition.”

“Whether open-source firms are practical as long-term businesses, however, is a much murkier question.”

Is Twitter more open than News Corp?

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:15:06 +0000

Is Twitter more open than News Corp?:

“My chin fell to the floor this morning as I read a BBC article quoting Twitter co-CEO Biz Stone advising Rupert Murdoch to be more open.”

Twitter urges Murdoch to be open

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:13:45 +0000

Twitter urges Murdoch to be open:

“Newspapers should become “radically open” if they want to make money in the online world, the co-founder of social networking site Twitter has said.”

BNP’s BuddyPress-based social network

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:33:08 +0000

BNP’s BuddyPress-based social network:

“But one UK political party has been quietly developing its own social network for a few months now, with a membership now well in excess of 4,000 - and impressive open-source technology to boot. It’s the BNP…”

OpenStreetMap helps free Ordnance Survey data with suicide bombing mission

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:47:49 +0000

OpenStreetMap helps free Ordnance Survey data with suicide bombing mission:

“People have different motivations for contributing to OpenStreetMap. Some do it just because they think it’s fun, and they like mapping their local area. For many people there is motivation around the fact that they believe it’s important to have freely available and open map data. Suddenly at a stroke, the second motivation is seriously diminished (in the UK), as this aim has been achieved if the Ordnance Survey makes a high quality and very complete dataset freely available. Now we don’t know for sure yet what Ordnance Survey will release - it is possible that it could just make raster map data available (like Google does). But it seems likely to me that they will probably make the small scale vector data available too - there is certainly lots of demand for this.”

Gordon Brown announces OS maps to be free online

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:55:40 +0000

Gordon Brown announces OS maps to be free online:

“Oh, and – this “free” will extend to being free for commercial use. That’s right, you’ll be able to build a business with it. Though it’s not clear yet whether you’d be able to take the maps and create *printed* ones. Must ask about that.”

Ordnance Survey maps to go online

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:52:23 +0000

Ordnance Survey maps to go online:

“Ordnance Survey map data will be freely available online to everybody from 2010, the Government has announced.”