It’s been a long time coming
In the spring of last year, I realised that I needed to go beyond my original article looking at the ubiquitous “if it’s free, how do you make money?” question of open source. Not least, having my son join me during a brief internship with my company and OW2 made me realise that the vast amount of information available on the web (and in my head) was not easily digestible for people not already in the field. So, I set out to write a longer, more structured paper that would take a deeper dive into the many facets that make open source invaluable for business.
As things often go with these things, this deeper dive turned from a balmy “day trip” for tourists into an oceanic voyage of exploration, discovery and learning (yes, learning is truly from cradle to grave, as the expression goes).
To cut a long story short, the project evolved through three phases over about 8 months (wow - how time flies when you’re having fun):
An extended article.
A peer-reviewed whitepaper.
A self-published book.
After months of effort and with immense gratitude to the peer reviewers (see below), the book is finally published - woohoo! 🎉
To support Christian as an independent writer beyond his work with Open Up, please buy a copy. And don’t forget to spread the word far and wide!
Topics the book explores:
Why Giving Stuff Away Makes Business Sense
It all started with free software
(Re)Branding
It’s all about value, stupid
Value capture (making money)
Value capture: direct revenue generation
Value capture: indirect revenue generation
Value capture: monetised innovation
Value creation
Creating Strategic Value
Creating Operational Value
Creating Value Through Company Culture
Embrace the community, don’t sweat the competitors
“I might lose control.”
“My competitors will use my work to get a leg up.”
Wonderful peer reviewers:
Amani Jebali (Head of Open Source Pole - Sofrecom Tunisia).
Gilles Gravier (Director & Senior Open Source Strategy Advisor - Wipro Limited).
Lyn Morgan (Global Public Affairs Vaccines Head - Sanofi).
Pierre-Yves Gibello (CEO - OW2).
Simon Phipps (Standards & Policy Director - Open Source Initiative).