Is Open Source the Way to Go?
July 3rd, 2007
We have been discussing among ourselves about open sourcing Hiitch for a while now. When we say open source Hiitch, we mean both the server and the client code. A totally complete and open desktop social networking platform that others can use, extend, customize and redistribute on their own. Can open source really help us compete or is it the end of us? We have only recently come to an agreement that open source is an option that we will seriously consider in the near future. We have put into Hiitch our heart & soul and we are unsure if open source is a right move at this stage.
Why do we want to open source Hiitch?
- We envision Hiitch to become a free but personal social networking platform that everyone will use to meet new friends and stay connected. No barriers!
- We want to move the development fast enough to challenge the current market players and existing technologies.
- We desire a vibrant development community that will keep innovating with us.
Our biggest problem now is that we do not have the financial resources to fulfill all or any of the above goals. My argument for open source is that we can allow others to build smaller networks of their immediate social circle and then build software to connect these smaller social networks together to form a mega network of independent networking peers. We can achieve this with little or no cost at all using open source approaches. The open source community has already shown that the last two points is workable so I will not elaborate more on it.
What are our fears of open sourcing Hiitch?
- It scares away potential investors and greatly reduces our value as a commercial company.
- The open source community do not see a need for such a product and hence no vibrant development community.
The worse thing to happen is that we cannot financially support ourselves to innovate and develop ground breaking software for the social networking messes. Merely selling value added services on top of a free software platform is also not an easy approach. We also worry that a geek community cannot attract enough normal average users for which a life style application like Hiitch is build for.
Feel free to share your views with us on this matter.
Tags:
community, developer, development, free, General, networking platform, News, open source, OSS, Others, social networking 
Filed under: News, General, Others 
by geek |
Your thinking is directed to real issues. Uncertainty is a problem. It goes both ways though. Open source developers are equally leary of “hot off the presses” software as well. I definitely see a need for your software in the community so don’t worry about that. There is a length time frame however that you will need to keep the ship afloat for the community to start getting onboard. That can be commitment of 6 to 36 months easy. Good luck!
↓ Quote | Posted July 9, 2007, 10:32 pmOpening your source code does not mean “open it free of charge”. Besides, no matter what happens afterwards, your credit for writing that piece of software remains unaffected since open source licences do not mean giving your IP (copyrights) away.
Cheers!
↓ Quote | Posted July 9, 2007, 11:21 pmWell one thing that open sourcing the project can do is that it can bring additional developers to th project (though that isn’t always the case). It can also make it easier to integrate your project into other projects if you don’t have the development resources. You can also ask for contributions, start projects off your own that integrate with others like Frefox, GAIM, etc.
Lots of benefits can be gained without rhowing additional money and resources that you don’t have.
↓ Quote | Posted July 10, 2007, 12:55 amThe concerns are very real ones and by asking the the hard questions, you’ve offered us, the users of open source software some real insight into the real world problems fr open sourcing software.
The way I see it, most of the commercial businesses marketing open source software, are sucessful in one of two ways.
a) the software is benig offered to support other products (IBM and servers)
b) The software is free but with it’s complexity support services may need to be offered (Canonical, MYSQL etc.)
While such a piece of software such as this would be brilliant for the open source world, I’d venture to say, if you don’t have a clear path of how you can support such a product in the open source arena, while keeping yourself commercially viable, don’t do it. On the other hand, if you really need to have a pool of developers as big as the open source community, you may want to explore the whole dual license thing. Look at MySQL, Smoothwall and SQLYOG.
↓ Quote | Posted July 11, 2007, 2:43 pmI noticed you posted over on the Ubuntu forums, I know for a fact that you posted in a part of the forum that barely anyone goes, you would have gotten a response in the Community Cafe. There is a ginourmous Open Source movement going on right now, I think you could ride that wave and gain users that way. Also, when choosing my applications, I choose Open Source above all. As do many people I have discussed the topic with.
↓ Quote | Posted July 25, 2007, 11:48 am