[OT] Open Source and my company's web application

Thu Jan 19 02:50:45 UTC 2006

And, one more thought.
GPL it, and sell it as a service.
I'm sure there are people that don't have a CO-LOed server they can
rely on, so paying someone a fee to make a service always online is
not unreasonable.
-Joseph-

On 1/18/06, Joseph Kubik <josephkubik-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> If your company's buisness is not that of selling software services,
> either GPL it and kick it out the door, or spin off a whole buisness
> to handle application hosting services.
>
> If you were in the buisness of selling services, one more to sell is a
> no-brainer.
>
> Oh, one other thought would be to strike a deal with an ISP / Hosting
> company and let them handle to hard part, just license the code to
> them.
>
> As Aaron brought up, there are lots of people that can't use
> applications that they don't "trust" for some reason.
> I prefer to use the same tools for my personal life as I do at work.
> However, I can't risk our company data on someone elses server, so I
> have to be able to install a complete seperate copy on the internal
> network at work.
> -Joseph-
>
> On 1/18/06, Aaron Vegh <aaronvegh-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > Hey Sy,
> > Thanks for writing about this; I find your dilemma very interesting!
> > All the more so because I've run into a very similar situation, with
> > what sounds like a very similar application. I wrote about it here
> > recently.
> >
> > This thing called TaskToy (www.tasktoy.com) is currently
> > closed-source, and because it's a to-do application (again, like
> > Backpack), the expectation is that it will be used as one's always-on,
> > always-there application for managing their life. For me anyway, if I
> > can't GUARANTEE that it will always be available to me, then I can't
> > risk using it. Naturally there are plenty of folks who disagree. But
> > on this list anyway, I think you'll find that most people will agree
> > that an open source application is the only way to guarantee that
> > users can rely on it to make it part of their life.
> >
> > For additional irony, I'm beginning to work on my own open source
> > to-do list application, indeed using Rails and Ajax goodness. If you
> > want to go ahead and release it open-source, I would be thrilled! But
> > then again, I'll probably still work on mine since I want to learn
> > Rails. :-)
> >
> > Best of luck!
> > Aaron.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 1/18/06, Sy Ali <sy1234-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > > It's quite off-topic, but there are some people with good brains
> > > lurking about.  Or good lurks braining about.  =p
> > >
> > >
> > > There's this little web application that my company has been working
> > > on for a while.  It really rocks.  It really really rocks.
> > >
> > > We've been using it for some time.  It is the single most powerful
> > > driving force in the way my business runs from day to day.
> > >
> > > It's nearing readyness for public viewing/flaming.  We're just not
> > > sure how to go about this.
> > >
> > > It's one of those funky Ruby/Rails whiz-bang AJAXy apps.  Yes, and
> > > it's yet another todo application.
> > >
> > >
> > > Route 1:
> > > Releasing the use:
> > >
> > > Self-hosting and selling the service has come to mind.  This is what
> > > backpack has done yes?
> > >
> > > Openly hosting applications isn't really our thing, so we've got only
> > > our wits.  Where can I go to learn more about the pitfalls of such a
> > > thing?
> > >
> > > We're thinking of starting by haivng an openly-accssible version of it
> > > which resets itself hourly.
> > >
> > > Then we're thinking about choking off some of the functionality and
> > > making that version openly available.  Sign up with a username and
> > > password, use the thing for life.  It's good marketing/karma and
> > > something that we'd consider.
> > >
> > > Then we're thinking of selling the unthrottled package, including
> > > shunting it off onto a separate sub-server and all that sort of thing.
> > >  Custom hosting with the complete package.
> > >
> > > Dealing with signups, permissions, money flow and that sort of thing
> > > isn't a big deal.. the fear is with keeping a good service flowing,
> > > good uptime.. and dealing with concepts we may never have thought of..
> > > (documentation, technical support, training.. who knows)
> > >
> > >
> > > Route 2:
> > > Releasing the code:
> > >
> > > We've liberally used various open source components.  Pardon me while
> > > I use a little FUD.  So because we've used code which have their own
> > > licensing terms, the application as a whole _may_ find itself
> > > "infected" by the licensing correct?
> > >
> > > Also, some modifications have had to be made to that outsider code
> > > (fixing bugs, adding features, etc).  We still need to arrange to get
> > > a hold of the various authors of the alien code to provide patches.
> > >
> > > My first goal is go get a list built which describes all of the alien
> > > code and to get the licensing terms for each item.
> > >
> > > Assuming all code is GPL, under what circumstances can that GPL code
> > > be bundled with ours if ours is under a different license?  Can that
> > > alien code be referred to as separate modules?  Can it even be shipped
> > > in the same tarball with our app?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Releasing the whole shebang GPL is indeed possible.. but we need to
> > > somehow leverage the "oh my god" aspect.  Bunches of brain and brawn
> > > have gone into it, and it'd be nice to get something out of it.
> > > Either it's released into the wild as a marketing tool or it's held
> > > back somehow for fun and profit by selling only its use.
> > >
> > > Ideas?  I'm sure lots of other people have run into the same sort of
> > > dillema.  I'm not sure where to go to get those experiences.
> > >
> > > Really this application isn't such a big deal to us.  We made it
> > > because we had a BIG itch to scratch.  It's growing up quickly and so
> > > it'd be nice to start dreaming of its future.
> > >
> > > Frankly, I'm leaning towards hosting it for people to try / use for
> > > free, accepting donations to cover the serving costs, GPLing the lot
> > > of it and accepting/assembling a public development team to work on it
> > > on some open source developer site.
> > >
> > >
> > > Comments welcome..
> > > --
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