Advice for starting a new project?

[Alex Beamish]

On 9/17/07, Kareem Shehata <kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
>  Hey everyone,
>
>
>
> I've had an idea in my head (and on paper, er… notepad) for about a year
> now for what could turn into an open source project.  Truth be told, I know
> the shape of what I want to make, but I have no idea how to actually do it:
> FOSS, start a small company and build it proprietary, design the
> architecture and then license it, or look at academic forums.  I'm leaning
> towards FOSS because I think it'll fit the project as well as my personal
> beliefs and values, but I have no idea what it takes to go down that road.
>  So I thought I'd check here and see if anyone has tried this road and can
> give any advice, or know of someone I should talk with.  I'm thinking of
> heading to Waterloo to chat with Roger Dingledine, since the project has
> similarities to his.  Anyone in the Toronto area who has started or is
> running a FOSS project?
>
>
>
> BTW: I'd love nothing better than to put out all of the details on the
> idea, but at this point the idea of "intellectual property" scares the crap
> out of me.  What if some unscrupulous company takes the idea, makes a
> prototype, and patents it?  So, for the moment I won't talk details (and in
> return I'm not asking for any kind of commitments from anyone), but any and
> all advice would be appreciated.
>

It sounds like you have two questions, 1) How do I start my project, and 2)
How do I make money from it?

As far as 1) goes, pare the original idea down to the least amount of
functionality that makes sense, and build that. There's no point in starting
to build a Cadillac when a pickup truck will do the job -- for now. Once you
have something out there, you add all of the extra stuff that you imagined
when you started doing the design. Keep it modular; use version control; and
develop using tests.

For 2), you can either make your code proprietary and sell just the binary,
or you can make it open source, and sell configuration, development and
support services. Keep in mind that even if you release something as FOSS,
you can also retain the copyright.

And the advantage of going open source is that other developers might be
interested in developing and supporting your code. That spreads the load,
and means a higher profile and more market coverage for your package.

Good luck!

-- 
Alex Beamish
Toronto, Ontario
aka talexb
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