Free Software/Open Source code is by definition Free, but writing it requires heavy competencies. There are many ways (Business Models) to finance these developments. Some of them include mixing Open Source code with Proprietary code. Regularly developers that started with Open Source, move to proprietary or Open Core business models. Based on 10 years of experience in producing Open Source Code with the company XWiki SAS, and on analysis on how other companies have evolved their business models and how it impacted their open source contributions, this talk proposes to review these methods in the light of the sustainable financing of Open Source Code: in which ways can one write FLOSS code for the long term. What are good practices from all participants to the FLOSS eco-system which can lead to more Open Source code production and better Open Source products.

2. Sustainable Financing of Open
Source -­ an insider's view
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3. Agenda
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About me and XWiki
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The objective
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Usual Open Source business models
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Some problems
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Novel business models
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XWiki's approach
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What could the community do ?
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4. me
10 years running XWiki
Passionate about Open Source
Technical innovation
Openness needed for more
equality
XWiki
Collaborative platform
Competitive market
Innovative (not a me too)
LGPL Licence
100% Open Source
1,3M revenue / year (2014)
About me and XWiki
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5. The objective
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Creating Open Source
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Building a competitive solution
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Being an healthy Business
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Sustainable in the long term
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6. Usual business models
Foundations: Multiple Companies collaborating on core, differentiate on
binaries and distributions (linux, android, eclipse, drupal)
Singular: One Company mainly drives the software, differentiate with add-­ons
Double licensing
Open Core
Service: Companies collaborate doing services on Open Source software.
"Take the Money and run" (sell to investors).
Sometimes the models are mixed
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7. Is it sustainable ?
Foundations: yes but works only for very large projects, smaller projects lack
driving
Singular: many companies use investors, close significant part of products
We get code but no community
Service: contributions can be very low, product lacks driving
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8. The investors issue
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Investors want more control (monetization)
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Projects are open core, or double licensed
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Contributors don't have control
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Uncertainty hinders contribution
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Example: MySQL -­> forked as a smaller company
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9. The "Fully Open Source" issue
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Users like "free", would like everything free
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Services scale less
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Partners do not contribute enough
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Prisoner's dilemma
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Tougher to be a healthy business
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10. Novel business models: Moodle HQ
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Controls the brand and the distribution
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Certifies partners and licenses the brand
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Partners give 10% of their revenue
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60 partners
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11. Novel business models: Piwik
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Separate R&D from Service company using the brand
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R&D done in New Zealand
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Cloud and Support services run from Poland
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Piwik.com pays fees to Piwik.org
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12. XWiki's Approach
Commitment to Open Source
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We want to produce a lot of Open Source code
Sells Services and Support
50% more cost for services for clients without "support contracts"
Cloud offer (tough)
Promises reversibility (you can have the best tool without us)
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13. XWiki's Approach: how did we finance ?
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Margin of services
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Research projects
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Clients paying new features
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Contributions
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14. Models we look at
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XWiki Collaboration Suite package distribution
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App Store monetization
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Interested in the Moodle model
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Tougher license
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Crowdfunding
Challenge: competition from companies not contributing
Challenge: maximum distribution vs monetization
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15. What could the community do ?
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Users look at who does R&D when buying services
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More collaboration between companies to fund R&D
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More contributors from service companies
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Commitment to Open Source from Singular projects (Manifestos)
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How to punish commercial "free-­riders" ?
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Way to differentiate "good players" (Labels ?)
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More projects using Moodle's model ?
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16. Q&A
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17. Contact
Ludovic Dubost
ludovic@xwiki.com
skype: ldubost
http://xwiki.org
http://xwiki.com
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