Monetizing Open Technology and Content

• provide support
• advertising is difficult (though WikiHow does it!)
• premium content
• improved content (more links, references, etc)?
• micropayments
• "species diversity" is important! The value of a product is how difficult it is to replace it
• you can make a living, but probably won't become a millionaire :(
• for content: can we have an "information barter economy"?
• patron system

Making money from open-source software

Lots of ways to do it - diversification is key

• getting paid to fix bugs and add features (= awesome)
• customization
• setup
• support
• hosting
• enterprise integration
• training
• closed-source, for-sale plugins
• dual license
• "certified version" (bug fixes guaranteed)
• re-packaging as software for profit (defends on license - not GPL)
• selling documentation and training materials
• selling merchandise
• hosted add-on services (like WordPress Akismet)

Other thoughts about open-source software

• mentoring new developers is important
• salaries can be lower, because quality of life is higher
• even proprietary software probably won't make you super-rich! :((

Making money from open-source content

• advertising - targeted advertising (based on content) is great!
• freemium
  • examples: eliminate advertising, make reading easier, make printing easier, additional content, "pay for last chapter", higher quality (for audio/video)
• donations/fundraising drives
  • services exist to ensure that author's claims of income are accurate
  • charge the authors
• merchandise - includes hard-copy versions of content
• sponsorship of content
• access to author(s), work-in-progress
• for fiction - inclusion w/ in content (naming of characters, product placement)
• personalized prints
• student tuitions/grants (universities are big generators of open content)

Other thoughts about open-source content

• volunteer contributors can get subscriber status (no ads)

How to convince people/companies to make their content open (published via Creative Commons and the like)?

• Quorum's founders were thinking they would make it open content but didn't... why? Because initially they had no terms of use, and no one cared
  • Yeah, a legal friend of mine was saying that people don't understand the copyright situation
• Instructable (?)
• Radiohead's "pay as much as you like" album, "In Rainbows"
  • but.. particular situation
  • a way of "sticking it to the man"
  • they already had "fans"
• see also: Sita sings the blues

Attendees

Add your name to this list:

• Ben Kovitz
• Dave Crosby