Guest post by Peter Froberg, www.freemium.eu.

Most readers of this blog will probably be convinced about the merits of Open Source software, as with the use of open and free principles for other forms of content. This can be seen in the Creative Commons (CC) licence and the like.

A lot of different companies have shown that you can make a profit from developing FOSS. People like Sandro can help them market their products and help create a sustainable business based on FOSS.

Business models based on a CC licenced work are few and far between. Yet it is possible to create a financially sustainable business based on open content. If more companies profit from the huge potential in open content, it would become increasingly pervasive; and would be promoted both by those who believe in the thoughts/ideas behind and those who see it as a means for larger profits. The result would be that far more free and open knowledge and culture would be available to everybody.

One way of making money from openly available knowledge and culture is through a business model called freemium. It consists of giving a product away for free, in order to make money from the sale of complimentary products.

A great example of this business model is www.flatworldknowledge.com that produces CC licenced free college textbooks. Students can download the textbooks for free. The company makes a profit from selling printed books and selling study aids.

So let’s start showing people that open can be a great alternative, both in terms of principles as well as profit.

What do you think? Will this be the future?

The dates for the OSBF workshops on Open Source sales and marketing are now available online.

I’ll kick off the series of workshops together with Richard Seibt, former CEO SUSE, at February 18th in Nuremberg, Germany. From 10-13, I will introduce marketing Open Source software. Richard will talk about Open Source business models from 14-17.

The workshops will be in German and there will be enough time for discussions with participants.

OSBF members will not pay for attending the presentations, non-members will be charged EUR 150. Find more info on how to register for the workshops at the OSBF Web site.

I am a big fan of Clay Shirky. He presented “It’s not information overload. It’s filture failure.” at Web 2.0 Expo NY last year – a fabulous speech you should not miss:

Shirky’s talk made Matt Asay think about how filture failure applies to Open Source which again made me realize just how true Shirky’s call for a “mental shift” in organizations applies to companies switching from a proprietary to an Open Source business model.

Such companies face a cultural change related to what Shirky calls “the fight about information flows and access to it”. The reason being that “the Internet allows large systems that are freerider-tolerant” in contrast to the offline-world where “small groups defend theirselves against freeriders”. Proprietary companies is what I’d call a “small group” regarding their mentality, no matter how many employees they actually have. Proprietary software vendors constantly strive to defend themselves against freeriders e.g. with patents and non-permissive licenses. Their partner companies benefit from being a partner because they have better access to information provided by the proprietary ISV.

Now think of a proprietary company leaning towards a FOSS business model, opening up their code and consequently also their communications. This means a lot of change, because communicating about Open Source products is essentially about communicating on the Web, where – as Shirky pointed out – large systems can evolve that are freerider-tolerant. And of course every Open Source vendor wants to have a large community. So, suddenly the gates are open and information is supposed to flow much more freely between the former proprietary software vendor and its community, which just as well includes partner companies.

In such a situation, communication tactics of employees and partner companies will have to change dramatically to sustain a successful Open Source business environment.

My article published in German PHP Magazine is now available online: Vermarktung von PHP-Software – Kunden gewinnen auf die offene Art.

InitMarketing helped Magnolia launch the new Magnolia On Air at Gilbane Boston Conference 2008. Magnolia On Air is a content management solution for the broadcast media built on top of Magnolia Enterprise Edition.

Boris Kraft, CTO Magnolia, talking to a conference participant in front of the Magnolia booth.

I am also here in Boston, enjoying the conference and meeting lots of people from the OSS CMS space.

Next week, Thursday, I will present in Istanbul, Turkey on “Does Open Source Software Needs Marketing? Why and How”.

Here’s further information from the invitation letter:

We would like to see you among us for the Open Source Marketing seminar
jointly organized by TUBITAK UEKAE and IBM-Bilgi Center for Advanced Studies,
to take place on November 27th at 13:00 in Istanbul Bilgi University
Dolapdere Campus.

The seminar will be delivered by Sandro Groganz, the founder of and consultant
for the open source marketing firm InitMarketing. Detailed info regarding the
seminar is provided below.

Date: November 27, 2008 Thursday
Time: 13:00
Plave: Istanbul Bilgi University Dolapdere Campus

Thank you in advance.
Best regards
Pardus Project // TÜBİTAK UEKAE

Does Open Source Software Needs Marketing? Why and How

The market share of Open Source software will double within the next four
years. More and more new companies provide Open Source products right from
the start and established players release their source code under an OSS
license.

These days, everyone knows that Open Source is a viable business model – but
how does one successfully market an Open Source product? A download link
alone will not suffice. It rather needs a strategy combinin traditional
marketing with community relations and social media marketing.

This presentation will showcase examples from the Open Source domain and
provide hands-on advice about how to unfold a vital Open Source ecosystem
where geeks and customers alike contribute to value creation.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Thanks to Erkan Tekman of Pardus fame for organizing it.

I very much enjoyed the video interview conducted with Andrew Rodaway, Director of Marketing, Canonical at OSiM.

In that interview, Andrew says:

“A lot of money will come into the open-source movement over the next few years and that drives the marketing agenda.”

He is certainly very right, because at InitMarketing, we experience steady and growing demand for our Open Source marketing services. Although the global economy isn’t in good shape, our customers invest in marketing their Open Source products more than ever.

It really seems that Open Source is doing good in a time of recession and every marketing dollar invested by Open Source vendors in a time where proprietary vendors struggle during an economic downturn is wisely spent because it gets them ahead of proprietary competition.

Watch the interview with Andrew Rodaway about marketing Canonical and Ubuntu at InitMarketing.tv.

I just published a video interview with Stormy which I recorded at OSiM in Berlin.

A video interview with Boris Kraft, CTO Magnolia, the Simple Open Source Content Management System, just got published on InitMarketing.tv. Boris discusses various aspects of marketing Magnolia.

Here’s an excerpt of the part I find most interesting:

Question: You’re building up the Magnolia office in New York. Is there a difference you realized between how to market your open source product in Europe compared to the US?

Boris Kraft: I think there are many differences. The expectations are different in the US, there are all these images we have in our heads about how the US economy works, about how the consumers are, and a lot of that is actually true. It’s much more hype, marketing is very very important, and the whole process is very fast, so it’s much more hype than substance – that’s my experience so far. So, coming from an European country – like Magnolia International sitting in Switzerland – this is a part where we typically have a very thoughtful way of doing things. We like to produce quality, and it takes longer, this is very difficult for us to deal with: To have this “Swiss mind set” and come to the US and basically clash with the “US mind set”. I kind of have to be there and say “we are the best, we are the greatest, we have everything tomorrow” whereas here we would say “yes, well, actually we can do this, yes” – you know, it’s a very different perception…

You can watch the interview highlights (4:44), the full interview (12:38), or read the transcript of the full interview.

InitMarketing.tv has just been launched! This is where InitMarketing will publish video interviews with key figures about marketing Open Source software. Currently, there are three interviews available:

• Bruce Perens, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative
• Florian Effenberger, Co-lead OpenOffice.org Marketing Project
• Oliver Nachtrab, former Product Manager, SUSE, Open-Xchange

More interviews will be published regularly, such as with Andrew Rodaway (Director of Marketing, Canonical), Fabrizio Capobianco (CEO, Funambol), Shane Martin Coughlan (FTF Coordinator, Free Software Foundation Europe), Stormy Peters (Executive Director, Gnome Foundation), Boris Kraft (CTO, Magnolia), and more.

Thanks to all interviewees for great insights and also to Wirawan Harianto for his design work!

Watch the video interviews about Open Source marketing.