FROM AN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE MODEL TO AN OPEN

BUSINESS MODEL

Jeroen Ticheler

LET ME TAKE YOU ON MY PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT PATH

• Raised in a family of Tropical Agriculture engineers (Not entrepreneurs)

• Lived in Africa for much of my youth

• Mr Know It All

• Bright but socially not so competent

• Educated Tropical Forester

• Questioning the world as it is

• Raised in a family of Tropical Agriculture engineers. (Forestry, Plant diseases, Development Aid). Not entrepreneurs.• Lived in Africa for much of my youth. Going out with my stepfather, fishing, carpentry. Strong headed, bright but socially not so competent Mr Know It All• Educated as Tropical Forester, specialized in GIS and RS• Questioning sustainability of Development Aid, Government involvement. Upset about the waste of resources in public funded agencies.

EVOLUTION OF A FREE AND OPEN SOURCE

SOFTWARE PROJECT

GEOSPATIAL DATA IS EVERYWHERE, BUT I CAN’T FIND IT

We need to organize our spatial data

The problem

DEVELOP THE WORLDS BEST GEOSPATIAL CATALOG SOFTWARE

(The equivalent of the Apache HTTPD web server)

The goal

THE START

GeoNetwork started small Much effort from myself to reach the goal

WHAT DO WE NEED?• A project we can relate to

• Sustainability & Stability

• Responsive developers / community

• Ongoing ability to incorporate new code contributions

• Formal governance (Everyone understands how the project works)

• Atmosphere of fairness (de facto form of governance)

- Sustainability (more than 4 years)

FIRST STAGE:BENEVOLANT DICTATOR

MY ROLE

• Keep focus

• Make sure everybody feels welcome

• Understand that errors will be made

• More brains make less errors

• Build a strong brand

• Keep focus and avoid deviation. • Make sure everybody feels welcome, free to contribute and recognized.• Understand that errors will be made, also by myself. • More brains make less errors. • Experience is important• Experience can hinder necessary change• Build a strong brand

Welcoming outside contributions, helping out those that are new,

collaborate with potential new developers

Grow the community

SECOND STAGE: CONSENSUS BASED DEMOCRACY

• Formalize governance

• Establish PSC (Project Steering Committee)

• Everybody is equal

• OSGeo incubation

The community has become larger More people depend on the software produced => PSC established. Everybody is equalConsensus based democracy: more evolutionarily stable

THE PSC DECIDES

• What to develop

• What to remove

• What to improve

• How to share the work

• Who to add as committer or PSC member

COPYRIGHT

• Assigned to one party (FAO-UN)

• Prevent one developer causing trouble for the whole community

This is not about the license! The license is GPL.

CURRENT STATE

• I moved out of most of the decision making

• The group makes better decisions

• The project grows faster

• My role now is to facilitate, promote and provide stability

Eventually I moved out of most of the decision making. The group can make the best decisions to make the project grow faster. My role is reduced to facilitate developers, promote the project and provide stability (by just being there).

MY GOALS AND INTERESTS DID NOT CHANGE

• Make the worlds best geospatial catalog software

• Create a healthy GeoNetwork community

My goals and interests did not change though: - Fast and innovative development help to develop the worlds best geospatial catalog software. - Good software attracts more users, making the community grow, making contributions grow and making the software stable and sustainable. Other contributors have exactly the same interest.

Evolution of an open business

GEONETWORK IS EVERYWHERE, BUT I CAN’T FIND A VENDORI have to provide professional services to users

The problem

CREATE THE WORLD’S BEST COMPANY TO PROVIDE SERVICES

AROUND SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURES

(The equivalent of Red Hat for Linux)

The goal

THE START

GeoCat started small Much effort from myself to reach the goal

WHAT DO EMPLOYEES NEED?• A company they can relate to

• Sustainability & Stability

• Ongoing personal and professional growth

• Formal governance (Everyone understands how the company works)

• Atmosphere of fairness (de facto form of governance)

FIRST STAGE:BENEVOLANT DICTATOR

MY ROLE

• Keep focus

• Make sure everybody feels welcome

• Understand that errors will be made

• More brains make less errors

• Build a strong brand

Welcoming new partnerships, helping out those that are new in GeoCat, collaborate with potential new employees

Grow the company

SECOND STAGE: CONSENSUS BASED DEMOCRACY

• Formalize governance

• The whole Team is the PSC

• Everybody is equal

The company has become larger and more people depend on the revenue that is generatedFormalize the governance => establish a PSC (All employees are the PSC). Everybody is equal. Consensus based democracy: more evolutionarily stable.

THE TEAM DECIDES

• Where to invest

• Where to cut

• What to save

• How to share profit

• Who to hire

The team decides, within the context of the formalized governance

OWNERSHIP (THINK COPYRIGHT)

• Is held by one party (Me in this case)

• Prevent one employee (shareholder) to cause trouble for the whole company

CURRENT STATE

• I am moving out of most of the decision making

• The group makes better decisions

• The company grows faster

• My role now is to facilitate, promote and provide stability

A new lead comes in a) someone is enthusiastic about the lead and decides to pursue it. - Form a team of experts required to implement the project (Employees can be asked to join or can offer to participate). b) nobody is enthusiastic about the lead. We decide not to pursue it. Over time my role in decision making becomes less relevant. The group can make the best decisions to make the company grow faster. My role is reduced to facilitate my colleagues, promote the company and provide stability. My weak points will hopefully not hinder growth of the company. My strong points can be exploited better by my colleagues. We will all feel better and as a result do a better job.

MY GOALS AND INTERESTS DID NOT CHANGE

• Make the worlds best SDI service company

• Create a healthy company

My interests did not change though: - Fast and innovative development help to create the worlds best company to provide services around Spatial Data Infrastructures. - A good company attracts more clients, making the client base grow, making revenue grow and making the company stable and sustainable.My colleagues have exactly the same interest.

The result is a great company and team

My life seems to be a repetitive cycle. Ingredients change, the basic pattern is the same while I'm learning how to improve the implementation

CHALLENGES• Can we truly make it work?

• Make the best use of individual capacities

• Sharing work ánd profit

• Acknowledge that releasing (or receiving!) control and power can be a challenge (even scary / frightening)

• Be confident that giving comes back

Can we make this work? Answer: I'm convinced we can.

THANK YOU