I just gathered from Time Magazine that $5.9 million dollars was the amount of money British people throw into wishing wells every year.  Practically 1 in 5 people regularly throw coins….

As a partner of Microsoft, I ocassionally get into debates about open source.

I must say that Open Source as a movement has been successful, and there are circumstances and applications in which using Open Source may make a lot of sense, but as a technology provider, what is also always in my mind is that — does it also make sense to build a business on top of offering services for Open Source Technologies?

It could - but the good and bad thing about it is that you don’t own the technology, so even if you work hard to build adoption, you are not always the one that benefits or gets the rewards.

With the recent issues at Red Hat, what do you think?  What’s the best business model to adopt?

White Hats, Black Hats - Forbes.com

Red Hat earned $80 million on $278 million in revenue in its last fiscal year (ended Feb. 28), but the outlook for future profitability is not good. Shares have plunged 48% from earlier this year, to $17, wiping out $3 billion in market value. Even after the drop, Goldman Sachs rates Red Hat a sell. “I’m concerned about the sustainability of their business,” analyst Richard Sherlund says. Sands Capital Management, Red Hat’s third-largest shareholder, has reduced its stake from 10% to less than 5%.

It does seem that keywords are getting more expensive,  and while people still click away, few of those who click actually buy something.

The Pay-Too-Much-Per-Click Model - Forbes.com

Experts estimate that if just 2% of visitors actually buy something, you’re doing fabulously. So it can actually take quite a few clicks before you actually generate any revenue from your outlay on keywords.

Meanwhile, keywords are getting more and more expensive. Keywords that used to cost pennies per click now cost dollars per click. And the more popular the keyword, the more you pay. It’s not unusual for some of the most sought-after keywords to cost upward of $10 per click. You’d have to generate a lot of sales to justify that kind of expenditure. Apparently, some big companies think it’s worth it, but many small ones are getting priced out of the market.