I have just published a book – fulfilling a life long dream to be an author. I have always love to write, and I have actually written for Sunstar for 14 years, and nearing my 800th article in the paper. I have also done thousands of writeups in my blog, in various forums, and social networks, and I probably am nearing my 500,000th piece of email after more than 20 years of computers.
No, I send less SMS, and I’m sure more people will beat me on that, but I’m sure in the sheer volume of emails and articles, I am somewhere near the top.
So it did take a long time for me to write a book, but there is another surprise. After 20 years of serious writing, my first book is a business comic book. It is 72 pages of humor – some actually experienced, some coming out of my creative imagination.
But why am I talking about it? Because I am open sourcing the book.
Now what does it mean? Increasingly, people have asked me about what is open source software. There are many components of open source software, but the most obvious is that it is free.
Why free? Some people want to share. But most important is to understand that open source is not a religion fighting some evil enemy, but simply a business model that is a weapon to gain market share.
Indeed why free? Because it is my first attempt at writing a book. Because I am not well known as a comic strip writer. Because there are already more players in the market with more experience, and more fame than I do. If I sell the book like everybody else, nobody would buy my book, since others are better known.
So the only way I could make a splash in the market is to give it away – free. Then you are able to disrupt something in the system, and there is an opportunity for people to look at your creation. And if they like it, they will continue to notice you, until you establish some market share.
So, open source is really a marketing tool to make a splash. Because you cannot advertise your way in, you create awareness by not having to spend for advertising, but get people interested because it is free.
There are thousands of people who give away their photos, their songs, their articles, and their software for free on the internet. This is specially true in works that can be easily digitized, and the cost of replication is almost free, so you can afford to give away free downloads to 100,000 people, and it would hardly cost you any amount – which is more cost effective than advertising your way to be noticed by 100,000 people.
Of course, people will benefit by getting the freebies, but note that again, the decision to give it away is not for altruistic purposes, but for a reason – and that reason of course has to do with the way that the company or individual expects that sooner or later, it will be able to benefit in return.
YouTube gives the space for free, and they sell the advertising space to advertisers. Yahoo gives you free news, and free email, and in return, you get advertisements as you read your mail. That is nothing new. For over 50 years, we listen to radio or watch TV for free, sponsored by advertising.
So there are some long standing free software – the more successful now are Linux, MySQL, SugarCRM, Wordpress and others. But many of them ( the successful ones) have paid components – the business of course soon works that you will get something for free, and as you continue to use it, some other things like advanced features, tech support, or service will have to be paid. Open source allowed them to gain market share, and now they have a business around it.
So again, there is no need to philosophize a lot about it. If you go to my site, www.itsngenius.net you will find out, many of my toons are available for free. The e-book is available for free download. But that is only because if you like it, you can choose to buy the book – which I am selling.