At the turn of the century, generating positive interest in free and open source software was an uphill battle. These days FOSS practically runs the enterprise and is the subject of many academic studies, including one by Concordia University’s Chitu Okoli.
The FOSS Force Video Interview
We’re talking with Professor Chitu Okoli, an Associate Professor at Concordia University in Montréal, because he recently co-wrote a paper titled Business Models for Free and Open Source Software. This is not a journalist’s 2,000 word article, but 74 pages of rigorous academic study.
Professor Okoli’s paper is the sort of thing you read if you are serious about either starting or working for a company that produces, distributes or uses FOSS. Why one that just uses FOSS? Because you want to make sure your your vendors and support contractors have business models that will allow them to (corporately) live long and prosper — as we hope you do, yourself, whether you are a developer, bug-fixer, distributor or user of free and open source software or just an interested outsider thinking about dipping your toe into the FOSS stakeholder pool.
And if you’re in that last category, I say, “Come on in, the water’s fine.”
Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.
please consider improving the audio in future videos. the host’s voice may need post processing and the guest probably should be asked to use a headset mic. Bad audio makes it intolerable to watch for me. thanks.