Innovation in Software

In the last few weeks, as I’ve been firming up ideas for cashflow around Vagueware, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not entirely right to suggest this is about “Open Source Software” (OSS for short) and how it is delivered. Specifically, I need to drop that middle word.

Open Software is more than just source code. It’s about the design, documentation, support, and improvement of the product. It’s about saying “we own this” instead of saying “I own this, but you can use it”. I’m trying to work out ways of being able to make that mean something real, and for there to still be a cash-flow at the end of it all.

The services model is definitely one way forward, but I’ve also been thinking about an idea mentioned a few months ago where I allow sponsorship of features, documentation or other parts of projects at a small level.

It may be that the feature set I come up with for a project is all well and good for 99% of people, but if there was something missing for the other 1%, that group (or individual, even) could put some money in the pot to encourage its development. It might only be $10, but it’s $10 in the pot. Six months later somebody else comes along and decides they really need that feature too, and they add $50. We now have $60 in the pot, and if the feature is something that can be bitten off in less than an hour, it makes economic sense to just get it done. Of course other features might need thousands to make them economic, but allowing for lots of small donation, it’s more likely those features will get funded.

The idea of a code bounty is not new or original, but I’m wondering how best to structure it from day one and whether the bounties should be claimable by Vagueware alone, or whether to open it up to other developers and if by doing so I would be changing what my company is fundamentally about.

I really get a gut feeling that where I’m heading with this is new territory in some way, but that I’ve seen all the components elsewhere. Whenever I think about whether this is going to work – if I’m going to be able to make a living from this – I start getting a sick feeling in my stomach, and that’s how I know it’s worth trying.