Latest News from Nicholas Herring

SugarCRM - A Sweet Mix of Commercial and Open Source

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:00:00 EST

I've always wondered where the word 'oxymoron' came from. What does 'oxy' have to do with 'moron'? What about the words 'commercial' and 'open source'; do these words form an oxymoron when combined in one phrase?

The Open Source Venture Capital Universe

Mon, 01 May 2006 08:00:00 EDT

A rollercoaster - as trite as that image may be - is the right analogy for venture capital investing in open source companies. And what a long, strange trip it's been.

Open Content

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:00:00 EST

The beginning of a new year is a good time to sit back and reflect. Where is the open source movement going? What is the next frontier? In 2005, we explored the business models of the open source movement. We almost got through the entire list, though we still need to finish a column on the software-as-a-service model and its poster children, Webex and Google.

Linux.SYS-CON.com: The Conversion Model

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:00:00 EST

The other day my 16-year-old daughter came down the stairs in tears. She was holding the new version of the Scholastic Attitude Test and complaining that it was unfair.

Open Source Business Models Examined

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:30:00 EST

At LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, it occurred to me that I had overlooked a very important Open Source business model, the Membership Model. Confronted by a keynote speech by Stuart Cohen, the leader of the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) (www.osdl.org), it became clear that I had jumped into the Advertising and Conversion Models too quickly and had to back up and deal with the membership phenomenon.

Open Source Conversion Model

Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:15:00 EST

Looking at the open source software industry from the outside, it's often difficult to tell what is really going on. To use a string of clichés, it is hard to peel back the onion, to look behind the curtain, to perceive 'Das Ding an sich' (German for the 'thing-in-itself'; an idea made famous by the last Enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant).