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OT: Project Future

by Beatnik (Parson)
on Nov 22, 2016 at 22:41 UTC ( [id://1176369]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Beatnik has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

The past few weeks, I've been working on a project with some potential. The project interfaces with higher-end platforms so the target audience would be typically larger organisations and companies. Although I'm far from close to an initial release, I'm hoping this will take off and get some customerbase. If I manage to release this, I'm leaning more towards a mixed free / commercial (something similar like Splunk does with the Community / Enterprise model). Anyone ever pursue a similar path? Any advice? I'll be looking at setting up a company if/when I release.


Greetz
Beatnik
... I'm belgian but I don't play one on TV.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: OT: Project Future
by stevieb (Canon) on Nov 22, 2016 at 22:52 UTC

    I'm a huge advocate for free ('free' as in Perl), but also work on commercial software at work.

    Instead of having the code half/half license, another option may be to open source (ie. CPAN) the code, and then sell integration/deployment/support services.

    That way, you provide yourself/crew with an income, while reaping the potential benefits of having users of your code provide you with patches, PRs etc

    I mean, if it's open source, on a services engagement, you can learn about how your software is being deployed and used, and if the client can code, you could help them (another service: custom coding), then request you add their code back to the base product.

      A lot of the integration code I wrote has been released on CPAN already, even before I started with the actual project. I have at least 2 more modules to add. I've also added them to my github repo. If the project doesn't materialise, due to lack of time or short-term potential (for me), I will release it as open-source and see where it goes from there. My biggest concern is more with building a name, brand, customer base, support, all the legalese that comes into play too.


      Greetz
      Beatnik
      ... I'm belgian but I don't play one on TV.
Re: OT: Project Future
by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Nov 23, 2016 at 17:48 UTC

    Always tricky to find the right place for a given codebase but in general I think the completely free software + consulting + pay for new features and enhancements works out well if the software is something others will use. You can even build it up into conferences and training. Make sure you have public bug tracking so you can rope others in to ”work for you.”

    Good luck!

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