This document discusses the various business models and monetization strategies for open source projects, emphasizing the importance of selecting the right approach and licensing. It outlines methods such as delivering revenue-bearing services, providing technical support, utilizing commercial licensing, and engaging with the community. The document highlights the significance of strategic objectives, stakeholder buy-in, and the need for effective communication in the successful implementation of open source projects.

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Choisir le bon business model et la
bonne licence pour la survie de son
projet open source
Gilles Gravier
Director, Senior Advisor – Open Source / Blockchain
20211110 – Open Source Experience – Paris
Note: En français ou anglais suivant l’audience

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Figures based on Q3 2020-21 for Global IT Services business
25+ Foundations and communities
20,000+ Open source developers
2500+ Internal open source community
128th Ranked contributor to Kubernetes out
of top 1000, highest ranked global
systems integrator
Board of Directors, Chair of Open Source Readiness SIG,
Co-author “Open Source in Financial services”
Project lead with
Capital One
About me and Wipro
Open Chain System
Integrator Partner

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Repeat after me:
First and foremost
There is no such thing
as an open source
business model!
Ca, c’est fait…

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Leveraging Open Source software (OSS)
Business Strategies
Building with OSS
Your Product
or Service
Open Source
Building OSS
Open Source
Building on OSS
Open Source
Your
Business
Open Source
Your Product
or Service
Building for OSS
Your Product
or Service

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Deliver a revenue-bearing service using OSS
Monetization tactics
Deliver a Service
• AWS is implemented primarily with OSS and OSS-as-a-
Service
• Necessary to run Linux, Kubernetes, etc. workloads
• Fast growing component of Amazon revenue stream
• High quality internet streaming is THE delivery vehicle
• Nearly all software published as OSS
• Facilitates uptake, optimization by web carriers

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Garner services revenue for technical support / integration of OSS
Monetization tactics
Sell services and support
• Offers technical support for top OSS packages
• Also offers other OSS and non-OSS related services
• Deliver custom solutions using OSS components
• Also integrate non-OSS related services

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Reduce cost of OSS components in system products
Monetization tactics
Sell hardware
• Use for OS and network components of most products
• Linux integration essential for many products
• Drive OSS initiatives to lead product compatibility
• Use for OS in many products
• Build on Android for market compatibility
• Drive some OSS initiatives to build ecosystem

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Garner revenue for commercial re-distribution rights
Monetization tactics
Dual licensing
• Server and Tools licensed under AGPLv3.0 (now SSPL)
• Requires sharing any enhancements (even SaaS)
• Anti-tivoization conditions embedded use
• Most commercial users will prefer to pay for a more
commercially compatible license
• Also garner revenue from supported product packages

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Garner revenue from enhanced commercial upgrades
Monetization tactics
Open source with commercial upgrades
• Primary sponsor for Hadoop OSS project
• Offer commercial products with OSS + enhancements
• Creators of Apache Kafka OSS project
• Offer Enterprise version with ops and admin tools

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Sell product packages with support and maintenance
Monetization tactics
Packaged open source software
• Create and maintain a curated distribution of Linux
• Sell RHEL – branded, supported and maintained
• Apply similar models with OpenStack, OpenShift, Ansible,
Cloud Forms, etc.
• Support and build around standard distributions of
Hadoop, Apache Kafka, etc.

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No direct monetization of OSS – Catalyse market change
Monetization tactics
Strategic objectives
• Drive DevOps platform to share costs and increase
developer retention and recruitment (Hygieia)
• Android to dominate mobile devices – sell services
• Kubernetes to drive container apps to their cloud
• Attract all important OSS workloads to Azure
• Make all of their products Azure and cloud compatible

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And a real VC with open source investment experience: Polytech Ventures / SCALA
A Perspective On Investors
Banks
• As long as they make their targets limiting the risk
• Don’t understand you (and don’t really care)
Venture Capital
• In it to win it (big)
• Because banks don’t understand your project
• They might want to get involved
• They can bring smart money
Crowd Sourcing
• Get your customers involved
• Reward them for their involvement
• Will want to see the product
• Some controls
ICO/Tokens/Crypto-blah-blah
• Buzzword compliant
• When VCs don’t understand your project
• Neither do your investors!
• No constraints (nor regulations)
• Use at your own risk
• https://uetoken.com/
The first 20 million…

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Choosing an appropriate license
Defining Open Source
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/
An open source license gives you permission
in advance to innovate via using, studying,
improving and sharing the code but also
brings obligations to the developer making
use of it in their project.
http://choosealicense.com/

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For the sake of consistency
Defining Open Source
One definition to rule them all
1. Free Redistribution of Source Code
2. Source Code Available
3. Allows Derived Works
4. Allows Integrity of Author's Source Code
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
7. Distribution of License with Code
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/

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What do you want your users and downstream developers to do with your code?
Defining Open Source License Categories
Choose wisely
Non-Reciprocal
(non-copyleft)
➢ “Attribution” licenses
➢ Fewest requirements,
unrestricted scope of use.
➢ Unrestricted development
of derived works
➢ Examples:
➢ Apache: Android,
Tomcat
➢ BSD: Sudo, FreeBSD
➢ ISC: Ripple
File-Level Reciprocal
(weak copyleft)
➢ Community fostering licenses
➢ Files derived from common
files must be shared with the
commons.
➢ Other derived works may be
licensed in any manner.
➢ Examples:
➢ MPL: Mozilla,
LibreOffice 4.0 and
above
➢ LGPL: LibreOffice 3.6
and before
Project-Level Reciprocal
(strong copyleft)
➢ Project fostering licenses
➢ Most requirements: seeks to
propagate open source.
➢ All work (including derived works)
must be shared with the
commons.
➢ Examples:
➢ GPL: Linux
➢ AGPL : Funambol
➢ CERN OHL : Easy Φ

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Strategy first!
And last….
• Goals & Benefits – corporate and stakeholder-specific
• Challenges – change, compliance, security, competition
Basis
• Technology – what components/functionality from where
• Monetization – what blend of tactics to realize revenue
• License – in-licensing analysis and out-licensing choices
• Community – engaging developers, users, coupled OSS projects
• Ecosystem – engaging customers, partners, competitors
• Support – how to adequately support community, ecosystem
members and customers
• Communication – how to create awareness and motivate
engagement
• Resources – financial and human
• Implementation – how to realize the goals and benefits
Strategy dimensions
Successful Implementation depends upon buy-in by key stakeholders
Let’s put it all together

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Gilles Gravier
Director, Senior Advisor – Open Source / Blockchain
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillesgravier
https://twitter.com/gravax
Thank you
https://medium.com/@gravax
https://tinyurl.com/GillesYT