[consulting] Is this list dead?

[Morbus Iff]

> He doesn't understand the correct business model which corresponds to 
> His proprietary modules will cost more than he will ever make, because 
> the cost of building "closed" software which does not benefit from 
> community input in all phases of the production cycle is huge.

This is an incredibly naive thing to say.

First off, note that /I/ am the friend that Haggerty is talking about. 
Suggesting that I don't know the current state of open source, or the 
correct business model, or that I've never read TCatB is laughable.

Likewise, suggesting that releasing something as open source will 
suddenly "benefit from community input in all phases" is also 
giggle-worthy: "if I build it, I will receive patches and code reviews 
and hand-holding!" just doesn't happen as magically as you suggest. A 
quick look at all the Drupal contrib modules that have crappy code, 
idiotic patches submitted from folks who don't know better, a pure derth 
of actual usage and/or community care, and more, rules out any 
assumption that open sourcing will suddenly make a community.

> That doesn't mean that certain parts of the system, which encapsulate 
> his business case, cannot remain "secret". But he should embrace a 
> design which abstracts as much funcionality out of his business case as 
> possible, so that this is kept to a minimum. He should separate all his 
> business logic into one or two proprietary but simple modules that do 
> nothing but invoke other, more complicated and open source modules which 

What makes you think I haven't? CCK, Views, the VotingAPI, Organic 
Groups, and jQuery are all required and necessary parts of the design.

-- 
Morbus Iff ( keep out of reach of children )
Technical: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/779
Culture: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.gamegrene.com/
aim: akaMorbus / skype: morbusiff / icq: 2927491 / jabber.org: morbus