[DotGNU]Re: DotGNU and business

[Norbert Bollow]

Timothy Rue <address@hidden> wrote:

>  NB> Here are the three main goals of the DotGNU project:
> 
>  NB> The main goal is to prevent .NET, and the webservices wave in
>  NB> general, from destroying the essentially-free-as-in-freedom
>  NB> nature of the internet that we value so much today.
> 
> Consumer choice, the anti-trust Law, should be all you need in supporting
> any genuine option. Perhaps it's just a matter of comming up with a
> genuine and better option?

"Coming up with a genuine and better option", that's definately
necessary, and in fact that's the focus of the DotGNU project.

IMHO the most serious threat to this strategy is that the courts
might consider "RAND licensing" of software patents to be good
enough for meeting the requirements of anti-trust law.  ("RAND
licensing" of patents makes the corresponding "inventions"
usable in proprietary software only.)

>  NB> Secondary to this is the goal to create useful software that
>  NB> the contributors to the DotGNU project consider to be valuable.
> 
> That's scary. Remove one rule to replace it with another one rule.
> Shouldn't it be about what is useful to everyone, which includes the
> contributors?

No, we're not in the business of trying to decide what is
"useful to everyone".  (I think that's what Microsoft Inc
is trying to do :-)

Those who contribute have the freedom of deciding what parts
they want to contribute to, and thereby it's the contributors
who ultimately determine what the final product will be like,
within some contraints like that we'll not allow anyone to steer
the DotGNU project away from its original vision, and that we'll
not tolerate any violations of GNU policy.

>  NB> Thirdly it is a goal to find ways in which DotGNU project
>  NB> contributors can earn good money through contributing to DotGNU.
> 
> What is "good money?"

What I mean is that by contributing to DotGNU, developers should
be able to make enough money to allow for having a family, a
decent standard of living, and building up a personal reserve.

> Some things need to happen before other things can
> be done. For example, the industrial revolution needed to
> happen before the information revolution could happen,
> otherwise the information revolution would be running on what
> and communicating what?
> 
> In other words, there may be an issue of putting the cart
> before the horse here.

Yes.  It's not quite clear to what extent we can reach this
goal.  Still, it's a goal of the DotGNU project, and a good
objective to keep in mind.

> In the GNU theme of decentralized authority I think you will
> have a better chance of putting togther a business that bids
> on GPL projects, and hires the help as needed for fullfilling
> the project.

I'll encourage everyone who has the necessary skills and
experience to start a business of this type.

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
A founder of the http://DotGNU.org project and Steering Committee member
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet   (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59         Fax +41 1 972 20 69        http://norbert.ch
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