Comments on: A response to the challenge…

By: A cool new SaaS offering…. at diversity.net.nz

A cool new SaaS offering…. at diversity.net.nz — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:49:52 +0000

[...] and also incorporate some opensource attributes in a way that meets the suggestions I made in a post last [...]

By: Can you innovate within an incumbent - SaaS for ISV’s… at diversity.net.nz

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:30:12 +0000

[...] think of it as similar to the concepts espoused in my seminal (in my eyes anyway!) posts here and here about getting the best of OpenSource and the best of [...]

By: damonedwards

damonedwards — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:49:54 +0000

I understood that you were referring to the entire project. It’s feasible to do but my point is that it is of questionable value. The value behind the code being open source is only there if you or others in the community have to run it themselves. In the SaaS world there is only 1 member of your proposed open source community who would have to run the code… that SaaS provider itself. What possibly would be the motivation for others to want to work on a particular SaaS’s core code other than a few hobbyists?

It is important to remember that SaaS does not equal managed hosting. SaaS is a SERVICE. All I am supposed to know about is what happens at the edge (API or user/machine interface). Everything else is managed via a business contract. Features I want? its a business negotiation. Bugs to fix? its a business negotiation. Performance? its a business negotiation. In OSS world the hammer I have for non-performance is to fork the project. In SaaS the hammer I have is the contract. Having the source code of a true SaaS offering is of little additional value over having the source code to AT&T, Comcast, or Pacific Gas & Electric’s internal systems.

Also, the often mentioned fear of lock-in is managed by data independence and transferability, not freedom of the software itself.

By: benkepes

benkepes — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:03:00 +0000

Yeah but Damon the extension of my concept is that the entire project can be released – you guys assumed that I meant the SaaS core was still private with developers invited in to do plugins (a la facebook) why not open both sides of the equation so the community can benefit from the development – feasible?

By: rnigro

rnigro — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:58:14 +0000

Ben, I think you’ve nicely articulated how SaaS can benefit from what Open Source products derive from their community – participation. Conversely, by simply calling something “Open Source” is not a panacea to vault a service offering above it’s competitors. Damon’s point explains this nicely. I will also add the disclaimer that I work for MySQL and have a different perspective on Open Source than others. Nonetheless, great post!
Rich N.

By: Damon Edwards

Damon Edwards — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:38:37 +0000

Ben. What you have described are principles for building vibrant communities around ANY type of product. It reminds me a lot of Kathy Sierra’s “Creating Passionate Users” work.

However, I think that it’s a bit of a stretch to imply that SaaS customers are going to greatly benefit from whether or not a SaaS provider makes it’s source code open to its users under a true open source license. Customers react to value (perceived or real). The real value of open source is its freedom, not community. Community is just a byproduct that comes from a well run open source project, not the point of Open Source itself.

When I say the value of Open Source is “freedom”, I really mean the abilities to: use the software however you want, modify the software however you want, and talk about / share your work with anyone you want. (Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html for more detail)

That freedom delivers tremendous value to anyone who has to run or maintain that software. In a SaaS world that means all of the value goes to the SaaS provider. Saas customers don’t run the software so the value of the code being open source is essentially nothing (except for perhaps some auditing or disaster recovery usefulness)

I have a vested interest in both the Open Source (I’m a founder of an OSS provider) and SaaS (all of our customers are SaaS or e-commerce providers) camps and want both of them only to succeed… but we all should be careful not confuse the relationship between the two or misattribute where the value comes from.

By: SaaS Blogs - » Can Open Source & SaaS Get Along?

SaaS Blogs - » Can Open Source & SaaS Get Along? — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:16:40 +0000

[...] vs. SaaS” information. Within the blog space, different ideas have sprung up: Ben Kepes blogged about the merger of the two and Bob Warfield followed up. Anshu Sharma even touched on the topic in this post. One [...]

By: Sinclair Schuller

Sinclair Schuller — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:13:49 +0000

Great post, Ben. I might write a follow up soon – the open source/SaaS merger introduces a myriad of both business and technical possibilities.

By: smoothspan

smoothspan — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:23:30 +0000

I love it!

Your first suggestion I think is the start of a new business model that might be very powerful:

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/a-merger-of-saas-and-open-source/

By: SmoothSpan Blog

SmoothSpan Blog — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:23:02 +0000

A Merger of SaaS and Open Source

Ben Kepes has some fascinating ideas about how to merge SaaS and Open Source. I’ll admit, I posed the question to him in response to another post he’d made, but his answers are well worth thinking about.
One of the things Ben asks is why …