Open Source and blogging; We can change the game

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 30 Jan 2006, 10:19 PM - 6 Comments

I am involved in Open Source through CIGNEX and have been blogging here for the last one year. I see some similarities in the two worlds.

Blogging has become like open source software. There are hundreds and thousands of blogs out there but only a small percentage
of them are quality blogs.

We can change that. Let me give some background and a possible solution.

I am fortunate and I thank GOD for providing me opportunities to meet and interact with VERY smart people almost daily.

Rather than asking for their web address, I end up asking for their blog address. Some have blogs but not all of them. I want to focus on the ones that don’t have the blogs. Some people have really valid reasons for not having a blog and I respect that.

The common reasons that I hear are:

a) no time
b) want to start – sometime in the near future
c) don’t see it as very important
d) see this as a “show off” and not interested in a “show off”

Here is my point. The blog is not always FOR you. It is for your READERS. You are smart and I am sure people close to you are reaping benefits of your smartness. Through a blog, you can change that and extend the reach and SERVE more people. Recently Guy Kawasaki started his blog – Let the good times roll. For me, it is not a blog, it is higher education. Many people wonder why Guy didn’t start his blog earlier.

The smart people of the world can unite and change the blogosphere by creating and maintaining quality blogs with the highest ROII.

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Anonymous on January 31st, 2006

Interesting post! I hadn’t thought about it this way, though I had been talking with my editor at Prentice Hall about how it all seems to be about free information these days. Free info in blogs, free PDF downloads, etc. So where does the, well, ability to make money to pay your mortgage come in? I said probably services–training, consulting, support. Which is at least in part the same answer to the same question regarding open source software.
My blog is on OpenOffice.org: using the software, converting groups to it, training tips, etc. So few people, still, know about OpenOffice.org, and it’s such a great choice, especially for schools, anyone else using tax money, anyone on a budget like college students, etc. So I try to help people learn about it and use it effectively.

Anonymous on January 31st, 2006

Paul Graham has also written an insightful article about the relationship between open source, blogging and business. Recommended reading: http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html

Anonymous on January 31st, 2006

Thanks Solveig.
You are right – it’s about free information and free quality information. Even if you provide free information, the free information with highest quality wins. People have choices and with the web, its easy for a person to make a choice not to re-visit your blog if he finds no ROII.
Now, about making money about blogging, that was the topic of one of my posts in the next few days and I am still finsihing up my research. Please bear with me for a few days.
cheers,
Raj

Anonymous on January 31st, 2006

Thanks Philipp,
I had read that article earlier but thanks for urging me to re-visit. It is an insightful article, I agree.
cheers,
Raj

Anonymous on January 31st, 2006

Rajesh, you gracefully combine persistence with patience. Each time you approach this subject, you make it harder for me to logically or emotionally say “no” to your very reasonable points of view.
Blogs have hold a lot of appeal to me, but I’ve wrestled with one main point. I need to identify identify an angle or perspective that I can share that’s worth other people’s time to read.
It’s like the ROI proposition you make at the start of your book. I feel a social obligation to return value for the gift of their time and attention. (Which is something you do very well with this blog, btw.)

Anonymous on September 3rd, 2006

If you still wonder about Open Source business models, I recommend you to read “The Magic Caouldron” by Eric S. Raymond.
Eric says: “This paper analyzes the economics of open-source software. It includes some explosion of common myths about software production economics, a game-theoretical account of why open-source cooperation is stable, and a taxonomy of open-source business models.”
Definitely a good read.