Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Very Novel Idea When it Comes To Compensating Open Source Developers

I was very intrigued when I saw this today. Half of the revenue at The Development Cloud will be returned to the active contributors of the open source project that they have based their company on. They mention it as a first, and I would think that is correct. I have yet to see anyone else display this business model before. I will be very interested in seeing how this turns out.

I am curious to learn more about the details. If person A has released more patches than person B, do they get more of the revenue on a percentage basis? I presume this is something that their committee meeting that takes place every six months will determine. It appears that they will be paying contributors on a monthly basis via PayPal. All in all, it is very interesting. Essentially, these project contributors are almost 1099 based contractors, but instead of paying an hourly rate to a contractor, The Development Cloud only needs to pay these individuals as money comes in. It will be very interesting to see if this ends up shifting some open source based companies business models in the future. I wish The Development Cloud good luck, and congratulations on your innovative business model!

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