| Business opportunities in the Joomla world |
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| Wednesday, 11 July 2007 | |
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I've been following the Joomla GPL debate really closely, but have stayed away from blogging about my opinion. I'm not a 3rd party developer, nor I am I knowledgeable enough about the GPL to add more to the debate than others already contributing.
What does fascinate me and cross into my direct sphere of knowledge is the issue of GPL business models. I've already rambled a little about business under the GPL and would love to pick the brains of you guys too: How can GPL businesses suceed?I currently see three companies with a chance of GPL success:
What business niches are available for Joomla GPL companies?Selling small stuff probably won't work. My feeling is that subscribers will move towards those companies that can offer mission-critical extensions. Companies will need a niche they can dominate.
My question for you guys is - what extensions does Joomla desperately need?
I'll start ... a professional-quality job-board. So many community sites out there have a forum, blogs, photo galleries and other addons, but aside from the relatively basic Jobline, the job-posting field is wide open. I'm sure theres a good market for a sophisticated jobs component, with a wide range of listing and categoriziation options and PayPal payment for listings.
Over to you .... what areas are still wide open for a smart Joomla entrepreneur?
Comments (8)
  written by Brian Teeman, July 12, 2007
There is a big difference between the financial requirements of a full time developer and someone who develops in their spare time.
 written by steve, July 12, 2007
Hi Both - thanks for the comments.
Amy - CB have a small-scale subscription model going now. Together with Virtuemart and Fireboard, I'm sure these components could make an income from their work. Brian - A full time living? - Agreed. None of the three I've listed above currently make living via a GPL business model. The GPL is a difficult business model to get right and moving from a current restricted license model to the GPL is going to be a very tricky task. Its a big risk to take for people with mortgages and families and I can understand why people are reluctant to take it. Those with alternate income sources are in a safer position. Andrew hasn't launched yet and he has his service business to fall back on. Allying with Rockettheme is a smart move - tapping into a very large existing user base. Globalnerd could do without an income for several months while establishing his product. JCE runs his business as a hobby. written by steve, July 12, 2007
Absolutely - they have the mission-critical quality needed to succeed. I'd wouldn't be surprised if 50 to 60% of Joomla sites use at least one.
 written by Lawrence Meckan, July 12, 2007
Just a little heads up.
AEC, according to the Ohloh analysis of their codebase, includes the PHP licence inside their work, may not be viable as a 'derivative work' under the new Licence FAQ given for Joomla!. They are a viable subscription based model and I will support them in creating such software under such a model. However, the grey area is whether or not AEC falls under a non-GPL compatible licence for mixing GPL and PHP in one application. written by Fabien Lanselle, July 17, 2007
Nice article
 GPL discussions are the main subject for many professionals, we are also very interested to see the next step... Concerning the Job-Board, we have developed a non GPL component: NeoRecruit. all your comments are welcome Regards written by Lobos, August 10, 2007
Move along, nothing to see here - I (and many others) have already proved that non-gpl licensed code can be deployed with Joomla.
First off: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,186705.0.html And the silence was deafening.... Even with the above the solution was rock solid, but wait... : http://jcd-a.org/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,349.msg4411/#msg4411 My gosh, how can it be that I look at the license for a few hours and can understand it, while the FSF and OSM have been playing with it for years, yet still haven't got a clue, didn't the General Secretary of the FSF actually author the license? This doesn't compute... RS, RS wherefore art thou RS? This is a non-issue, FSF and OSM tried something and failed dismally. It would be quite funny, but the fact is that they have messed up a good platform and lost all credibility. And lastly: http://jcd-a.org/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,550.0/ Joomla has just lost another fulltime coder, in fact Open Source has lost a "comrade" as well - my code will now be proprietary and encoded. My code will interact with GPL code legally as well; I can now enjoy the best of both worlds, have my cake and eat it too hahahahahahaha!!!!! Pandora's box anyone? TTFN Write comment
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I have heard rumors of other fantastic GPL apps heading our way, too.
I also believe Community Builder is sitting on a goldmine given their amazing product and loyal following *if* they choose to implement a subscription or membership based service.
Also agree that "selling small stuff probably won't work" - but - working in concert with complementary projects should do very nicely.
Community flow will continue to be Joomla! Forums -> JED -> Project home page. There is opportunity here for those who want it. The three apps you listed clearly do *want it* and already they have positioned at the front of the pack.