RSS feedThe basic idea behind
It's a difficult one. We are convinced open-source "believers" and we are convinced that open-source economics will on the long term change and finally dominate the entire software industry. However, there is a certain misfit between the open-source idea and ERP software, because ERPs are considered by most open-source developers to be very "boring", so that few of them would want to spend their free time developing them. We have tried a lot of different options in the past in order to tackle this issue and to make open-source ERPs work. We even have designed a new type of open-source software license. However, all this hasn't worked out.
So we have come up with a "mixed source" model for ]project-open[ that is based on the difference between "commodity" and "value added" or "strategic" functionality:
At least that's easy to explain and it makes economic sense. Here is a comparison between the three licenses:
| GNU Public License | "Free License" |
"Commercial License" | |
| License terms (links) | GPL License | Free License | Commercial License |
| License objective | "Software wants to be free" | "Share costs of development" | "Profit" |
| Free for end users | yes | yes | no |
Our hope is that these conditions are interesting for small and medium companies and that it will finally lead to an "Open-Source Marketplace". We hope that the combination of these licenses allow all of it:
For questions and suggestions please contact us. We are aware that licenses are a critical issue in the Open-Source community and we are eager to learn about your opinion.
GPLed software
is free for everybody to use, modify and redistribute.
If redistributed, the software needs to be published under the terms
of the GPL again. This is the "classical" open-source
license that makes sure that an open-source program will always
stay open-source.
FLed software is free
for everybody to use and modify. It is "normal"
commercial software, but the license fee for use and modification
is €0.
However, its redistribution is restricted in order to avoid the
"free loader problem" (companies taking advantage of the
efforts of others). Basically, you have to become a "partner"
and share the development costs in order to get the right to redistribute
these packages.
CLed software is "normal"
software in the sense that the user has to pay for the software
in order to use it.
However, the customer receives the source-code of the modules together
with the right to modify the software. So he can maintain the code
himself and add strategic functionality.
]project-open[ consists of the OpenACS base platform plus several "]project-open[ packages". In order to install ]project-open[ you first need to install OpenACS and then add the ]po[ packages. The Windows Installer (see above) includes all of these components in one single binary. On Linux, OS X, Solaris and other Unix variants you will have to follow the OpenACS installation guide and then add the ]po[ packages manually.
All ]po[ packages are delivered in ".apm" format (OpenACS Package Manager), suitable for automatic web-installation from the OpenACS. You can rename them to ".tgz" or ".tar.gz" in order to open them and see the source code.
Below please find an overview over the ]project-open[ core product packages. All of these packages are available free under the GPL. Please post a message if you have questions or suggestions.
Packages |
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Act. Ver- sions |
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Comments |
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| intranet-core | GPL | 3.3.0 |
prod | Projects, Customers, Offices, |
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| intranet-dynfield | GPL | 3.3.0 | prod | Dynamic Object Fields for CRM |
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| intranet-crm-tracking | GPL | 3.3.0 | int | Web site tracking, online registration |
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| intranet-spam | GPL | 0-0-1 | int | Mass mailings |
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| intranet-isdn-import | GPL | 0-0-1 | int | Integration with ISDN |
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| intranet-mail-import | GPL | 0-0-1 | int | Integration with mail server |
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| intranet-payments | GPL | 3.3.0 |
prod | Invoice payments | |||||
| intranet-timesheet | GPL | 3.3.0 |
prod | Timesheet mgmt | |||||
| intranet-timesheet2 | GPL | 3.3.0 |
prod | Timesheet mgmt with material | |||||
| intranet-expenses | GPL | 0-0-0 | prod | Travel cost mgmt | |||||
| intranet-hr | GPL | 3.3.0 |
prod | Employees, payroll, ... | |||||
| intranet-wiki | GPL | 3.3.0 | prod | Wiki engine | |||||
| intranet-search-pg | GPL | 3.3.0 |
prod | Search engine for PostgreSQL | |||||
Explication:
The following packages have been contributed by companies in order to provide specialized solutions.
These are commercial packages from the founders of ]project-open[. Please note that packages marked with FL are free for end users and available for download.
Module |
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Last Ver- sion |
Mat uri ty |
Comments |
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| intranet-filestorage | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | File system based filestorage | |||||
| intranet-forum | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Discussion forums with tight permissions | |||||
| intranet-material | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Material Master management | |||||
| intranet-update-client | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Automatic Software Updates Client | |||||
| intranet-cost | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Base costs | |||||
| intranet-invoices | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Base invoices | |||||
| intranet-freelance-invoices | $ | 3.3.0 | prod | Quotes and POs for freelancers | |||||
| intranet-timesheet2-tasks | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Task-based planning for Timesheet | |||||
| intranet-timesheet2-invoices | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Automatic Invoicing for Timesheet | |||||
| intranet-freelance | $ | 3.3.0 | prod | Freelance skill database & recruiting pipeline | |||||
| intranet-freelance-translation | $ | 3.3.0 | prod | Translation base and workflow | |||||
| intranet-translation | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Translation base and workflow | |||||
| intranet-trans-invoicing | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Invoicing for Translation | |||||
| intranet-trans-quality | $ | 3.3.0 | prod | Statistical Process Control (SPC) for Translation | |||||
| intranet-reporting | $ | exp | Generic reporting | ||||||
| intranet-dw-light | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Data-Warehouse using MS-Excel Pivot Tables | |||||
| intranet-exchange-rate | FL | 3.3.0 | prod | Provides exchange rates for multi-currency reporting | |||||
| intranet-dw-mssql | $ | 3.3.0 | exp | Data-Warehouse using MS-SQL OLAP Services | |||||
| intranet-dw-mondrian | $ | 0.0.0 | - | Data-Warehouse using Mondrian OLAP Server | |||||
These are commercial packages from the "Enterprise Knowledge Integrator Project". Please contact us for more details.
Module |
Lice nse |
Last Ver- sion |
Mat uri ty |
Comments |
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| intranet-expert-finder | FL | 0-0-0 | exp | Finds authors of documents | |||||
| intranet-km-map | FL | 0-0-0 | exp | Classify employee and freelancer knowledge | |||||
Your feedback is very valuable for us. Please contact us if you have any complaints, comments or suggestions.
 |
| A marketplace example: How are
revenues distributed in the marketplace? Click on the diagram to see details. |
Hard-core open-source "believer" may consider an "Open-Source Marketplace" a contradiction by itself, but we believe that the successful collaborative development of "boring" ERP software needs to follow dynamics different from the development of Linux, Apache or other "sexy" open-source software.
We propose this model in order to balance the interests of software developers, Value Added Resellers (VARs) and the final customer.
The diagram at the right hand side shows the flow of money (red arrows) and the flow of services (blue arrows) between the various partners:
Please see the partner pages for details about "Distribution Partners" and "Development Partners".
We hope that the money that flows to contributors presents an incentive for developers, graphics designers and functional specialists to contribute new, specialized modules to ]project-open[. Normally, these modules are developed for a specific customer and would remain proprietary. The "Open-Source Marketplace" is supposed to provide attractive incentives to contribute these modules in order to receive revenues from installations at other customers.
