August 2011 - Getting Open Source to Pay

Can open source software be made to pay?

It seems that there's a lot of confusion about open source both as a philosophy and as a commercial model. Many seem to think that it's just about giving money away and confuse the "free" in free love with the "free" in free beer. Open source software isn't necessarily free of charge!

But even where open source software is distributed free of charge, there are a number of ways of making money from it, and real comapnies are doing quite well out of it. Approaches include: charging for training and support, charging for being a member of a community, asking for donations, having preoprietory upgrades, and even selling the hardware. And of course this all is with cleaner software since it doesn't spend its time checking whether you've got a valid licence.

May 2011 - Evaluations

What's the purpose of evaluation?

It's interesting how there are far fewer evaluation contracts around all of a sudden. Some of the funding bodies are saying: well we won't be continuing so there's no point in evaluating what happened. And some of the funded organisations are saying: there are better things to spend money on than evaluation.

I think that both of these are short-sighted views. Evaluation is important to make sure that you synthesise what has been learnt during a project and helps you design the next one. Making sure you design the next one correctly at a time when there isn't an immediate follow-on and personnel may change makes it doubly important to encapsulate the lessons learned. What are we going to do in a few years' time when funding returns? Will we repeat the failures of the past just because nobody thought to have a proper ending to projects now?

February 2011 - Municipal Solid Waste

How many of us really know what happens to our waste?

Doing a study recently it's interesting to see the approaches of different countries to the disposal of municipal solid waste. The EU Landfill Directive means that there has to be less and less, and if possible more and more recycled. The UK comes in the middle of the EU spectrum, with 55% still going to landfill. On the other hand, Germany, the star performer succeeds not only because it recycles 65% of the waste but because it incinerates the other 35%. It's got a much greater incineration capacity than most coutnries, and uses this to generate energy as well. But I wonder how green this really is - producing more carbon dioxide? And how acceptable such a solution would be to public opinion in the UK where planning of incineration plants run the gauntlet of local groups who believe that they poison the atmosphere.

January 2011 - Cuts for the Third Sector

January shows continuing difficulties for the third sector - while having some sympathy with local authorities coping with government cuts, it's difficult not to feel that they don't understand how much added value comes from the Third Sector and how much they'll have to pick up if organisations and projects fold.

Newcastle's much vaunted "Newcastle Fund" has less than a quarter the money in it than that which went to the sector in previous years (if we take into account the end of area based grants such as the Working Neighbourhoods Fund). And the allocation of grants (it's well over-subscribed) seems to be on the basis of no real strategic direction - just getting everyone to fight against each other. I wonder how Council employees would like this degree of cutting and approach?