Hey - I actually made some money by open-sourcing something...

[Sporkman]

I had this software tool on my website that wasn't gathering much use or interest, so on a whim I open-sourced in on Sourceforge. I had put a lot of effort into it, and it's technically very good if I say so myself, so I thought why not, maybe it'll be useful to someone.

Well, long story short, a company was integrating it into a product of theirs, and needed some help ironing out some issues. So they hired me for a couple of hours worth of consulting on it, and I come out in the positive.

So there you have it - I made money by open-sourcing something. :) When you figure the time & effort I put into writing the original software, I made much less than minimum wage, but still - it's a first for me.

Thought I'd share.

[HappinessNow]

I had this software tool on my website that wasn't gathering much use or interest, so on a whim I open-sourced in on Sourceforge. I had put a lot of effort into it, and it's technically very good if I say so myself, so I thought why not, maybe it'll be useful to someone.

Well, long story short, a company was integrating it into a product of theirs, and needed some help ironing out some issues. So they hired me for a couple of hours worth of consulting on it, and I come out in the positive.

So there you have it - I made money by open-sourcing something. :) When you figure the time & effort I put into writing the original software, I made much less than minimum wage, but still - it's a first for me.

Thought I'd share.minimum wage is better then zero.

[Sporkman]

minimum wage is better then zero.

Yes indeed. Plus it's satisfying to know that my good work is out there powering business activity.

[hansdown]

Congrats Sporkman.

Could lead to more?

[philcamlin]

Congrats Sporkman.

Could lead to more?

yes id like to see what you made !

[Sporkman]

Congrats Sporkman.

Could lead to more?

Thanks. Unlikely - at least not with this company. They just needed some assistance getting over some hurdles, and are rolling on their own now.

[Sporkman]

.....

[jflaker]

Link? Maybe there can be more interest if you open our eyes.

Also, under open source, are they going to roll their changes back to you or was it custom to their application?

[Sporkman]

Link? Maybe there can be more interest if you open our eyes.

Also, under open source, are they going to roll their changes back to you or was it custom to their application?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sfemplsched/

Presumably they'll be serving this app up as a web service, so open sourcing their changes is irrelevant.

[zekopeko]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sfemplsched/

Presumably they'll be serving this app up as a web service, so open sourcing their changes is irrelevant.

depends on the licence used. under AGPL you must release all changes even if only serving a webapp.