What Would You Do With Open.org? 239
itwbennett writes "The Linux Fund recently bought the open.org domain at auction for an undisclosed sum. Now begins the challenge of doing something with it — something that generates enough revenue to be self-sustaining."
Open Source but not necessarily free app store. (Score:5, Interesting)
Something like the Mac App Store, but cross platform and accepting only open source submissions. Take a 30% cut of paid downloads.
Not just software (Score:5, Interesting)
To hell with revenue (Score:5, Interesting)
Start something that promotes open software, open ideas, and open standards. Take on Microsoft and other companies head on. Show people what quality software and open standards do for everyone.
That's what I'd do.
linux and windows app store (Score:3, Interesting)
I suffer from a similar quandary (Score:5, Interesting)
I own neutrality.org. If any readers would be interested in assisting me in fighting the good fight, please drop me a note at ideas@neutrality.org. My intent is to use this to promote network neutrality, and not to make a quick buck.
A new marketing campaign for open source (Score:5, Interesting)
I think there needs to be a fresh new marketing campaign that reintroduces the concept of open source software to people (including the geeks) because it seems that a lot of the efforts have fizzled out or become misunderstood by the latest generation.
Create a brand (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of the "problem" with open source is that only us geek types give a damn about it. Average joe doesn't care about how "open" what he's buying is, which is why people continue to buy closed systems without a second thought.
Open.org could be the face of open platforms. Get a nice logo and some sort of catchy slogan "Approved by Open.org - your software, how you want it" or something. So when Microsoft releases a new "open" standard that isn't actually that open, open.org could be the ones fighting to make it as open as possible, supporting a truly open alternative, keeping things that are supposed to be open, but aren't, in check (I'm looking at you, Oracle) and generally educating the masses on why being open is "cool" and why they should care, as well as encouraging companies to open up their products more.
copyleft repository (Score:5, Interesting)
There are so many OSS/FOSS repositories out there. I'd love to see them help foster the copyleft movement and get a directory of creative commons art, audio, video, and ui elements. It would both benefit Linux itself, and attract high traffic for people looking for stock photos etc. thus, ad revenue.
Solutions Database (Score:5, Interesting)
For individuals or for business, the site could offer alternatives and/or solutions to common problems. It can also promote open standards for others to follow.
e.g. replacement Office suite = Libre Office, ProTools = Audacity, SAP ERP = OpenTaps, OpenBravo, etc.
You can setup case studies to advocate the use of open source software and solutions.
This wouldn't just apply to software. You can also throw in hardware designs too (I'm thinking Arduino stuff).
A source of income could be companies that advertise on the site, offering their expertise in setting up open source business systems.
Re:Open Source but not necessarily free app store. (Score:5, Interesting)
Allow people to signup (with valid paypal account) and they go into a support pool for open source projects. People who answer questions correctly (or get most points) get most pay while fewer points get a smaller percentage of pay for that question.
People who wish to pay for support can sign up for an unlimited number of questions or pay per question asked. The amount would be based on each project and the popularity and number of downloads of said project (or something like that). Percentage of pay could also go to maintainers of project.
Open Philosophy (Score:3, Interesting)
Construct the Open Manifesto.
Open government, open code -- open philosophy.
Open honesty between all humans. Truth: you are all bags of carbon and mostly water.
Reality: We need to become completely open if we hope to achieve a successful deep space program with multigenerational stability, and save our species from extinction, which will happen unless we all work together towards a multigenerational goal of continuing the species.
Governments are corrupt. Politicians lie to get votes, even good ones. That can't be allowed anywhere for the open philosophy to prevail.
We must hunt down and expose all those who wish to hide secrets. Off with their heads! (I mean: revoke their parking pass for a week).
Employment Agency (Score:4, Interesting)
A single site to register open source software developers. It would work like a temp agency -- you pay the developer $30/hour, the hiring company pays you $45/hour. There may be something else out there but it would be nice to have a central community for hiring experts on Plone, Python, Drupal, Graphic Design, MySQL, Postgres, etc. Something that showcases their resumes, portfolio, photos of their mom's basement, etc.
Re:Open Source but not necessarily free app store. (Score:5, Interesting)
advocacy... and blame. (Score:4, Interesting)
A list of all the companies that support open standards and are heros of freedom and democracy.
and a list of all the closed and abusive standards and the companies that force them upon society, exposing them as the terrorists and haters of humanity they are.
Re:Not just software (Score:4, Interesting)
I second this idea, I would like to see it become a useful resource for both users and developers/artists. There could be a directory and a customized search engine pointing to good resources about open source and creative commons materials.
For developers it could help find libraries with selected license (BSD and MIT like licenses in addition to GPL like), links to free tutorials, books, documentation and interesting projects to collaborate by language, information about different licenses. Also a message board or news section for finding collaborators for and announcing new projects might be useful.
Wiki works too for a dictionary claryifying some terms about open source, but I think it should just be a part of the site. I see a collectively edited Dmoz or Yahoo style link directory equally useful. For inspiration on making new users for open source software: http://www.opensourcemac.org/ [opensourcemac.org]
On the software side, there is already Github, Sourceforge and many more, but open.org could provide some visual statistics about most used open source software, most active projects, most liked projects the information being collected from different sites and repository hosts. Github and ohloh.net do a good work of being useful for both developers and users. In my opinion Sourceforge has gone much worse in this respect in the last two versions, unvisionarily mixing the two sides and not catering to either.
As for the self-sustaining revenue: On the web there's generally four ways to make money:
Donations, ads, selling some useful items or services and porn.
Pointers to all things Open (Score:5, Interesting)
Make a site that is a great resource to all things Open. Not just software or hardware, but open culture, architecture, design, access, etc. Be educational yet very handy so as to better inform and enthuse users as to what communities and resources are out there and how they can participate, either globally or locally. Be a hub site to help join the dots and frame how fantastic the idea of Open is.
What To Do With Open.org (Score:3, Interesting)
Before you read what I would do, I want to state that openness, to me, does not just mean open source. Openness is a moral value. Openness in its best form is absolute honesty, with your users and your administrators, with your friends and family. Openness in its worst form is Wikileaks (which I don't think is a bad thing), or in another word, controversial. When software is open, it is open to change, it is open to criticism, it is open to becoming better than it is, and it is open to others' differences. When a person is open, that person has the same qualities.
The open source community is intelligent and idealistic. It is also fragmented and childish. A central domain like Open.org is the perfect place to bring people together in such a way as to establish openness as a strong moral value with a strong cultural backing. If I were to do something with Open.org, and I were a large organization that could pull this off, here's what I would do:
I just hope that this comment isn't lost under 200 other comments on Slashdot. I am a web developer and I would be willing to help make this a reality.