What’s funny – the big ad in the NY Times for Firefox was not successful in your traditional sense. It did not spike downloads. But the buzz did. The way the money was raised, the excitement over getting in, being late, being covered, the size. It spread. The experience led to free press and lots of people talking to their friends. This jumped the downloads. Not the ad.
There is a stumbling block. As open source, people expect perhaps on a higher level that you’ll respond to what they ask for. Now, so long as your core development focuses on a good product for most people, you can leave development of niche audiences and their wants to others in extensions. But there is a lot to wade through. You get just a ton of input that is hard to deal with on a small team level.
You need to decide who you listen to and what goes into your core product. So, you cannot look at what all your users do since some are not your target user base. Plus, they usually tell you what the solution is but not the problem – look at what they do, not what they say. The Internet may be broken to some people, but in most cases they really are not the best people to listen to on how to fix it. “The truth is always hidden.” – Scott
You should be in open source because you love what you do. If you make money, great. Give it everything. There are options to be funded in many ways. Open source is not necessarily prohibitive for VC funding. As Matt Mullenweg noted, you need that personal capital to stand behind your product or your idea. A VC will fund not just your idea, but your zeal and ability, and what kind of community you are building. A VC will notice that a community is a good measure of success – it’s growth and strength will be a good indicator of where your product is going. And you can choose a dual license mode as well if opening up your code completely is an issue. I’m not sure I have this whole conversation completely in here. Plus, there is a variation – “there is the longtail in everything” – Scott
Matt M – you can’t just put your code up. You need to take the time to tell your story. Put it on your site and create a story around it.
You MUST have scrreenshots. 90% won’t download it without clearly identifiable screenshots. Plus that immediate link to get it and why they need to get it RIGHT now. You need to CONNECT.
Get great publicity. Have a good logo. Have a good design. Use affiliates who put up a Powered By link.
Most of these rules apply to open source as much as proprietary software. You need to listen and decide what to do, to get it out, to build a community, and to spread the word.
Great panel! One of the best today. Thanks!
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Highlights from Gnomedex
Gnomedex has come and gone. It was, hands down, an amazing conference (or un-conference, as it turns out). It was basically a room full of thought-leaders coming together to share ideas and look at where we are going. The…