Paul Sterne

I've always wondered where the word "oxymoron" came from. What does "oxy" have to do with "moron"? What about the words "commercial" and "open source"; do these words form an oxymoron when combined in one phrase? The open source-based CRM software maker, SugarCRM, has successfully... (more)

A rollercoaster - as trite as that image may be - is the right analogy for venture capital investing in open source companies. And what a long, strange trip it's been. Starting in the mid '90s, a few brave pioneers like Benchmark invested in an open alternative to proprietary so... (more)

The beginning of a new year is a good time to sit back and reflect. Where is the open source movement going? What is the next frontier? In 2005, we explored the business models of the open source movement (see Figure 1). We almost got through the entire list, though we still need ... (more)

The other day my 16-year-old daughter came down the stairs in tears. She was holding the new version of the Scholastic Attitude Test and complaining that it was unfair. Look at this question, Dad. Who could answer a question like this?" I looked at the question and had to agree t... (more)

At LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, it occurred to me that I had overlooked a very important Open Source business model, the Membership Model. Confronted by a keynote speech by Stuart Cohen, the leader of the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) (www.osdl.org), it became clear tha... (more)

The central issue in any Open Source business model is how to convert software that is free on the Internet into revenue that can be booked under US GAAP, hence the term invented by some clever person, "Conversion Model." The issue boils down to how to convert the free stuff deve... (more)

In the beginning, the 800-pound gorilla of online industry was Prodigy, Inc. This joint venture between IBM and Sears Roebuck boasted 2.5 million subscribers in 1993, the year before Netscape broke open the Internet. From the very beginning Prodigy was out-marketed by AOL. AOL bo... (more)

The open source movement is something completely new. It doesn't fit neatly into any accepted economic or business theory. For that reason a lot of traditional thinkers, e.g., economists, business people, and investors, are struggling to figure out what it means. Is it the beginn... (more)

Looking at the open source software industry from the outside, it's often difficult to tell what is really going on. To use a string of clichés, it is hard to peel back the onion, to look behind the curtain, to perceive "Das Ding an sich" (German for the "thing-in-itself"; an ide... (more)