Dirk Riehle's Industry and Research Publications

Category: 1. Software Industry

  • Market Segmentation in the Open Core Model

    Market Segmentation in the Open Core Model

    Life is exciting in commercial open source land. On Tuesday this week, another commercial open source vendor relicensed its product while at the same time disavowing the open core model, which they call a tiered approach to their business. This disavowel piqued my interest, not because the open core model is good or bad, but…

  • From the Bag of Commercial Open Source Tricks: Paying for the Upgrade

    From the Bag of Commercial Open Source Tricks: Paying for the Upgrade

    On a recent trip to Montreal, I reconnected with Marc Laporte, leader of the WikiSuite project and an old friend and fellow wiki enthusiast. Naturally, we talked about open source business strategies and he pointed me to one way of how commercial open source companies make money: They don’t provide you with a free upgrade…

  • How to Convince Your Management of the Need for an Open Source Program Office

    How to Convince Your Management of the Need for an Open Source Program Office

    Here is the simplest eye-opener that I have found in my consulting practice to convince management of the need for an open source program office: Ask your manager to look at the open source license section under legal notices on their mobile phone. Ask them to scroll down to the end (they’ll never finish). Then…

  • Time to Curb Your Open Source Wording

    Time to Curb Your Open Source Wording

    I view open source mostly from an economic perspective. From this point of view, some of the words people use are curious. For example, people like to talk about “giving back” to the community or “donating a project” to the public. These idioms have community building power, like insider speak among those who speak it,…

  • The innovations of open source [Computer Magazine]

    The innovations of open source [Computer Magazine]

    Abstract: Open source has given us many innovations. This article provides an overview of the most important innovations and illustrates the impact that open source is having on the software industry and beyond. The main innovations of open source can be grouped into four categories: Legal innovation, process innovation, tool innovation, and business model innovation.…

  • Open Source Expanded (new column)

    Open Source Expanded (new column)

    Open Source Expanded is the name of a new column (open-ended article series) that I’m editing for IEEE Computer Magazine. Expect a new article on open source and how it is changing the world every two months! The first article on the innovations of open source was just published, kicking of the column. I could…