The Open Planning Project

The Google Summer of Code is upon us! (Yes, it does seem like we just finished SoC 2008.) GeoServer is once again a part of this process and we have a list of projects posted for anyone who is interested.

We are assuming all students interested in working on GeoServer will have solid Java knowledge, but no geospatial or GIS knowledge is required (although it will not hurt).

We’ve got lots of good ideas posted, from styling maps with CSS to integration with NASA WorldWind and more. The deadline for applications is April 3rd, so if you are interested in contributing, please see the OSGeo page on Summer of Code, or feel free to email the GeoServer developers list.

As we prepare our new Enterprise offering around the OpenGeo Suite (PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers, GeoExt), I have been researching open source business models. The more I read, the more I am convinced that the problem is not one of the open source company providing value, it is one of convincing customers that they are in fact receiving value.

The best discussion of open source business I have seen is the beekeeper model, written up by James Dixon of Pentaho software. It is well worth reading the whole article, but the idea is neatly summarized in this diagram:

The open source community is the bee hive. The company provides care for the hive, and processes the results into the kinds of products that customers expect. In open source, as with bees, customers are not really interested in the details of production (they may even find it kind of frightening), but they are interested in the final product.

The problem with this model, and really with all open source business models, is that customers don’t perceive the value in the non-software activities. And the reason they don’t perceive value is that the proprietary software model has conditioned them to believe that the only thing of value they receive from a vendor is the software. The documentation, the packaging, even the marketing information they show the boss, these are all perceived as zero-value wrapping to the item with real value, the software.

In fact, if you look at the expenditures of public software companies (and annual reports spell out this information) you’ll find that less than 20% of expenses are for actual software development.

When you take that attitude and transpose it to open source software, there’s a problem, because the software is free. And the extra services provided by the open source company are perceived to be, if not zero value, of very very low value relative to the software. This leads to a chicken-and-egg problem I have mentioned previously, where customers can’t use perfectly good software because it is perceived as “risky” without a professional-looking corporate entity behind it, but where they also won’t pay for the value-added service of providing that professional-looking corporate entity.

“Why should I pay so much money for free software?!?”. Why indeed. Imagine the feel of an unprocessed honey comb in your hand, the honey dripping down between your fingers and the bees still alighting on the frame. Open source companies provide value beyond bits and bytes, and that value is what shows up in the price tag.

Great news from the Project for Public Spaces blog. Seattle's Streets for People is starting up. Streets for People is a collaborative campaign to create and implement a new vision for streets as thriving public spaces. Here's hope this left coast NYCSR gets off to a smashing start.

Modeled in many ways after the ‘open source’ NYC Street Renaissance Campaign that PPS helped to found, Streets for People’s approach to advocacy is to connect, convene and inspire a new conversation about how streets can best be used as public spaces for people.

The campaign will be coordinating with a broad range of local organizations, as well as with the city, on bike and pedestrian Master Plans, a Summer Streets program, Seattle’s new plan for light rail transit (LRT), as well as a Low Impact Vehicle Exhibition (aLIVE) which invites the public to submit installations for display and demonstrations during a one day exhibition. (..)

In New York City, PPS partnered with The Open Planning Project and Transportation Alternatives to create the New York City Streets Renaissance (NYCSR) which has ignited a powerhouse of change for pedestrian oriented redevelopment in various NYC locations such as Gansevoort Plaza and Madison Square. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced plans to reclaim vast stretches of Broadway through Times Square and Herald Square which realizes dreams set early in the campaign.  Look out for more reclaimed pedestrian space and great streets in Seattle.

Two exciting job opportunities at TOPP:

• We’re looking for a software developer with a passion for livable streets and a penchant for developing user-friendly interfaces to join our team. Work with writers, videographers, open source software developers, and other online activists to build web-based tools that support a movement.
  
• With major transportation, climate, and energy legislation coming before Congress in 2009 and 2010, we are seeking a talented journalist to cover Capitol Hill for Streetsblog. We are looking for a reporter/blogger who can help bring outside-the-Beltway readers inside the legislative process, scoop the mainstream press, and make Streetsblog Capitol Hill an engaging and entertaining must-read.

Open source geospatial holds a number of lessons for other vertical markets. First, frontal assaults on the leading proprietary vendor are unlikely to succeed. In their core areas, the leading vendor has an advantage in technology development and existing mind-share. Usually, building enough technology to compete with a leading vendor head-to-head takes years of development, and a partially functional product will be ignored. Second, disruptive changes in technology provide opportunities for open source. Most leading vendors carved out their advantage on the desktop during the 1980s and 1990s. The transition to web-based services has opened a temporary gap in the marketplace where existing vendors have a smaller technology advantage, and their marketing advantage is limited to their existing universe of customers. Open source can become the core for new service-based companies competing with proprietary software vendors. Finally, new markets for capabilities are the most fertile opportunity of all. In geospatial, its expansion into daily life, through vehicle and device tracking, low cost aerial imaging, and handheld mapping, is growing the market exponentially. New developers and managers, without long-held preconceptions, are making technology choices. On a level playing field, open source Internet technologies are regularly winning.