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<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Chris Caston says:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">I would first like to thank everyone
that has replied. The people that have sent messages directly to my
e-mail inbox will get direct replies soon.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Firstly I'm not starting an open source
McDonalds I just considered it a good example that wouldn't take as
much explaining as other possible examples. I hope most of the people
that talked about this issue would have considered it completely
hypothetical.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Another idea for an open source
company:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">An importer and distributor of
alternative fuel cars</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">This could even be more of a thinkcycle
project (http://www.thinkcycle.org)</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">There's lot of possible open source
companies many that could even have existing monopolies running
scared. Hopefully in the same way that Microsofts anti-competitive
tactics don't work against Linux, open source companies could bolster
and co-ordinate community efforts to develop real alternatives.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"> From: Onno Benschop
<onno@itmaze.com.au></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Reply-To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">To: PLUG <plug@plug.linux.org.au></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Subject: Re: [plug] [OT] Open Source
Business Plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Date: 10 Mar 2003 07:08:24 +0800 </P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">On Sun, 2003-03-09 at 22:47, Chris
Caston wrote:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Of course there would be a lot
possible negative effects like your</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> competitors knowing what your
doing (even if they can't do that</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> according to the license they
probably still would) or a person deciding</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> to start-up the same company in
the same region as you.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">While this may not directly assist you,
let me share the following:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">As a software developer I've developed
a cool piece of code. I could</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">apply for a patent to protect the code,
but in doing so I'm actually</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">publishing my method to bigger
companies who employ people who do</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">nothing else but read patents to give
their company a competitive</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">advantage. Pharmaceutical companies
only apply for patents for</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">hard-to-reproduce results, the real
edge for them is secrecy.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">What I concluded was that applying for
a patent would arouse interest</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">from bigger fish than me - deeper
pockets - no chance to defend myself.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">My software edge is safer by sending my
solution to a few clients,</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">continuing to develop the code and make
money along the way - keeping</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">under the radar if you like.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">I suppose the bottom line for me is
that there is no way that you can</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">defend yourself against hostile forces
- so in my opinion - don't</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">bother, do what you do and if it all
works - great.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">My advice, which may seem contrary to
what you might think after reading</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">this, is as follows:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Publish the plan - given that this is
what you intimate your plan is all</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">about, suck it and see. MacDonalds is
unlikely to take on your idea,</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">given that they are really a
real-estate company, not a fast-food-chain.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">If others take on your idea, the idea
worked - success.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">If the plan doesn't work, the idea was
flawed - have a new idea.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Chris Caston says:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Onno,
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Thanks very much for your response.
Relating my question to your real experiences with IP issues has
helped quite a lot.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Similar to what you have said, if
others take on my idea is means I have actually created something
useful that someone has used to build a business.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">What I wonder is if they would both do
this and respect the parts of the license agreement that require them
to release their improvements back to the community.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Perhaps they don't actually want to or
they're not really motivated to document the changes they have made.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">An example to illustrate another
possibility would be:
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">An existing (non-os) company wants a
new payroll system so they just grab the instructions to build one
from an open source company and fit it into their own system. They
have no regard for releasing improvements back to the community
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">If I kept below radar so to speak the
people in existing (non-os) companies may not even know that is an
option.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Of course issue would strongly relate
to the type of license such e.g is it GPL like or BSD like.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">You could possibility charge them to
implement and support it for them.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"> From: Simon Scott
<sscott@iinet.net.au></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Reply-To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Subject: Re: [plug] [OT] Open Source
Business Plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Date: 10 Mar 2003 01:08:10 +0000 </P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> I've spent a long time planning
what I
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">-</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> I've spent a long time planning
what I would describe as an experimental</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> new type of company. Basically is
involves making the business plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> freely available on the internet
released under an Open Source license.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sounds interesting!</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Caston says: thanks!}</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> This would allow people all over
the world to help develop the business</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> plan and with it the entire
company. In exchange for this anyone could</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> use the business plan to start a
company providing they follow the</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> license agreement which in some
ways would be similar to the GPL.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">How would you manage this? I mean, if I
got your business plan, who would I</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">conceivably give it to? I know what you
mean, but there is no end product per</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">se from the business plan other than
the business plan (ie, if I give someone</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">the business plan I also have to give
them the source, which is the business</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">plan itself).
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Caston says: actually I'm a
little confused by what you mean mean you say</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">“who would I conceivably give it
to?</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Sure the business plan is the source
(at least what I have released of my plan so far)</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">I had originally planned to to make the
business plan an XML document or a series of XML documents that is
just as readable by perl scripts ( and automated business prococess
for things like CRM, SCM, ERP and ERP II) as it is by humans. The
business plan would essentially be a living document that is updated
as the business operates.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">For examples source accounting
documents such as sales and purchase invoices and cash register
receipts could be automatically entered into the accounting
information system (even by staff that know nothing about it) using
forms and workflow processing.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">The changes would be updated to the
central XML document(s) known as the Open Source Business Object Tree
(OSBOT)</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">At the moment, however, my business
plan is just an OO.o document. Developing the OSBOT is going to be an
open source project</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Of course a lot of people believe that
ERP doesn't work. I have a belief that open source may change that.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">}</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Imagine an Open Source McDonalds
with zero franchise license costs.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Someone would still have to hold the
trademarks etc along the same lines as</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">linux.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> The company would be completely
transparent and much more open that</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> companies today.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">In what way?</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Caston says:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">The OSBOT would be completely visable
from the web. Say you went to buy a Dell laptop and you didn't like
the cost you (if they were an os company) could check out their OSBOT
to find out their overheard and productions and marketing costs to
find out why it is that price.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">That is only one example. There would
potentially be thousands.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">}
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Of course there would be a lot
possible negative effects like your</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> competitors knowing what your
doing (even if they can't do that</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> according to the license they
probably still would) or a person deciding</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> to start-up the same company in
the same region as you.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Survival of the fittest - consumer
wins. If there are some real nasties in</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">there (like McCaston's opening a store
next door) then just write it into the</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">license.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Now I am at a fork in the road and
need to make an important decision do</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> I open source my business plan or
keep it proprietary like (probably)</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> every other company on the planet?</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">It depends.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Is your business plan sufficiently
advanced and/or different from other</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">business plans in the same area? What
are you trying to achieve by 'open</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">sourcing' it? (I just had an idea - you
could fork the plan for different</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">industries - and for the food and
restaurant industry you could call it an</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">'open sauce' business plan <ack!>)</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Chris says:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">heh (:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">My business plan isn't hugely advanced.
At the moment it's actually fallen behind quite a lot and I need to
spend some time updating it. I'm also learning how to do all the
budgeting and cash flow forecasting at tafe at the moment.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">I need to actually hand in the business
plan as a tafe assignment and I may need to make a version that
doesn't talk about how its going to be open sourced so I don't
confuse the lecturer.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Why am I doing this?</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Well I think it would be an awesome
career move, teach me a lot about business and at the very least give
me an interesting resume.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">}</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Nice idea, Id be interested in how you
go about it.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">From: Mike Holland
<myk@plug.linux.org.au></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Reply-To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Subject: Re: [plug] [OT] Open Source
Business Plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Date: 10 Mar 2003 09:53:57 +0800 </P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">On 9 Mar 2003, Chris Caston wrote:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> I've spent a long time planning
what I would describe as an experimental</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> new type of company. Basically is
involves making the business plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> freely available on the internet
released under an Open Source license.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">I dont see an analogy between a
business plan and source code going very
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">far. The source code is more like a
matured business, tested and modified
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">over many iterations, until it is shown
to consistentlty make a profit.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">A business plan is more like a
high-level project design, which may or may
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">not have any value until it is fleshed
out and tested.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Caston says:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">There is a huge difference. Firstly a
computer program operates inside a computer (sure it gets used for
production but the program is really only changed by the developers)
whereas a business operates in the real world with real customers,
and real stakeholders in the real marketing place.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">As for the project aspect check out
<A HREF="http://www.thinkcycle.org/">http://www.thinkcycle.org</A>
for the current state of
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">development of collaborative design.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">}
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> This would allow people all over
the world to help develop the business</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> plan and with it the entire
company. In exchange for this anyone could</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> use the business plan to start a
company providing they follow the</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> license agreement which in some
ways would be similar to the GPL.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">The conditions that make this work for
software dont exist here AFAICS.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Imagine an Open Source McDonalds
with zero franchise license costs.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">It would be very interesting to hear
how that might work. And why would
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">it be desirable? Do you enforce
standards, or let them fork their own
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">version? The GPL analogy gives an
interesting starting point, but opens a
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">million questions. The GPL depends on
copyright law. McDonalds on
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">trademark law. How do you traverse that
gulf?</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Well my company is called Aptitude
Technology and I will eventually get a logo but I'm not going to led
anyone off the street (or the web) to trade under my company name or
use my trademark.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">They can (according to the conditions
of the license) use the business plan but they will need to register
their own company.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Alternately they can help my
development Aptitude Technology and ideally if their contribution is
beneficial enough get a piece of the pie. And I mean profits. Don't
ask me about shareholding yet I haven't figured out if thats going to
happen or how.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">At the moment i'm a sole trader so
that's not happening for a while.
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">}</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Now I am at a fork in the road and
need to make an important decision do</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> I open source my business plan or
keep it proprietary like (probably)</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> every other company on the planet?</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Do not public companies operate fairly
openly? The McDonalds business
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">model is no secret. I can think of many
examples of business models that
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">are openly copied with no licencing -
lawnmowing, corner delis, barbers,
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">newsagents, pizza shops, ... Look at
most shops, or small businesses, and
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">you can immediately categorise them.
One shopkeeper watches his
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">competitors, copying new variations. No
licenses here, just testing
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">and sharing of ideas, unencumbered (or
protected) by law.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Thanks. Its mainly about the
documentation. Where do you find a complete how-to on starting your
own fish and chips shop? Or get the technology to automate the way
you deal with suppliers?}</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">You've given some vague teasers here,
but its a bit hard to contribute
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">without seeing the meat of the ideas.
It certainly sounds bold and
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">challenging.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">[ Should this be Repy-to: the off-topic
list ? ]</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">--
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Ask not for whom the telephone bell
tolls...</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">if thou art in the bathtub, it tolls
for thee.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><BR>
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">From: Peter J. Nicol
<PeterNicol@vrl.com.au></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Reply-To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Subject: RE: [plug] [OT] Open Source
Business Plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Date: 10 Mar 2003 10:03:41 +0800</P>
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<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> I dont see an analogy between a
business plan and source code going very</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> far.</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">for what it's worth ... Neal Stephenson
did. He more or less managed to write a</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">whole book about it - "Snow
Crash".</P>
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</P>
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<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Caston says:</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Cool, I must read it sometime. Is it at
most bookshops?}</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">His thesis is sorta like that the
business plan is the operating system or DNA for</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">the business, but he was mainly talking
about 'viral' businesses like McDonalds.</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Interestingly ... in this day and age,
is there any difference between the</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">software and the business for companies
like Ebay and Amazon?</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Even stranger, in the US you can
apparently get patents on 'Business Processes' or</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">the like ... basically business plans</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">From: Leon Brooks
<leon@brooks.fdns.net></P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Reply-To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">To: plug@plug.linux.org.au</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Subject: Re: [plug] [OT] Open Source
Business Plan</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Date: 10 Mar 2003 11:18:43 +0800 </P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">On Sunday 09 March 2003 10:47 pm, Chris
Caston wrote:</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">> Imagine an Open Source McDonalds
with zero franchise license costs.</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Bug: if people knew what Maccers
actually did to their `food', many would stop
</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">buying it.</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Cheers; Leon</P>
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</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">{Chris Caston says:</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">hehe</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">or it might just inspire them to commit
some new recipes to their business model.</P>
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</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">I personally think McDonalds would do
better if they had their kitchen setup like Subway.</P>
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">}</P>
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