| Yet another open {source|data|whatever} project is ending up with "Thank you, creative person, here's your exposure!"[1] Isn't it a perfect business model for corporations? 1a) Launch an open source aka crowdsourced project at a relatively small cost, or 1b) Just wait until it comes out of the woodwork on its own. 2) Watch the data of interest flowing in, for free, in a self-organizing way. 3) Wait until it reaches the stage when bringing it up to a production-ready state takes again a relatively small investment, then take it over. 4) Now offset your small investments orders-of-magnitude-fold compared to what you would without crowdsourcing - by selling the data which people hand-picked and gathered for years, by training your AI on their code, by debugging a prototype of future blockchain money at the expense of enthusiasts and profiteers etc. Would this work? Hell no, except maybe on Flat Earth! You forgot 0) To set the stage by preaching how noble and virtuous it is to give away the fruits of one's work away for free for the greater good, providing for a better future for all of us on the principles of freedom, predominantly as in beer, all over the Internet, especially in places where young and idealistic graze on the fields of IT. [1]: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/exposure |