April 17, 2007

TCP/IP vs the Dollar (part 3)

CEOs of open source software companies aren't rich because there's less money to be made in open source.

That doesn't mean open source is less significant or isn't a threat to proprietory software. It just means it's not playing in the same game, and the indices of success don't line up. Remember, trying to measure the information / attention / netocratic economy in dollars is like trying to figure out the worth of Microsoft by the number of acres it occupies.

1 comment:

John Powers said...

I love this series:-) It's very good to hear that money is not the right measure of the "information / attention / netocratic economy." Partly what makes it hard to hear the message is that people like counting money, we're so used to it. And partly money is still so relevant to our endeavors. So even among people who get your point and agree with it, it's still hard not to think in terms of money.

I liked this post by Mike Masnick "Saying You Can't Compete With Free Is Saying You Can't Compete Period."

TCP/IP vs. the Dollar highlights the platform war and that's useful. Seeing the difference might actually help in finding ways to make money along the lines that Masnick suggests.

Status is not an insignificant issue, so it seems to me that good ways of measuring the significance of an offering in the "information / attention / netocratic economy" are important to develop. I'm not sure, but I wonder if such measures would lessen the difficulty of finding talented managers for Open Source companies that Rajesh Setty mentions?