Economy of The Web

Based on an Asia e-University Masters Degree Coursebook
WEB ECONOMY
Its Era and Impact to Open Source ERP, A Practical Approach
REDHUAN D. OON
The ADempiere
Open Source ERP Project
Asian Exec Master in Open Source ERP - http://www.aeu.edu.my
C602 - Asian Executive
Master in Open Source ERP
Conquering The World of Industry and Commerce

Study Approach
▪ The mode of study is self research under guidance and discussion. The student is
encouraged to be communicative, sociable, creative, resourceful and critical. Wise non-
conformity is a plus. Publishing or writing one's works and thoughts in the suggested
places and in own original words can give excellent marks.
▪ From day one, the student joins Web 2.0 projects such as the chatroom, blogs, forums,
wikiversity and SourceForge where exposed interactivity can occur with the community
at large. Those who can solicit participation from others are considered successful
advocates.
▪ The students are to use heavily the web and to derive source materials for creating
their own pages based on the whole course roadmap which is purposely indicative and
not exhaustive.
▪ The students have to act as a whole team to devise ways to make a better impression
to attract the right attention and build a professional image.

Study Schedule Schema
A. Credit Hour: 3 hours (120 learning hours per semester)
1. Self Independent Study - 42
2. Tutorial / Face-to-Face Interaction - 12
3. Online Interaction - 30
4. Doing Assignments - 18
5. Examination Preparation - 18
B. Teaching Method: Self Independent Study, Tutorial and On-line Participation
C. Assessment Detail:
1. On-line Participation 10%

2. Individual Assignment 10%
3. Case Study/Group Assignment 20%

4. Mid Term Exam 20%
5. Final Examination 40%
Module Topics Schema

This subject module comprises of 33 interesting topics grouped according to 9 major chapters
of focus. This student manual is the raw content for the online e-learning facility under
production by Asia e-University.
DISCLAIMER
This book is for free distribution to promote its content and its copyright holders. It is not for resale or any other
commercial purposes. You may print it without any edit whatsoever for non-profit purpose and solely for
promoting free and open source software. This nowithstanding, if there are copyright challenges to any of the
contents, the original author here shall make self amends only to its source document and not be responsible for
any other copy out there which remains the liability and responsbility of others. For best compliance please
update from source at http://red1.org/aaa/WebEconomy.zip. For those seeking certification from this university
course will need to go to http://www.aeu.edu.my.
Redhuan D. Oon
www.red1.org

C602 - Executive Master in Open Source ERP WEB ECONOMY
MODULE 1 - The Web Economy
January 19, 2009 Course I
The Web Economy - Its Era and Impact to Open Source ERP, A
Practical Approach.
This module examines the singular impact of the web upon the software economy. Open
Source ERP is a result of an online community that heavily depends on the Web's space of
freely available tools and applications. It is also maturing with lots of anchor domains and
ready and new audiences. The Web is also home to many commercial entities and interests
crouching into the advantage and territory of Open Source. We have to grasp and appreciate
as well as understand some of the forces that shape its form and strategy and importantly its
future direction in order to thrive optimally.
Module Outline grasp as they are still very new and evolving at the
This module is an important foundation that will same time.
govern the students' behaviour in been a future and
successful Open Source ERP practitioner. Critical Module Objective
understanding of the principles that ensure better and The objectives of this module are:
faster evolving of a software product and knowledge To explore the impact of the explosive Web and
base versus the traditional version. Among the Open Source on certain economies, its trends,
subject matters covered are how software and business software development
development is affected by Open Source, its pros
To provide important exposure and skills in web
and cons, community open source versus
social engineering for Free and Open Source
commercial open source, Total Cost of Ownerships,
ERP (FOSS ERP)
and critical issues facing users of OS ERP.
To grasp the rules of creating a self-sustaining
web presence.
Prior Knowledge To prepare for practical work during the
This course module assumes no prior technical technical subjects of software development and
knowledge by the students. Of course it assumes the project management
students possess a deep interest in such subjects and
are willing to read up extensively around the
subjects. It is because some concepts are difficult to Online Workshop
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/The Web Economy
Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 1
1. WHAT IS THE WEB?

• Consequences of the Web on global economy and human
behaviour. ................................ Page 12
1.1 The Web is The Computer

This topic exposes the impact of the web on the
desktop environment, making it borderless as if it is
in the same room. .................................... Page 14
1.2 The Web Changes Everything

This topic goes further to see how the web transforms
both social and economic activity. ......... Page 19
1.3 The Attention Economy

This topic explains the main constraint upon the users
and thus how it is used in determining a web based
economic or social model. ..................... Page 24

2. THE HAPPENING WEB

• Various basis of Web Economies. ................................ Page 30
2.1 Traffic is King

This topic explains how some models assume that
traffic is a sole determinant of success. .... Page 32
2.2 Content is King.

This topic explains how content can determine user
behaviour. ............................................... Page 36
2.3 Community is King

This topic regards a political view that there must be
community with leadership in the chaotic web. Pg 41

3. THE WEB AND YOU

• Reinventing Yourself On The Web ............................ Page 49
3.1 Email and Mailing Lists

This topic looks at Email as a killer app that is
ubiquitous to all users. ............................. Page 51
3.2 Forums and Blogs

This topic looks at how buletin boards has become a
cornerstone in web social activity. ........... Page 58
3.3 Second Life

This topic looks at to what extent can the web
displaces real social activity and experience. Page 63

4. THE CATHEDRAL AND THE BAZAAR

• When Linux and Apache began to make an impact and serious
challenge to proprietary software, it revolutionises the way
software development is thought to be done.
• However there are still differences of opinion as to what are the
right ingredients that produce quality software in the end.
• There is also the question of priority, of which comes first -
something good enough to kick-start the whole process, or the
community that is expert enough to improve it
................................. Page 69
4.1 Brief History of Open Source

How Software Development Was Originally Done. This
topic allows the student to know the truth about the way
software was learnt and evolved among the learning
fraternity. ........................................................ Page 71
4.2 Linus vs Tannenbaum

Why Releasing Early is Better Than Releasing Better.
This topic examines the context behind Linux's success
from the creators' points of views. ................. Page 76
4.3 Bazaar Culture and Policy

Why Giving Away Is Something Good. This topic
examines some salient learning points in the famous Eric
Raymond's article. ......................................... Page 80
4.4 Microsoft vs The World

Dynamics of an Eco-system. This topic looks at how
proprietary software is hitting back with their own
version of Open Source Software and how it can impact
the users and their adoption. .......................... Page 84

5. GETTING ONLINE AND STAYING

ONLINE
• The basic criteria for participating in the web economy is to get
online and staying online.
• There are contemporary tools and tactics that gets you there.
• Note that such tools and manners may change in the fast paced
web economy.
• Here you get to learn and use them hands-on within a live
project. ................................ Page 89
5.1 Critical Tools and Skills

This topic brings the student to practice the tools
needed to create their online presence in the most
optimal manner. ................................. Page 91
5.2 Levels of Participation

This topic looks at the constraints and ways users stay
online and in touch. ........................... Page 93
5.3 Social Engineering

This topic looks at a sensitive subject on how to
become acceptable and effective in a virtual
world .................................................. Page 97

6. TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP

• A cost table of aquiring a product today goes beyond just the
starting price of the product.
• It involves learning how to use and keep it in use.
• Ease of use and negligible operational impact scores high
earnings to a user.
• Even uncertainty and emotion can also be a cost.
................................ Page 103
6.1 Why aren't everyone using

Linux?
This topic looks at how TCO is influencing the
adoption equation of the users. ............ Page 105
6.2 Costs of Gaps

This topic looks further at how each gap may cost
differently in real terms. ...................... Page 109
6.3 TCO Pyramid

This topic introduces the comparison model of value
versus adoption level. .......................... Page 115
6.4 TCO Strategy

This topic looks at various ways to approach a long
term effectiveness in closing TCO gaps. .. Page 119

7. WEB FOR BUSINESS

• The web is the new explosive medium to do business
• It has and shall continue to reinvent or create new wealth.
• It is like the Wild Wild West all over again.
• Are the rules the same as before or some new magic formula is
controlling cyberspace? ................................ Page 124
7.1 Branding Philosophy

This topic looks at the importance of branding in a
borderless web ................................... Page 126
7.2 Marketshare and Mindshare

This topic looks at how to achieve territory in a
virtual world ................................... Page 130
7.3 Collaborative Community

This topic looks at how a virulent community can
help market and brand a project ....... Page 134
7.4 Seeking a Niche

This topic looks at the need to seek a segment and
niche well among the players .......... Page 138
7.5 Positioning and Aligning

This topic looks at more advanced scenarios of
evolving more effectively among players. Pg 141

8. CONTEMPORARY OPEN SOURCE

• Open Source has attracted alot of commercial interest
• There is great effort to create lucrative models out of it
• Can a true Open Source project survive in the long term?
................................ Page 146
8.1 Licensing & Business Models

This topic looks at the licensing types in use by FOSS
projects and products. .............................. Page 148
8.2 Community OS vs Commercial

OS
This topic looks at how Open Source is now divided
between such issues and their difference of
conduct. .................................................... Page 155
8.3 Business As Usual

This topic looks at how business profiteering comes
into play in FOSS projects. ..................... Page 159
8.4 Institutionalising Open Source

This topic looks at the important role institutions
might play in such FOSS projects ........... Page 163

9. NEXT GENERATION
• Open Source only furthers technology itself in disruptive ways.
• There can be convergence of previous technologies or
completely new unexpected areas.
• When tools and reference source becomes readily available, a
bottom up revolution of innovation can spring easily.
................................ Page 172
9.1 Era of Convergence

This topic explains to the student how various
applications are converging on a singular window of
experience for the users. .................... Page 174
9.2 Google-ERP
The Single Window. This topic shows how an
ubiquitous application may become everything to
everyone. ........................................ Page 177
9.3 IPhone-ERP
Sensory Computing. This topic looks at a particular
scenario where the phone may be the window of
experience in the web economy. ...... Page 180
9.4 Universal Supply Chain

This topic looks at the future of web-based ERP
where all players and products are in a common cloud
of interdependent activity. ............... Page 183

References
http://dreamsongs.com/IHE/IHE.html Innovation Happens Elsewhere
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Main_Page Weath of Networks
w:Tanenbaum-Torvalds_debate|Linus vs Tanenbaum
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ Cathedral and the Bazaar
http://www.sociosite.net/topics/websoc.php Sociosite
http://itinvestmentresearch.com/trendsthisday.aspx IT Investment Research
http://perens.com/Articles/Economic.html Economics of Open Source
http://www.aseansec.org/pdf/sme_policies_1.pdf SME Potential in Asia Pacific
http://slashdot.org/features/98/12/28/1745252.shtml Lurker Culture
Activities
▪ Publish your discussions, research or works in an attractive manner in your user page,
stating your own views and findings providing links to your sources. Use the talk page
in the wiki to score marks.
▪ Create or edit sub-pages of course materials within wikiversity.
▪ Discuss in the forum (link shall be provided) by offering your ideas and answering or
comment on others' postings.

CHAPTER 1
What Is The Web?

Learning Outcomes • Analyse what businesses most likely affected via

the use of the web;
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Explain how the term Attention Economy comes
• Provide examples on how the web impact normal about;
PC users;
• Understand that human attention is a cost on its
• Explain the terms ‘prosuming’ and ‘info-product’; own;
• Show how the Web helps in Open Source projects • Explain why certain online effort goes unnoticed;
particularly ADempiere;
Introduction The Web brought about not only such storms in the
business world but irreversible behaviour and trends
The Web is still recent been popularly heard in for the people that could get online and particularly
Malaysia only around 1996 and during that time for new generations who are born in the 90s
hardly many users could get onto it as the access onwards. For they won’t know a time before the
method was dialup to a land line phone number. Also Web. Unlike many of us reading this!
the applications to use on the web were still crude
such as Eudora for email, Netscape Navigator So what is the Web actually? Is it just an inter-
browser for viewing web-pages and Yahoo! for connected mass of computers with cheap harddisks
searching information. and lots of people exchanging information that
ranges from uselss junk to long running movies?
Needless to say, the information returned from the
searches was still little. The pictures presented in Is it the new medium that all business will one day
most web-pages were quite simple and small or else run on? Is it going to replace many of today’s jobs
they took a long time to download. Sound or movie and also know-hows? Or know-whos?
files were unheard of those days. You can say that Will tomorrow’s universities be teaching say artistic
the mid 90s are truly the cave-age of the Web! The subjects that are web-centric instead of the old paint
80s will be considered prehistoric times! and brush, knowing that Photoshop is around?
Today about 10 years or so on, we have seemed to There is a saying that internet time has replaced
get past difficult dial-up as we mostly get onto the world time where 1 month in the Internet is the same
web via DSL broadband that is always online as 1 year in earth time! If there is progress on the
(something that is a miracle when I first hear of it Web which is too much and too fast and too furious,
comparing with the fax-sounding dial-up), The web- how will the human beings with unevolved learning
pages always appear almost instantly, and movies and social capacity get to cope or keep up?
now play like I am at a cinema.
We cannot finish our cup of tea in 1 quarter the time
In the late 90s and early 00s, the dotcom bubble we used to. Even if we can, we mostly likely won’t
happened where too many dotcoms sprung up to want to. We prefer to hug a real person and spend
copycat the Nasdaq successes of Yahoo!, Netscape, more time with him or her, and in real life, rather
eBay, Amazon and Hotmail (which wasn’t listed in than Second Life. Even before we can finish
Nasdaq but got bought over by Microsoft for thinking about this, the Web has moved further
USD420 million!) ahead of us. We may never catch up.

1.1 The Web is The Computer
‘The Internet Is The Computer’[1]. Such a phrase was Wide Web, and thus it will seem that you have the
circulated by a global IT entity some time ago during whole web at your disposal.
the beginning of the web era.
With the advent of more powerful and wider coverage
Been interconnected into a large mass, peer-to-peer broadband facilities, you can almost be online most of
prosuming has created a sum total larger than its the time at any place.
individual members and became the new economy[2].
You would also have most of your virtual assets and
The large significance is that when you are on a PC resources such as email, contacts, database and most
today in any of the major cities or suburbs, you most used information stored entirely on the web.
likely are able to get connected online to the World
This fact has momentous impact to your life and the
way you work. At least it carries great potential.

This is because most Open Source a quantum leap to their project or

or in fact all Open Source projects business model.
been free and readily available are
also by definition downloadable Impact On Old School
via any internet connection. But for conventional businesses,
having everything in the same
When we began to understand this room may not be ideal or
Web Economy, we shall see that desirable. You can say that before
the cost of distributing such the Internet, humans pay alot to go
software and products has become faster. With the Internet, humans
Who Benefits? utterly negligible or non-existent. pay to slow others down or stop
Of course, you may say everyone others from hacking into their
benefits. Now you can just work The cost of replicating a copy of system, or gaining unauthorised
from home or just get online electronic product of which we access.
anywhere at anytime to get your can call any software today is thus
email or correspondence from zero. Conventional businesses also
friends or colleagues. wants people to pay for getting
What Ha ppens To anything faster than before. But
However in the Web Economy, it Others? with the web, things are at light
is not just about consuming the For those who do not use this new speeds. Therefore those businesses
information or been mere users. model of distributing their may not be able to make money in
software for example, they may the same way or have to find a
Those who produce information or stand to lose out. At least they new way to make money.
other forms of info-products that have to change their ways of doing
the rest consume stands to earn business with their software. For our ADempiere project (see
much more. Do You Know That below), its to
Proprietary Software such as our greatest advantage to have all
In fact many billionaires are made Microsoft do use the web the software, its tools and assets
by just been the first to put out extensively but they still impose accessible by the whole
certain utilities or info-products certain conditions that may negate community without restriction. As
before anyone else does. Good the advantage the Web provides by an open source project, we
examples are Hotmail, Yahoo! and been totally connected. generate value when more
e-Bay. developers can see our codes and
Proprietary concerns will impose share its bug fixes and know-how.
So What? restrictions such as non-disclosure
For the world of Open Source or non-distributability of paid Having the web, removes any
particularly it is of great software. costs that will outherwise have
importance and potential. Today made it too expensive to share in
you can go and download the Thus for Open Source Software such a free and open fashion. For
source-codes and project files or that is free and available and example we don’t have to waste
information related to an Open wants to be downloaded and time travelling and meeting at set
Source project easily. distributed to a mass market times when the web allows remote
quickly, the interconnected web is and asynchronous meetings.

Chat-Rooms & Forums

▪ The screenshot above is from a chatroom where members of the ADempiere project can
converse with each other and keep track of the project progress in real-time.
▪ The chat-room gives the appearance for those involved as if they are in a single room at
the same time.
▪ The chat-room conversation is stored in a log file in each participantʼs own computer so
that they can refer to it if they were away during the conversation.
▪ However such conversations are not threaded and will be published as a single long
thread. Whereas forums can allow multiple threads according to topics. But forums does
not push back feedback in real-time as seen above.
▪ However forums are important in organising discussions and managing time because
you do not need to be in the room all the time and you can check back forum posts via
email trackers. (more about this in later topics)
▪ Still some participants prefer to be in a chat-room as they feel more comfortable ʻface-to-
faceʼ with other people rather than reading a maillist where the other people seem
absent.


Research
▪ Want to give away one hour of your life? See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=72nfrhXroo8&feature=channel
▪ Who created the Web and what is his famous
term of describing the Web as?
Discussion
▪ Who is the IT entity that coined such a slogan
and why?
▪ What does it mean?
▪ How does it impact an ordinary user?
▪ Who benefits most from the web?

Did You Know That?

▪ Before I wrote this course, I managed to become famous by contributing tutorials online
free of charge? You can see the forums in my website http://red1.org/ . From the
guestbook there you see many users from all over the world gave me kudos for what I
did mostly from my farm home in Kuang, 25 km from Kuala Lumpur that is surrounded
by rubber plantations and monkeys! The difference is that I have a broadband line. That
started in June, 2003.
▪ In September, 2006, the worldwide community that uses Compiere, the pioneering first-
class ERP Software that went open source had a discussion in red1.org forum and
together we forked into a new project called ADempiere. It is now top-ranked and is
growing by leaps and bounds, all thanks to individuals strewn all over the globe, and
mostly worked like me right from a home or office base connected to the web.
▪ I have done projects negotiated online as far as New York and Bonn, having been paid
in US Dollars and Euros without even leaving my farm home.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Open Source Alternative term for free software that even its sourcecode is free.
Second Life A social networking website that tries hard to replicate human-like
conditions and surroundings.
Peer-To-Peer Signify a form of communication that is on an open and even basis of

authority unlike formal commnunication. Mostly witnessed among mutual
friends at a noisy party.
Prosuming A term coined by Alvin Toffler, from two words - Consuming and
Producing. It is an act of producing while consuming as seen in blogs.
Info-Product Refers to tangible products that one can trade or exchange but they exist
entirely in electronic or digital form. Software is one such candidate.
Web Economy A new term that referes to the economic or social activity that has
economic significance that are largely driven by the existence of the web.
Asynchronous Need not be in synch or of the same time occurence. One can start first and
another can get it at a later time.
DSL Digital Subscriber Line is a technology for bringing high-bandwidth to

homes over ordinary copper line.
Essay Test
▪ If Open Source Software is distributed free over the web, why does it has economic
significance?
▪ Since Malaysia has also easy and cheap web access, why arenʼt there many others
here who became rich and famous as those who created Hotmail, Google or YouTube?

1.2 The Web Changes Everything
Today almost everyone you know visited websites. you could have hope for before the coming of the
You may be like countless typical humans today web.
having a blogspot or facebook or a plain website of
your own, with your own content and interests. You most likely have shared photos, video clips and
even speak to each other across thousands of miles.
You most likely must have made new friends via the On top of that, it may not have cost you beyond the
web through chat rooms and even those from places cost of internet broadband access, which is only about
you most likely will not visit or even see them in USD20 per month for a common home in Malaysia.
physical form.
All this is was not possible before the web.
Even so, your experience with this new phenomena
may be as rich if not made richer and more vast than

Economic Impact about it can save you money as something that can be captured,
The 'Internet Changes well as the factory producing it. stored, converted, distributed and
Everything'[3] is another phrase consumed quite freely via the web,
It need not have a warehouse to it can be made free. Since almost
circulated by another global IT
store the car if it knows who is everyone has almost equal access
entity some time ago during the
buying and when it is expected. to the web which in many places
beginning of the web era.
are freely available and at a low
This concept is now known as Just
It so happens that most of our cost, chances are such information
In Time or JIT.
modern work today is digitisable will become free. If you do not
in nature and thus managed in an make a certain information public,
If there are no orders for a certain
electronic form and through such someone else will do that before
car, then that car need not even
medium. you.
exist!
Thus files of documents, codes,
Chaos and Disruption Some Information
formulas, certification, financial Are Not Equal
info, passwords, scans, pictures, The nature of the web can and has
voice, movies, and replicas can Open source by definition means
caused great chaos and disruption
exist totally as digital info that is opening up the sourcecode of a
to businesses and even the
stored, transmitted and processed software to be seen and
economy.
in the web environment. downloadeable by anyone without
For example Amazon.com became restriction. Sourcecode itself is
This means that one can move a serious threat to the physical still raw and crude information
complete economies into the web version of established businesses because not everyone understand
medium. We have seen that such as Barnes and Nobles. how to code. For example not
happening with the news media, everyone, in fact most people do
entertainment industry, and other Google when it went public did so not know how to read the Java
forms of seeming brick and mortar via the web and not through the code that ADempiere is written in.
ones such as books, property, usual Wall Street brokers, and
trading and food. when it did so with a big bang, For Wikipedia, many people
completely rewrite the way would know how to read and write
Even though many goods are business can be done from then in English and thus participate in
physical in nature or at source, on. the thousands in the Wikipedia
their information is not. project. But for ADempiere we see
Wikipedia is another example of a much less eager participation. This
Displaced by virtual encyclopedia that uses the constraint is dependant on the
Information web to grow exponentially until it know-how and expertise that you
In fact the informational value of a is now more readily accessed to have. It is part of the cost of
physical item is much more higher than the Britannica. ownership covered in a later
than its physical counterpart in chapter. But again, lots of
certain instances completely Information Wants information on how to understand
displaced the item itself. To Be Free ADempiere can and has been
made free. It is a matter of time
For instance say you have a car A new saying began to emerge in for more and more to get onboard.
you want to buy. Correct info which since information is

Think About It
▪ The new generation born in the 90s grow up with the Web and may think life without it
is backward and strange.
▪ The social freedom brought by the web may make us a global generation with a global
consciousness that blurs the lines of national and cultural differences.
Now Everyone is New Rules? Digital Divide

Online Whenever something this new and In the real world there is a gap
You name it. CNN, politicians, this big emerges, it also draw up between the ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-
filmstars, your local government, new rules or re-examines the old Nots’. In the digital world there is
your neighbourhood committee. rules. a new gap between the ‘Knows’
Even your cat. and ‘Know-Nots’.
It also raised controversy and
Been online creates on its own a debate as to what really change or This digital divide still reflects a
virtual huge community but a real did not change. bias in favour of the west[4] and
community nevertheless. developed nations versus the
Many are easily taken up by the emerging economies. So what
It is now up to the businesses that fad and wave and believed that it really changed?
operates outside it to adapt and can change everything that the
transfer their business process web touches. Poorer nations are still consumers,
onto the web so that the virtual whereas richer nations are the
Many have made bets and lost chief producers of information,
community can make use of it and
when they realised that not content and applications.
pays for it where needed.
everything changes as they think it
This has made many new should. Or at least not in the exact The issue is not just having web
businesses very rich and put out fashion or timing. access. It is still a passive 3rd
many old businesses out of world condition if you can get on
Some of their assumptions of the net but not producing anything
business.
change only occurs much later or that can create wealth for yourself.
But to be successful online in an entirely interesting new way.
encounters new knowledge about Open Source can give you a
how and what determines its chance to change that.
outcome.
Research
▪ Try and find out from the web and predict what kind of dotcom or service may be a
future hit or killer similar to what Hotmail, Google or YouTube.
▪ Do a search for your full name or associated identity such as your school or club or
nickname and note the anything interesting or unexpected.

Quote
▪ Alvin Toffler regards new wealth as been created from nowhere (cyberspace) and noted
that its done through prosuming[5].
Discussion
▪ Who is the IT entity that coined such a slogan and why?
▪ What has changed and what has not?
▪ How does it change the software industry?
▪ How are emerging economies using the web to become info-producers and thriving on
it?
▪ This course is an example of prosuming where the students help create this course as
it goes along. Discuss what advantages this novelty has over conventional courses. Do
you agree with such a concept for yourself as a student?
Did You Know That?

▪ Malaysia was the first to implement the concept of Multi-media Super Corridor (MSC)
with 7 Flagship Applications that were unprecedented in 1996. Some of those daring
experiments faced daunting challenges.
▪ Dr. Lester Thurow described the Web as no quantum leap but merely a telegraph line
with pictures. He only consider the jump from the pony express to the telegraph as a
true quantum leap for human progress.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Brick & Mortar Conventional businesses outside the web.
Online Having a presence or conducting activity through the web
Fad A temporary occurence due to a new idea, that dies off easily.
Digitisable Can be converted into electronic and digital information or form.
Cultural Difference Something that is different from one person to another depending mostly
on the way they were brought up.
Conventional Refering to the usual or old way of doing things or conducting business.
Essay Test
▪ When everyone in the world has equal access to the web, who shall benefit the most
and how?
▪ In what ways can a country take advantage of the web for improving its economy?
▪ Since everything on the web came from somewhere else, does the web create anything
new on its own?

1.3 The Attention Economy
You and I only have 24 hours in a day. Take away the New concepts crop up such as ‘Portal’ or ‘Vortal’ to
sleeping hours and time spent elsewhere, we only push the right content for our attention in a ‘Single
have a limited time online. Even when we do get Window’.
online, we can only see one site at a time.
We now avoid reading a lot of junk email which is
The issue here is that we have only one pair of eyes filtered mostly by anti-spam software. So the question
and only one brain to focus on what we see. Now we is that are we becoming more informed when we
all know that there are limitless amount of content choose what we read instead of what is out there?
and websites to visit on the web. It seems endless and
probably largely unknown or we shall never get to see As in economics science about the Law of Supply and
most of it in our lifetime. Demand - there is unlimited supply of information but
a limited demand or counter-supply of attention from
users.

Information Rich? In the end we can become truly Switching Costs

As the Web explodes with endless confused and undecided of what
we should or should not attend to In real life the costs are much
content, the human user has only
while on the web. higher. You cannot just switch
limited time and attention[6].
your restaurant, home, office or
The mind can only spend at a The Single Window vacation. Switching your TV
single site or window at a time and This is where such a concept channel may be the closest but
not all at once. comes in. Now the only way to there are not that many channels
ensure your attention is to limit as there are sites on the web. For
This interestingly created the that you only refer to one window the web, the switching costs is
condition called ‘Attention [8] or go through one window each very low or non-existence at all.
Poverty’. No one expects the poor time you get on the web. You just click on something else
to exist in an information rich and you have left a site for
environment. It will try to make you go to that another.
site first for you to conduct if
It is thus quite fruitless to try to
Attention Poverty possible all your business and
stop anyone from leaving your
Even though we are reading more affairs.
website or informational value
and more or have greater access
Now portal will try to even push repository. Someone else could
than ever to endless information
anticipated information or services easily replicate what you did and
today, any site or content out there
based on our surfing history fork into a new repository.
will have to compete for our
attention[7]. without us even asking in the It seems that no one can claim
search engine. ownership on information and it
There is only a limited amount of will become highly neutral and
singular attention each one of us Mental Cost resistant to any individual claim of
can give while surfing the web. ownership.
In the end it is fine with us to have
Our limited time span has and just one site or window to look at The Compiere project was some
could not changed at all since the first because humans will click months earlier (before
cave age. less and also think less as these are ADempiere) forked by OpenBravo
mentally expensive. that has rewritten its user interface
Thus instead of becoming rich and made its own resource on the
with information, the web has This brings us back to basics of project, hoping to ride on
become poor and hungered for our advertising which thrives on such Compiere’s success and even
attention. mental burden. Advertisment is an overcome it due to its own solving
art of positioning and juggle for of the weakness in Compiere.
Each added content makes that our attention. However with the birth of
poverty increases further. ADempiere, some users switched
That is why advertising is very from both Compiere and
Each content that manages to expensive. Even so now on the OpenBravo to ADempiere.
catch our attention only robs web, they compete fiercely for
another content from catching our your attention. Been a difficult area this ERP, the
attention. time and attention of resources
will have to choose which project
to focus and depend on.
Very seldom would anyone be We would tend to be more old method but it has been largely
able to focus on more than one. privacy-conscious and reject any stopped just like spam by effective
Thus it is also more economical intrusion to our attention span filters.
for public users to share all either via spam or unsolicited
Today marketers are smarter and
information openly in a central emails.
spread rumours or other shockers
location to avoid attention
I myself tend to reject Yahoo in chain letter form so that you
dilution.
Messenger requests to become my will pass it to friends and they
friends because i do not feel keep passing on and on till almost
Distraction comfortable having strangers everyone knows about it when in
Have you ever become irritated whom i suspect only have some fact its original intent may be
when for example distracting business needs or demands on my hidden or similar to spam.
windows kept popping up to try to time which is precious to me.
grab your attention while your are
I would only entertain requests
trying to read something?
that are either of business value to The Non-Intrusive
This try to divert attention which me or are my close friends or Twitter
result in loss of focus and that is relatives.
A latest fad is Twitter that pays
undesirable to business people or
Evolving to Web 2.0 attention to this short attention
serious surfers who carries some span and privacy needs of users.
buying power or decision making Now the web is said to evolve to
authority. Web 2.0 [9] which allows the users Twitter is designed to accept only
to self-publish in a more assertive 140 characters of text from each
Blank Page mode rather than remain as submission and is simple in
You must have seen advertisers passive viewers. concept of following another
using a whole page that is blank Twitter member without intruding
The web distinguish itself from on your time.
except for a short line to grab your
other media such as newspapers
attention.
and television which we have no N o n - V e r b a l
This is what Google seems to be control as to what it publish or Communication
doing when they differentiate from respond back with our own views
or contents. You may have known this theory
Yahoo! by not giving any pop-up
that says non-verbal or body
or adverts on their search page.
Today there are lots of social language communication is much
Soon Google began to be more portals and sites that offer Web 2.0 more effective than verbal text or
interesting to use rather than content which are mostly provided image.
Yahoo! or MSN that has heavy by 3rd party users.
Humans been humans still feel
distraction and advertising effort.
Sometimes a good site does not more comfortable when you are
Privacy have any content of its own. face to face while talking to them.
When you become more Intrusive Virus and Thus chat-rooms has given rise to
empowered with lots of choice Spam more phone calls and hotel lobby
you do not feel a need to refer to meetings as well as increase air
anyone else for directions as you You must have received lots of travel than before.
can find out yourself easily online. spam in your email. Virus was an

Research
▪ What sites do you visit most? Why?
▪ If you havenʼt, create your own blog and write something interesting about yourself.
Then check on how much attention you receive.
▪ Find out what sites uses Web 2.0 very well. What are other techniques they use to
draw attention and massive popularity.
Discussion
▪ How would new sites or startups compete for the right users' attention?
▪ Find out what sites that are good but received surprisingly little attention.
▪ Would users be paid for giving attention to a site? How would that site make money
then?
Did You Know That?

▪ The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir receives millions of visitors
through his blog? Much more than anyone ever had in Malaysia, even though he has
retired. Thousands of visitors rushed to submit comments to his blog each time he
posted. I tried to draw attention to my own blog by submitting a good comment in Dr.
Mahathirʼs blog and backlinking to mine when I signed off.
▪ You can get prosecuted by the government in some countriesʼ cyberlaws if you pass on
a chain letter that contains seditious or criminal content?

Glossary

Terms Definition
Portal A site that functions as a point of access to information on the Internet
Spam Unsolicited or undesired bulk email messages
Pop-Up A form of online advertising
Web 2.0 A concept of using the Web in a more creative manner than before.
Yahoo Messenger Instant messaging client that can connects you to another IM client so you
can chat directly and privately.
Essay Test
▪ Is the Web taking over conventional forms of advertising such as TV and radio? Explain
why and how?
▪ Whats the best way to grab a personʼs attention on the web?

Summary
▪ The existence of the Web technically extends your normal PC into a global info tool
▪ You now have a chance to publish your works and be known easily.
▪ You have to contribute something that no one else has done yet, to make an impact.
▪ You can profit from such a Web Economy particularly via Open Source expertise.
▪ Any informational nature of a business or activity is controllable via the web
▪ Businesses can use the web to increase its value over competitors who do not.
▪ The production and consumption of information is at the heart of the web economy.
▪ Those who produces more information tends to benefit most.
▪ Information consumes attention and attention is limited thus making attention a scarce
resource on the web that has unlimited information.
▪ Advertising aggresively competes for our attention on the web.
▪ Content providers try to hold our attention by holding us to a single window.
▪ The art of attention grabbing is still evolving and we expect more tricks to come.
▪ The Web can backfire and make conventional forms of marketing more relevant and
effective.
References
1. ↑ http://www.isp-planet.com/perspectives/internet_computer.html
2. ↑ http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_40/b3649004.htm
3. ↑ http://webhostingreality.blogspot.com/2008/01/internet-prediction-devices-that-
talk.html
4. ↑ http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/hermeking.html
5. ↑ http://davidllorito.blogspot.com/2007/03/blogging-is-prosuming-or-review-of.html
6. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1834682.stm
7. ↑ http://mis.ucd.ie/research/itaide/pressDec072006/
8. ↑ http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php
9. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

CHAPTER 2
The Happening Web

Learning Outcomes • Provide guidance on how to get to the right

content.
• Understand how a community is the best thing to
• Explain how certain sites became successful in happen to a site’s traffic and content;
generating traffic;
• List down reasons why a commnuity gathered at a
• Figure out how to convert traffic to business value; certain site or online project;
• See the context of visitor traffic in the Web • Grasp what it takes to manage a community.
Economy.
• Describe the form of community politics that
• Explain why some sites are visited due to its makes it robust and thriving.
growing content;
• Understand how Open Source projects depend on
• List down reasons why certain content appeal more communities to be successful.
than others;
Introduction When my company in 2000 got the chance to have

Siti Nurhaliza (the top singing sensation in Malaysia
People quickly began to take on the web in many big that time) to become our pet project, where I became
ways. A new maxin called the 3Cs began to emerge her webmaster with exclusive rights to her backstage
that says, “Content, Community, Commerce”. This and studio sessions, having the best footage, we
means if you can get content and then you can draw thought that we have made it for good. That we are
the community, and then you can get commercial in our own dotcom dream, and a trip to California.
value. It was that simple. Or so it seems when it
comes to the earliest dotcoms on anything. We did get a million hits within a month. Papers
splashed our venture all round. But that dream soon
But of course, when some big idea breaks out, just came crashing down, abit slower than it came up, but
like in the old wild, wild, west days (which you can crash it did.
put as WWW too!), thousands will rush in, carrying
spades, buckets and wagons with whole family Most of her preteen fans have no plastic or credit
loads. Then dreams were shattered, and no gold was cards as we call it. So they could not purchase her
there. However some towns did sprung up and other merchandise easily. It was still an early age where e-
ideas or trades could flourish. commerce wasn’t that matured. It was still an age
before ADSL broadband. Music and video clips were
Subsequent waves of users began to find more clumsy. YouTube wasn’t around, and if it was, we
meaningful usage of the web. It need not be for the weren’t even sure how to commercialise it. Come to
gold. It can be for socialising, or keeping in touch think of it, how come we didn’t think of creating
with distant relatives. It can be for doing something YouTube!?
too trivial but now possible in a big way.
The Web is still been chased around for that pot of
And many even fell off the bandwagon, disillusioned gold somewhere. For us in open source, it dawns on
as to what the Web was originally thought to be. some that it could just be a real good repository to
Some gave the Web a bad name. As easy as people organise the project and nothing else. If there is
jumped into a fanatical frenzy, as equal they now money to be made, it may be better if you just put up
trust the Web as the last place on earth to make a lemonade stall outside your farm road or sell some
money. of your local produce. It is still a real world after all.
2.1 Traffic Is King
The magic of the web is that it cost almost nothing to With high traffic, word of mouth has spread that
click on a site. There is no limit to how many can brings alot of attention to a certain site. This in turn
click on the same site. A site can suddenly receive can translate to monetary or business value.
millions of hits.

Build and they come every email or other site only Hotmail’s creator has made his
During the early days of the web, dilutes and clutters attention. money when he sold it to
there were hardly many sites to Microsoft.
Today it is not really advantagous
visit. Whatever was started first
if you launch a new email domain Google made money by beating
received the most hits or visits.
service or online delivery system. Yahoo! and garner to more traffic
Those early sites such as Yahoo! by just been advertising and
You got to differentiate from the clutter free and thus faster in
and Hotmail and also the first free
herd that is flooding the market. returning search results to users.
popular browser Netscape became
instant hits even though they were
crude and primitive by today’s Second Wave Skype made money by connecting
to land line phones of most
standards. After the crash, more sober and
countries when they share the
serious new models emerge
income with local telephone
First Mover Fame mainly around social engineering
companies operating those lines.
In the Web it seems that a good sites such as FaceBook and
strategy or spike[1] can make that YouTube. IBM made money by selling
happen almost overnight. Hotmail
Every new service that sprung up services around popular free
was the first global free email that
in the web today will have to software such as Linux and
began to dominate most of the
incorporate some distinct Apache.
users in the world. It created lots
of traffic to its www.hotmail.com advantage to force users to adopt
them instead of what they already Returning Traffic
site. Other successful traffic
pullers were Netscape and Yahoo!. enjoyed now. An explosive traffic is usually due
One added difficulty new models to visitors returning again and
Followers Lose would face is that the web today is again to the same site. In
When the first movers shocked the quite matured in today’s standards ADempiere that will have to
world with their sudden multi- where present leaders of the pack happen because installing an ERP
million dollar success, many enjoy high traffic that won’t easily or maintaining one is difficult for
wannabes began to follow and go away anytime soon. newbies and they have to get help
copycat the idea. and they wouldn’t find the ready
Free VOIP phone service such as made tutorials written by me or
Since the public has no reason to Skype already has millions of anyone else there able to solve
move away from what is already happy users that enjoy its clear every single problem that they
available from the first movers, high fidelity in voice might encounter along the way.
those copycats die and help transmissions. A new contender
contribute to the DotCom Bubble would have to do better perhaps Even if there is information
that end up giving the Web putting in an automatic voice filter already published on what they
Economy a bad name. for unwanted calls or forwarder to been seeking for, people tend to be
voice sms. impulsive and impatient, thus
Too Much Dilutes resulting in more chatter, forums
As traffic becomes so important Making Money threads and interactions. This is all
[2], spam-like conditions[3] occurs Yahoo! has made money out of good - the more noiser the better.
and having your site stated in advertising and aggregated Not to worry, traffic jams are
marketing to sponsors. unheard of on the Web!

Research
▪ Find a new top site that has lots of traffic. Research any new tactics it is using.
▪ Try to create anything online that can get unusually high traffic.
Discussion
▪ How can we as a group generate our own traffic?
▪ How can we make money without charging money as that may reduce traffic?
▪ Is spam a good marketing ploy to generate traffic?
Did You Know That?

▪ Compiere been the first Open Source ERP project (2000) in SourceForge generated
high traffic and download satistics to get top rankings within 3 years while having 2 staff
and no marketing budget.

Glossary

Terms Definition
First Mover By been first in existence gives a more lasting advantage than followers
DotCom Bubble Stock market rise due to dotcom stocks speculation around late 90s.
Social Engineering Using social setting to create some advantage
VOIP Voice Over IP, a voice carrying protocol on the web
Essay Test
▪ What is the general criteria that brings lots of traffic to present website services?
▪ How does Open Source generate lots of traffic? Why some fail?

2.2 Content Is King
The web will be very empty if not for its content[4]. With explosive content issues arises as to the
That is what drives people to keep going to the web. duplication of content, its authenticity and its quality
It is to seek for content and more content. of timeliness and depth.

Publish or Perish sprang up trying to cash in with Another Google?

Without content your website or their own novel ideas. Just been a search engine is not
blog may be dead. Just mere static special. How about adding in
non-growing content is no longer Focus theme content generated by the users
enough. It got to grow, either from Some sites go for niche markets themselves? Statistics that tells a
self publishing or from others by having a singular theme or user who else just searched for
visiting it. focus. That is a better strategy to similar information may intrique
at least get a major mindshare of a the user enough to return again
Generated Content specific pond rather than aim for and again.
Today many sites use a strategy of the whole ocean which will make
allowing others to generate you and your audience truly lost at Everything You Say
content for them. YouTube is one sea. Even words you chatted or the
good idea where users post their comments you responded with on
own videos and it grew Organised Wikipedia the web is all raw content. It might
exponentially. So is the case with Creating a dictionary or be considered your daily garbage
Wi k i p e d i a . T h e y s o m e h o w enclycopedia online is not so after you finished with saying it.
succesfully generated content much a novelty. But having lots of
through networking or a viral As time goes by someone
content arranged well is.
community[5]. somewhere might be interested in
Wikipedia has over 100 thousand
any garbage you throw out before.
volunteers that ensure its content
Many other social websites sprung Imagine able to sift through all the
is well maintained. However a
up to copycat Friendster such as garbage in the world to find any
sizable amount if obscure or non-
FaceBook, Tagged and Twitter. gems.
western information is not well
kept and of low quality.
No Originality In ADempiere, the many users or
There are also many quite dead implementors contribute their
Nevertheless it has substantial
websites that are bad ideas. They worth in our own wiki, writing
enough quality content to
merely point to or repeat content things that can be either very
mesmerised most readers.
from others and thus possess no valuable or very badly written.
originality. Again the power of a search
The Long Tail engine could get you that
By having lots of details about
Attractive Qualities everything else which has very
information so you can not only
As more and more similar tactics use it but repair it as you go along.
little interest works well for
happen in the web, some sites that Thanks to Wikimedia techonlogy
Amazon.com[6].
are savoured for its content is due and Idalica USA that sponsors the
to it been very well written or It sells more of its countless book wiki site, our Wiki resource has
presented. Humour is one reason titles that are not best sellers more grown to 3934 articles with 2676
that people likes certain content. than its top bestsellers. files and unique visits of 335,467
times as on 25th February 2009.
So is sex which sells well in any For still keeping unknown titles in
medium. However lots of its database, Amazon.com is not This content by itself will remain
competing pornography sites been wasting any space, as database in an important Mecca for ERP
free only dilutes and helps create a cyberspace is very cheap. newbies to use for years to come.
deserted market. Again new ones

Wiki
▪ Wiki is a technology that allows users to publish content freely and independently
without going through an editor.
▪ They become their own editors and help edit other publishersʼ content. We can call this
peer control or self-organising.
▪ As you can see in the ADempiere wiki page below (http://adempiere.com/wiki) there are
lots of content done by members from all over the world.
▪ This content is constantly growing and edited. At times the content is crude but other
members will log in to prune them.
▪ You have to register first and provide a nickname and your email ID before you can edit
anything.
▪ You can learn about editing a wiki from the Help link on the left panel of the screen.

Research
▪ Find the best way to get the right information that you want on the web.
▪ Give examples of information that you have a problem finding on the web.
Discussion
▪ How can Open Source have useful content? In what form and for what purpose?
▪ What is your favourite site that you recommend everyone and why?
▪ How can we build a localised search engine and make it a hit say just for Malaysia?
Did You Know That?

▪ CraigList became famous because it provides very localised information that one
cannot find on Yahoo! or Google? However its owner refuses to make money from
venture capital that intends to sell more advertising space in his site.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Content Provider Term used to describe parties that own or publish content for a service.
Info-Rich Term to describe a service that has good and sufficient information.
Mind-Share Amount of impact of an advertising effort on the masses.
Essay Test
▪ What makes a content better than the rest?
▪ What kind of content that Google provides? How is it different from Wikipediaʼs?

2.3 Community Is King
Compiere enjoyed a growing community in 2003 that The community forked as another project called
puts them as a defacto leader in Open Source ERP ADempiere with its own Founding Council and
space. But in 2006 they received external funding Charter and I was nominated as its leader[7]. I learnt
about USD6 million and began to close up their many things since then especially the rule that
source and alienate their community of users. Community is King.

Need of Leadership That form of productive online Free Rider Paradox

anarchy is what described most
Even though Yahoo! was the first- online thriving communities such However many will argue that
mover[8] in the search engine as in Wikipedia, Linux and even allowing a community to grow
territory, today it is taken over and Compiere at one time before they and not charging them is giving
threatened by Google. But when sold out. them a free-ride and the project
Google took in funds and go will die due to lack of earnings.
public, it suffers problems that Open Source Ploy
The usual argument is that the
often affect large commercial
Open Source is now used to gain project owner needs to eat and
giants[9].
popularity and hold on a gain profitable returns for all the
Leadership is needed in order to community. It seems to be a hard work of putting it out in the
gain a better community. And such marketing ploy [10] to gain first place.
leadership must show concern of following and then close off like a
Also a project needs a corporate
users needs and not appear or wolf shedding its sheep's clothing
image such as a proper office,
conduct itself for the sole sake of to rake in easy profits.
with receptionist and departments.
profit. If the leader does or says
Good examples are Mambo that
things that alienate the But the sad thing is that when a
forked to Joomla[11] in 2005, and
community, they will soon be project receives funding from a
Compiere that forks to ADempiere
gone. commercial party, it has to be
in 2006. The community forks are
repaid which will mean
Need of Community more popular than their parents at
cannibalising from the community.
the moment.
Of course much of community we This is thus a two sided coin as
find online are free-riders. They Somehow the word ‘free’ has
without a community also, those
only use a service mainly if it is stuck in people’s minds and they
projects could not hope to gain
free. But as the community grows won’t easily start changing the
external fundings or earn side-
they not only remain loyal but ‘free’ to ‘fee’. At least not
income from trainings and choice
help market and brand the project overnight. Especially when there
projects.
to the point that it can sell services is always another project that
indirectly such as what Google is sprung up even freer than before. A community seems to draw
now doing. wealth in its own slow but surer
At the moment the ADempiere
ways.
But a community is very strict project been collaborated by a a
about its independence and ways. diverse number of individual and Time will tell if this assumption is
company contributors spread so absolutely true or there is a magic
Anarchy of Good far and wide, it is quite impossible formula to combine both
to have any single party claiming Commerce and Community well.
According to Pierre Proudhon
superior ownership and thus
philosophy if the public is left to For now, anarchy with some
commercialised the codebase. It is
its own rule which seems anarchic, brilliant monarchy rules.
in essence belonging to the whole
it will turn out better than an
community.
authoritarian rule.

Wiki Recent Changes

▪ When you go to ADempiere wiki RecentChanges link you will find constant changes
made by any member to its content. The more community there is, the more quality
content is expected.

SourceForge
▪ SourceForge.net provides free online facilities for open source projects to register
themselves and use its tools for online collaboration among its project members.
▪ The ADempiere community register its project name on 9th September, 2006 and
started work right away storing up its sourcecode and making forum discussions.
▪ The team uses the trackers to organise the reporting of changes and bugs.
▪ A highly powerful tool is the SVN (SubVersion) for synchronising every code
committerʼs work, tagging and showing each code change for easy reference and
reverting if it is a mistake.
▪ Such tools allow the community at large to interact in highly technical fashion and at
high speeds of development.

The ADempiere Hall of Fame
Among the ADempiere projectʼs long hierarchy of notable contributors are

(a) Carlos Ruiz (growing company in Colombia)
(b) Low Heng Sin (growing company in Malaysia)
(c) Teo Sarca (strong and growing Archipac team, Romania)
(d) Victor Perez (big e-Evoluton team, based in Mexico with presence in 4 other latin
american countries)
(e) Idalica (mid-size company in few USA locations headquartered in California)
(f) ADempiere Deutschland e.V (not-for-profit grouping of growing number of strong
german-based companies)
(g) Trifon Trifonov (Bulgaria but traveled all over for freelance contracts)
(h) Adaxa (Australian company with strong accounting expertise)
(i) Colin Rooney (Ireland, who has widely served in Europe)
(j) Armen Rizal (strongly based in Jakarta, Indonesia with presence in Singapore)
(k) Michael Judd, (London based accountant who has technical know-how)
(l) Paul Bowden (freelance developer based in Australia)
(m) Karsten Thiemann (Berlin, who contributed the first ever version migrating solution)
(n) Kai Schaeffer (user company who hosted the first ever ADempiere conference)
(o) Stefan Kuthan (Austria, contributed the KPI dashboard enhancement)
(p) OpenXpertya (Spanish company contributed the Java POS enhancement)
(q) Mario Calderon (El Salvador, ex-SAP expert who speaks our 3 main languages)
(r) Norbert Wessel (Bonn, who promotes ADempiere at conferences)
(s) Peter de Zutter (Belgium, who setup our irc chatroom and wiki site)
(t) ... the list goes on, and I would missed out their names, including mine! :-)
(u) ... your name can be next. Just keep close by.

Research
▪ Find a community that is growing but you can stake a presence in it. Start contributing
ideas and then see if you can popularise your blog or project through it.
Discussion
▪ Do you think there will be another dotcom that can beat Google in future?
▪ Why is Google losing trust after it went public and commercialised?
▪ Does Mambo and Compiere still have a community? How well is it doing?
▪ Which is more important, the product or the community?
▪ What are the DOs and DONʼTs when building a community following?
▪ How would the ADempiere project finance its own corporate office which it does not
have at the moment? Does it need one?

Did You Know That?

▪ Self made free projects that has a community call the project owners as Benevolent
Dictators? Linus Torvalds (Linux) and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) are good examples.
▪ The ADempiere project was formed from scratch and organised itself within a matter of
days? It all started in the red1.org forum debate[1] around 1st September and by 11th
September the project was created in SourceForge.net, complete with name, logo,
members, chatroom. wiki, an Incorporation in USA and press releases!

Glossary

Terms Definition
Commercialising To convert a free project for commercial returns to its stakeholders
Anarchy Chaotic mob rule without a single source of authority
Paradox Contradiction of two facts when put together
Free Rider A user who only takes what is free without paying anything to the provider
Essay Test
▪ What is the best way to build a community?
▪ Give examples of other online projects that are
getting or losing communities.

Summary
▪ Traffic is a determinant of success for a website.
▪ Most get traffic by been free. But that is not enough. You also have to give real value.
▪ High traffic sites can still be challenged by another new one that is better in value.
▪ The web allowed many services to make money due to its speed of obtaining user
traffic.
▪ Lots of free and meaningful content is the main driver for users to go to the web.
▪ Content alone is not enough. It has to be maintained and renewed constantly.
▪ You can generate content by sharing with a community or allowing others to submit
theirs.
▪ The community can give back alot of free marketing, branding, testing and support.
▪ A community can generate content much faster than a project starter.
▪ It is debatable whether a community can give a project the corporate image it deserves
unless it goes commercial or receive funding.
▪ Receiving funding from commercial party can alienate the community
▪ With such high growth and fast saturation of many fads, the Internet[12] still offers blue
oceans for new ideas that are real and possess leadership for the world.
References
1. ↑ http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/06/the-new-internet-traffic-spike.html
2. ↑ http://www.internettrafficreport.com/
3. ↑ http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/16-11/st_essay
4. ↑ http://www.applecraft.co.uk/article-content.htm
5. ↑ http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2006/05/creating-viral-community.html
6. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Long-Tail-Future-Business-Selling/dp/1401302378
7. ↑ http://red1.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=931
8. ↑ http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/2001-07-18-maney.htm
9. ↑ http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/02/12/google-losing-out-on-myspace-ad-
deal
10. ↑ http://boldlyopen.com/2008/01/25/the-marketing-ploy-of-open-source/
11. ↑ http://www.siteground.com/joomla_mambo.htm
12. ↑ http://hubpages.com/hub/The-History-of-the-Internet

CHAPTER 3
The Web And You

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • Use blogs or forums to build a presence to
facilitate on an open source project.
• Identify Email as a killer app;
• Learn how to practice effective communication.
• Make use of Mailling Lists to save time;
• See how the web tries to cash in on the new
• and to manage feedback;
medium via virtual worlds;
• Define and setup the trackers via email in
monitoring an Open Source project. • Qualify what works and do not work in virtual
space.
• See the importance of Forums and Blogs in
community building; • Learn how to explore a better virtual community.
Introduction As I tried to explain in the Attention Economy

lesson, we are not only limited in terms of the lack of
The Web is already in the past tense. Talking about body language, but also the extra time to have
the likes of email is cliche or too commonly heard. another virtual life besides this physical one. But
However much of the world are still consumers, who knows? Perhaps one day someone will create a
sometimes passing on chain letters to a hundred holographic representation of you that can convey or
others in their contacts books because it is just a few replicate your presence without you ever been
clicks away. Is this all such a fantastic tool is all awake!
about?
We do live in interesting times. Some people are
The Web is a social phenomena thanks to tools like using the web to explore more and more of what
these. You can use social sites and forums or even they can be. There will be more applications that ride
blogs to build a big following but how do you on its famous email inbox. There will be more
manage all of it at once? Your network may have experiments. There will be more failures. But some
exploded, but your brain has not. You are still the of it will turn out to be truly remarkable and viral -
same human with one pair of eyes and hands and the growing at speed of light and mouse clicks.
same 24 hours. You have to learn more tricks than
just opening and closing emails. Dr. Lester Thurow described the future as
undefinable and that our careers will also not be
Textual messages are also bad emotional containers forseeable. We just have to be more prepared for it,
as nothing can replicate the human body language as so that we are not left behind or too stuck in our set
well as a face-to-face meeting. Via the Web, most ways.
meetings are virtual and you are not in front of your
audience or peers. You would have to learn how to But at the same time we are also to reflect on what is
use this to think global and yet act local. real and what is not. What is workable and what is
just a passing fad. Our ability to anticipate the
Since I am able to build an ‘empire’ online without undefinable future may be our last good skillset to
leaving my farm home, I have learnt many instances indulge in.
on what makes me effective and also what are the
mistakes to avoid.

3.1 Email and Mailing Lists
Today almost everyone you know has an email From there vendors and applications try to push all
account id. You have one as well. In fact you may messages and tools through for your so-called
have numerous email accounts - a few for your convenience.
private use, and one for your office or school use.
Been the first application you will launch everytime
you go online makes it an ideal Single Window and a
Killer Application[1].

E m a i l O w n s Yo u r Forum’ in its forums so that you You thus save alot of time when
get an email with the content of you need not visit the website
Identity
the posting done to such forums. everytime to find out what is
That is why most website owners happening.
ask for your email id particularly Suscribing to
If there is no activity then you
during registration. Some are Trackers
won’t receive any emails from the
unethical and sells your IDs to
Continue to get more important project mail. This is very
spam-mailing companies.
emails from the project trackers convenient as you be sure almost
From whatever information you that informs you of any postings to right away if anything is
provide in your registration form, Bugs, Requests and Discussions happening by just monitoring your
it gives vital clues to your there. mail box.
demography or aggregated
Such trackers are useful because Inaccesibility
identity.
they manage the above items for
Be careful and check the the project in systematic manner. Howwver many of these trackers
authenticity and conditions under They form threads and provide expect you to have good unlimited
which you are giving your email reference numbers when web access. Some countries such
id away. You may be giving away communicating with project as Indonesia do not have this
more than just your privacy. members about the status of a luxury or at an affordable cost.
certain tracker. That is why the Indonesian
Suscribing to Project following of ADempiere is mostly
Mailing Lists Manage From A in a YahooGroup maillist called
Single Place in-adempiere. As you can see its
Many websites or online site on the next page, it already
applications allow you to suscribe From now one you can keep track has 174 members and is growing
and receive mails for any activity and manage the project from a everyday. Below is a sample email
that occurs from time to time at single place which is your mail- reply by Armen Rizal, our
that site or project. box. ADempiere representative there.
Register with the ADempiere When you intend to go to the spot One thing convenient about
project at http:// where the discussion is and post YahooGroup is that you do not
www.sourceforge.net and go to there, you merely click on the link have to leave your mail box at all.
http://sf.net/projects/adempiere provided in the mail message that Just reply to that email to send
and click on ‘Monitor This is triggered to your mailbox. back to everyone else.


Important Trackers

Forums/TRACKERS Definition
Open Discussion Where most people go to for general stuff. Not a good place to post
messages as it will get drowned and difficult to search in future.
Functional - ERP More specific to ERP topics
Functional - Financials Specific to Financial Questions
Functional - Manufacturing Specific to Manufacturing Questions
Bazaar Projects Specific to Project Proposals or Project Work
Business & Marketing Specific to related Business and Marketing effort or activity
Help For requesting help particularly by newbies
BUGS For registering bugs and keeping track of progress or dicsussion on

them
CONTRIBUTIONS For submitting contributed code or materials
FEATURE REQUESTS For making requests on new or extending features
SUPPORT REQUESTS For submitting issues that needs support
PATCHES For submitting modified codes indirectly to trunk
Did You Know That?

▪ Communicating via email or forums can be ineffective if the content is emotional or
personal. To be sure how best to use email effectively refer to advice from the web on
email etiquette. Here is a general guide from Eric Raymond: http://catb.org/%7Eesr/
faqs/smart-questions.html
▪ It is best to communicate via open forums for FOSS Projects? Communicating via
email is considered private and may be chargeable for taking up someoneʼs time.
Please read also http://www.adempiere.com/wiki/index.php/Etiquette

Email Box View of Trackers

▪ Tracking from the email box can be an easy and convenient way of organising open
source project work.
▪ Below you can see all the trackers or logs are monitored and sent into my email account
so that i can view through each of them.
▪ If there is any that are interesting ones, I can click on its link provided to go and view the
forum or thread and reply back there.
▪ To receive such emails, you have to go and click on the maillist facility at http://www.sf.net/
projects/adempiere.

Sample Email from Tracker

(Try clicking on the http link below)
Bugs item #2526697, was opened at 2009-01-21 13:34
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by globalqss

You can respond by visiting:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=879332&aid=2526697&group_id=176962
Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread,
including the initial issue submission, for this request, not just the latest update.
Category: Product
Group: Core
> >Status: Pending
> >Resolution: Fixed
Priority: 9
Private: No
Submitted By: Carlos Ruiz (globalqss)
Assigned to: Carlos Ruiz (globalqss)
Summary: Product Substitute and Related tabs broken
Initial Comment:
In Product window the Substitute and Related tabs are wrongly defined - the tables don't have properly defined in
dictionary the multi-column parent key.
This was discovered thanks to the report of Lajos Joo (joolui)
https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=2851999&forum_id=610546
https://sourceforge.net/tracker2/?func=detail&atid=879333&aid=2524002&group_id=176962
Regards,
Carlos Ruiz - globalqss
http://globalqss.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Comment By: Carlos Ruiz (globalqss)
Date: 2009-01-21 13:38
Message:
Committed revision 8143
http://adempiere.svn.sourceforge.net/adempiere/?rev=8143&view=rev
Regards,
Carlos Ruiz
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=879332&aid=2526697&group_id=176962

Glossary

Terms Definition
SourceForge The largest free repository of Open Source projects
FOSS A common term to describe Free and Open Source Software
Bug Tracker Specific forum where bugs are reported and corresponded upon
Tracker Status To label a tracker such as to be either open, pending, solved or closed
Workshop Reminder
▪ Suscribe and monitor the forums and trackers mentioned in this lesson.
▪ Keep track and respond to some of them where possible.
Test
▪ What is the ideal online tool you can use to manage your work?
▪ How best do you use your email box in managing project works?

3.2 Forums and Blogs
Just like in olden days, the marketplace or town hall is important decisions were made there[2]. I was not that
where people congregate and important decisions sure how word got around but I strongly suspect that
made, today it is happening in forums and blogs. many people are quietly reading the Sourceforge
forum in our parent project, Compiere and noted the
Linux was created when its creator Linus Torvalds debate going on at my more restive forum. That must
submitted to a mailing list his first code contributions. have caused the spike during those few days in
Forums began to spread the word in a viral manner. September 2006.
When ADempiere was first discussed in red1.org

forum it attracted more than 500 visitors a day and

Say It In The Forum I prefer to say things with lots of 3. E x p l o r e y o u r v o i c e b y

humour. My readers like it, so it is practicing it alot. Debating and
If things are not said in a forum, very fine with me. I am not arguing with those who dislike
then it is not considered said at all. worried if I sound boring because your thinking can be a good
Forums play an important role in they can always click on way to find out if you really
putting all discussions in one place something else to read. think your true voice or you are
and public. For Open Source, just reacting to sensationalism.
forums are vital. But by choosing my blogs, they
become my little following. All 4. It will take time. Just keep
Forums are always available this with almost no extra cost practicing until you feel you
online 24 X 7 and does not require other than learning how to express have truly spoken what you
the parties to be online at the same myself and get online to type it in. truly feel.
time. You can post something and
come back to the forum later to GuestBook Goodwill Find A Partner
see what others say after you.
One of my favorite tool is my Like often advised, one of the
Forum posts are often threaded so guestbook. From there my really good way to gain
you can follow a conversation supporters and readers post their confidence is to find a partner who
from all the related posts. praises of my work and this in trun are either at your level of
act as advertising. They are free ignorance or love to chat about
Countering Flames and unsolicited. See what they say your strange weather as well as
But this is where the pleasantry here http://red1.org/guestbook. you like to of his or her.
can end. Been so open means that I have since locked it up due to Honesty Wins
everyone and anyone be they heavy spamming. But for now One of the only way you can start
friend or foe can read and find those entries are good enough to your presence in the forums is
ways to make bad respones to put sell me and my reputation as a perhaps to be honest and say how
things in a bad light or image. champion Open Source ERP ignorant you are. Or talk about
If you respond to it and a troll kept tutorial writer and community something that you happened to be
on flaming back, then you are in a senior. good at. You can always jump in
dificult situation and have to when such a topic to your liking
What Is Your Voice?
diffuse the flames and avoid props up.
further poision from happening. I like to give some tips on how
you can find your own unique and When I first posted in the
For me, I like flames, as it draw Compiere forums, it was about
interesting voice.
more crowds. Of course I have to something that another person
learn how to control them well. 1. Always believe in yourself. You complaint about which is the look
do have a voice. You just have and feel of the website. Since I
Say It In Your Voice to find it. It is an inner calm had done webmastering work
Having your own blog is the best honest voice. before, I chipped in my response
place for you to train expressing 2. There will always be those who too. From there after receiving
your own voice. like your thoughts and those responses back, I felt more
who do not. Ignore both. Just confident because I am no longer a
People prefer to hear what you
focus on what you feel and ghost and that people do care
personally feel rather than what
think. about what I have to say in return.
the news editor says.

SourceForge Forums
▪ In SourceForge project, we can organise ourselves any number or type of forums.
▪ Below are a listing of the forums we have defined for any possible subject for members
to raise topics and interact on.
Language-Filipino (37 msgs)
Philippines Localization Project
Bazaar Open Discussion (7694 msgs)
Open Issues, General Matters Language-Finnish (29 msgs)
Finnish speaking forum
Bazaar Projects (793 msgs)
Proposed Projects & Contributions Language-French (137 msgs)
French Speaking Forum
Business & Marketing (457 msgs)
A forum to discuss marketing ideas and projects Language-German (363 msgs)
German Speaking Forum
Community Process (837 msgs)
ACP (Adempiere Community Process) Language-Greek (3 msgs)
Greek Speaking Forum
Content & Documentation (388 msgs)
About content or documentation or website Language-Hebrew (1 msgs)
Hebrew Speaking Forum
Developers (8019 msgs)
Development Work, Issues & Bugs Language-Hungarian (24 msgs)
Hungarian Speaking Forum
Functional-ERP (1465 msgs)
ERP, Inventory, Manufacturing Language-Italian (103 msgs)
Italian speaking forum
Functional-Financials (1019 msgs)
Finance & Accounting Language-Japanese (38 msgs)
Japanese Speaking Users
Functional-Human Resource (59 msgs)
HR / Payroll / Personnel Modules Language-Nusantara (107 msgs)
Malay-Indonesian Speaking Forum
Functional-Manufacturing (579 msgs)
Shopfloor / Manufacturing Modules Language-Portuguese (230 msgs)
Portuguese Speaking Forum
Functional-Web-based Modules (105 msgs)
CRM & Requests Modules, Web UI, Webstore Language-Romanian (1 msgs)
Help (2270 msgs) Language-Russian (61 msgs)
For newbies, help is often faster here! Russian Speaking Forum
Language-Arabic (22 msgs) Language-Serbian (1 msgs)

Arabic Speaking Forum Forum for Serbian Localization and
Translation
Language-Bosanski (11 msgs)
Language-Spanish (1519 msgs)
Language-Bulgarian (43 msgs)
Spanish Speaking Forum
Bulgarian Speaking Forum
Language-Thai-Siamese (9 msgs)
Language-Chinese (116 msgs)
Siamese / Thai Speaking Forum
Chinese Speaking Forum
Language-Turkish (3 msgs)
Language-Farsi (7 msgs)
Persian/Farsi Speaking Forum

Research
▪ Find out what topic or subject best fit you and write it out in your own blog without trying
to please anyone else but yourself. Do not even correct your grammar.
▪ Browse around http://www.adempiere.com/wiki, forums and chatroom at
irc.freenode.net. Try to identify the different but interesting voices you can learn from.
Discussion
▪ Does flames help our project?
▪ What is the response to your postings? Why are you getting such results?
▪ How much are cultural differences[3] affecting the way you interact with strangers on
the Web?
Did You Know That?

▪ In the Java irc chatroom, participants there are not allowed to use abbreviations? You
may get kicked out if you continue to do so after a warning.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Conversation Technique to engage and activate members via open forums
Blogs Buletin Logs that means more about your personal diary but open online
24 X 7 Available all around the clock, i.e. all the time.
Goodwill Intangible asset from your effort that helps brand and market you
Essay Test
▪ What is the best way to attract people to your forum or blog?
▪ How do you deal with people that opposes your views?

3.3 Second Life
There is a website that offers Second Life for you to However it tries too hard and too much. It gives itself
build a complete virtual life in a virtual world that away when it tries to use virtual money that you have
tries to be as real as the real world. It is still crude but to pay for. Remember that we only like something if it
it is a novel attempt to give users a new sensation that is absolutely free.
has never been done before.
Thus I am not surprised that it has now failed[4].
What do you think?

Ke e p I t F re e a n d offered nothing much. Now it has began to wane when I stop posting
grown so big, why forget that? for a long period. Many visitors
Open
began to complain that they kept
Be humble. If you are famous, you
Open Source tries to build a coming back and find nothing
already got merit and credit. Profit
community around it by staying new.
is granted. Have faith.
free. That is the greatest appeal
Of course it takes time and effort
anyone can give. If you charge Believe in Karma to keep writing without fail. But
even a single cent, you lose out to Shouldn’t the virtual life also have then why not think of a strategy
another who does not charge at all. religion? Doesn’t Karma work and not exert yourself too much at
Even if you ask your users to sign there too? the first go? Keep to a steady
a form to join in, you lose out to theme that can last longer. If you
another that has no such condition. If you do good to others, surely trigger some debate, that can help
good will return to you. What goes keep people coming back just to
Satisfy A Real Need around comes around. read the comments.
But been free and open with no Create A Vision Use RSS Feeds
real satisfaction of a need is
I wrote the following in my
useless. Now I am using RSS feeder for
websites:
visitors to suscribe to. In that way
Many offer such statements or
Information Is Free - you have to they need not spend extra effort to
rhetoric of been Free and Open but
know; check on my blogs but just wait
what is their project or goodies?
for email triggers like the way we
Or is it someone else? Or they are
People Are Not - you have to pay; do it for our SourceForge project
just waiting for you to contribute
forums and trackers.
first? Contributors Are Priceless, you
have to be. Especially for working
Don’t Go Changing professionals they really do not
When you begin to get people Such a sweet mantra began to have time clicking on unchanging
joining in, do not do the mistake catch on and the author get to sites or blogs. Remember we only
others committed. Do not change become like some guru with his have a limited available time
your engagement model. Do not own special message to spread to online everyday. Every second
suddenly treat your members like the whole planet. Many began to spend clicking meaninglessly is a
customers and began to charge believe or refer to it as a way of precious second lost.
them. They will soon leave you life of a contributor.
with a bad reputation.
Little But Often
Let The People Speak
A virtual world works on a daily
More often than not, it is the and regular basis. It is better that
members who can give you a you publish something no matter
better idea or business model. how little but keep it regular or on
Just allow them to say it out. It a daily basis.
cost you nothing further. Think In my blogspot I managed to
about it. Remember back the time gather some good following, but it
when you were nothing and you
Red1.org/guestbook that leads to many other good things in life. Imagine

The above are some of the kudos you can receive how much I would have to pay if the advertisments
when you contribute earnestly like I have for the are not free. Thus we can regard such goodwill as
worldwide community. They act as unsolicited free possessing real monetary value and is an authentic
advertisments that generated tremendous goodwill asset, though intangible on paper.

Research
▪ Compare Second Life to another highly popular site you know. Why the difference?
▪ Find a theme that best serve your interest that can build a niche and unique following.
Discussion
▪ Innovation Happens Elsewhere[5] and Cluetrain Manifesto[6] say that conversations
have to be open no matter how inflamatory. Do you agree?
▪ There is this opinion based on experience on how to deal with poison [7]. Do you
agree?
Did You Know That?

▪ Humans are by nature highly conversational face to face and would prefer that?
▪ Different cultures behave differently to technology? Many westerners prefer not to use
the mobile phone whereas in Japan it has the highest density of users.
source: https://blogs.psu.edu/mt4/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=47&search=Reuters

Glossary

Terms Definition
Engagement Model The terms and conditions that you impose on people to join your project
Business Model A formula that will give you monetary profit in return for your effort
Moderator Someone who respond to visitors to keep them to a certain direction
Culture A unique behaviour that depends on own experience and practice
Essay Test
▪ Explain 1 example of a business model from the top dotcoms today?
▪ How can you duplicate it but with your own unique idea added to it?

Summary
▪ Email is the most popular tool on the web in used by everyone.
▪ It can help keep track of sites or projects without visiting them all the time.
▪ You have to practice good etiquette when communicating via emails or forums.
▪ Forums can virtually bring alot of opinion into a single room.
▪ Conversations that are open will attract alot of attention and increase membership.
▪ Topics have to be interesting and of high value to retain membership.
▪ You have to practice expressing your own voice that can unite and inspire others.
▪ Poision that disrupts the direction of a project has to be handled wisely.
▪ An engagement model to build a virtual community must have intrinsic value.
▪ A successful business model is based on a free membership with profit coming later
elsewhere.
▪ You need champions or moderators to keep the faith going and interest high.
References
1. ↑ http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/08/technology/btemail.php
2. ↑ http://www.adempiere.com/wiki/index.php/History_of_ADempiere
3. ↑ http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue1/pfeil.html
4. ↑ http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/advertising_20/archive/2007/07/23/the-
downfall-of-second-life-and-the-rise-of-barbie-girls.aspx
5. ↑ http://www.dreamsongs.com/IHE/
6. ↑ http://www.cluetrain.com/
7. ↑ http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/29/146201

CHAPTER 4
The Cathedral
And The Bazaar

Learning Outcomes • Present the main arguments of the Bazaar article;

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • Appreciate two sides of the argument in our
project;
• Describe the historical background of where Open
Source comes from; • Decide which context requires which strategy of
project management.
• Understand how the term FOSS came about;
• Provide leadership for starting a new project.
• Explain the important context that influences Open
Source today. • Observe the sharpness of Bill Gates and Microsoft
in IT global business hegemony;
• Differentiate between FSF’s philosophy and Open
Source’. • Weigh a possible colaboration with proprietary
giants such as SAP;
• Summarise the historical beginning of Linux;
• Examine examples of new OS models brought to
• Differentiate the direction that Linus took to the fore by other players.
establish Linux as a successful project;
• Articulate a win-win approach to a business model.
• Draw important lessons from Linux history.
• Avoid the pitfalls that can affect an Open Source
project.
Introduction The idea of open source and free sharing of codes

among programmers seems to solve this invisible
One analyst in TheServerSide.com did describe black box syndrome. Having more eyeballs looking
software engineering as an old cottage industry of at the same code and developing it together is not
hand-stitching. It is unlike modern technology of say only better for quality sake, but also enjoyable as a
car-making or even bread making, where you can social undertaking.
mass produce the same thing repetitively.
Many of us appreciate each other’s work in the open
Software seems to be non-repetitive or is too and began to show respect depending on which line
complex to be thought of that way. You would see of code he or she writes.
coders sitting at desktops all day typing and typing.
When they test their software they will go back to However proprietary companies that owns the codes
some more stitching. and the effort that goes into it will lock it up and
impose NDA (non-disclosure agreement) on the
The problem arises when they pass their work to coders so that the codes is not shared outside the
another person for review or repair. That new person company. This can hamper its natural growth. Such a
has to read again the whole code to understand what manner of managing code is described as the
is going on. Building a bridge is much simpler Cathedral approach where control is centralised and
because you can see the bridge taking shape. not as fast evolving as the former description of the
Another engineer can come in and immediately see Bazaar approach. However the Bazaar way is noisy,
what is wrong and continue work. Not necessarily so chaotic and unpredictable, but somehow it created a
with software. Hide it and the programmer is king. wonder such as Linux and ADempiere.
Your life depends on him or her.

4.1 History of Open Source
source: viableway.org/ opensource/?q=node/2
You would remember during college school days With the web, it is now so much easier to work
where you not only share information and homework together in an open manner, sharing codes and bug
with your friends but also do projects together. fixes.
Software development has always started as a Coupled with Open Source projects, it can mean a
university ground project and it does well that way. new future for ERP practitioners, as well as a threat to
proprietary ones such as SAP.

In The Beginning All man just by enjoying the royalties Management’s territory, much
from each copy of Microsoft that controversy erupts.
Was Free
sits on millions of dekstops. At
People are concerned that been
If I am to ask you, “Which comes every virtual upgrade that users
free should also allow freedom to
first, ‘The software or the today can do on their own via the
make money easily with software
patent?’”, of course you can guess web Microsoft gets richer without
such as making commercial deals
correctly. working further.
that put closed and non-free
It was described as part of a hippie There Are Rebels elements within the software.
culture in the 1970s in US
Not everyone took it sitting down, This fine line between the two
university circles, where
least of all a self-made evangelist looks like a long religious one [3].
everything is shared[1].
on Free Software named Richard Even the combination acronym
It was natural to just ask a friend Stallman. FOSS that stands for Free and
for the hacking code that he Open Source Software is not
managed to crack and of course He argued that software is not accepted by Stallman[4].
your friend would want to show something that you can develop in
off rather than ask you to pay a closed commercial setting but in ADempiere’s Stand
some fee for giving it to you. a free as in freedom of speech
In our ERP project we are both
principle[2]. His fierceness in
You would in turn help him or her pragmatic as well as community
defending such a principle has led
back, as this is all a natural part of conscious. We like the GPL v2
many to look at him as Free
campus life. You and your friends. license in ensuring that no one can
Software’s true prophet.
close back the codes that are
Greed Sets In already there for us to work on. At
Versus Open Source the same time we like the
If you can patent and lock up
practitioners make money in
something to force people to pay
Richard Stallman’s sincerity even whatever way they can without
for reusing it, you would be rich.
extend to taking on Open Source infringing that license and its
This happens with free software
as a false prophet. He regard spirit.
and and happens well because
licensing other than the GPL type
software been digital is handled at It is not a smooth journey even so,
as trying to let the evil arm of
very low costs for copying and and there has been long debates
commercialisation creep into free
storage. over its salient points. I believe
software domain.
such a debate will crop up again
At first you would want to recover
This is where Linus Torvalds, the and again and we just have to be
your cost of making the software.
creator of Linux finds it as getting accomodating to views from both
But as more copies are made at
a bit too far. For Linus he doesn’t sides. We are highly conscious of
zero cost thanks to the web where
care what people do to the respecting authors and real
users can download, as you charge
software, as long as he has his. For contributors in whatever form. We
every single extra download, you
Stallman, it really matters till the are also allergic to those who uses
are making extra money out of
extend that when he introduced Open Source as a marketing ploy.
thin air.
GPL version 3 which trespass
For now we are staying put at
Bill Gates, the founder of even onto Digital Rights
GPLv2.
Microsoft was already the richest

Research
▪ Here is an interesting thread to research www.codinghorror.com/ blog/archives/
000842.html.
▪ About Googlesʼs scheme: http://smartstartup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/a-fable-
doing-b.html
Discussion
▪ How does such software companies make money back then when it was free?
▪ What did Richard Stallman[5] fight for and how is it different from Open Source[6]?
Did You Know That?

▪ A prominient SAP blogger mention ADempiere as a threat one month after it was
formed?
▪ Microsoft is also going Open Source?[7]

History Of ADempiere
▪ We can read in further detail here http://www.adempiere.com/wiki/index.php/
History_of_ADempiere
▪ The email that started it all:
Fri, 11 Aug 2006 22:00:54 -0500

Email sent to: trifonnt at yahoo dot com, mar9000 at gmail dot com, lombardo at mayking
dot com, red1 at red1 dot org, robeklein at gmail dot com, zpshen at gmail dot com, carlos dot
ruiz at globalqss dot com, alejandro dot falcone at gmail dot com, fernando dot jimenez at e-
evolution dot com dot mx, miguel dot jimenez at e-evolution dot com dot mx, oscar dot
gomez at e-evolution dot com dot mx, lancona at 4layer dot it, mquezada at bodevidrio dot
com, ramiro dot vergara at o"consulting dot com
Hi Guys!
My name is Victor Perez, I am CEO of e-Evolution,S.C., The reason of this e-mail and
attachment file is to share dream with you and invite you to be part of it. My dream is to
create a System ERP CRM SCM for and owned by the comunnitty, a System that improves
day by day.
In my experience, I have been working with Compiere for 5 years. I have gotten many
satisfactions, and I have taken advantage of the great job made by Jorg Janke with Compiere
With the acquired experience I have a personal dream: to create a project that evolves from
Compiere, a project with edge technology where everyone can share their ideas , with license
GPL, where the problems of the end users are listened, where I can integrate my job with the
job of others, where the requirements of my clients are taken into account, where my clients
feel a real support, in summary something to be improved.
Is for that reason that I dare to invite everyone interested in this proposal , with a big desire of
working and to support this dream together.
What do you think ? Any question or suggestion please send it to me.PD: I will appreciate
that you keep this document for yourself, until have everybody feedback
Victor Perez Juarez

Glossary

Terms Definition
FOSS Free and Open Source Software - to be double sure
Software Vendors Companies that produces software and profits from it
NDA Non disclosure agreement imposed by a party to another not to reveal

confidential information to others outside the agreement.
Blogger A person who writes in a blog on a regular basis
GPL GNU Public License - started by Richard Stallman’s FSF
GNU GNU Is Not Unix - a recursive acronym meant to impress
FSF Free Software Foundation that champions Free Software
source: www.socialsignal.com
Essay Test
▪ Name 2 ways you would use to make money out of free software?
▪ Why Richard Stallman does not agree with the term FOSS?

4.2 Linus vs Tannenbaum
Andrew Tanenbaum created a classroom version of It gain traction on the web, and an ISP operator in
Unix, called Minix to teach his students. Germany stored it so that more can access it and
called it Linux. [8]
Linus Torvalds, a student at that time, improved it and
called it Freax. His original intention seems to be just Linux became very successful and Linus was shot to
pure creativity with a social itch. fame. However Prof Tanenbaum has issues with how
Linux is been hailed.

A Giant Is Born initial starting code, the world available but also commitable in
community of hackers and return. The fault with Compiere is
It all began in August 25, 1991 enthusiasts soon converge on the that even though you can
when a 21year old Computer project and gave it a quantum leap download it but you are not given
Science student of the University into legend. commit rights to write back any
of Helsinki posted to the MINIX bug you solved.
news group about his free version Linus’ Mantras
of a Minix lookalike with some Release Early
Linus was soon attributed with
extra features. From there he
famous sayings such as “With This sometimes goes against the
began to lobby for more interest to
enough eyeballs, all bugs are grain of developers as they may be
fill the apparent vacuum and need
shallow”, “Release Early, Release reluctant to commit something that
for a real Operating System that is
Often” and “Show me the codes”. is not working yet. But the whole
similar to Unix but free.
point is to allow more and better
Been A Professor Bugs Are Shallow minds work together on it, faster
This is a very true assumption [10].
Software idealism got the better of
from Linus as far as the In our ADempiere project this
the Minix creator when Professor
ADempiere project is concerned. sometimes raise controversy.
Tanenbaum wrote to Linus,
Many more bugs were solved in Since ERP is complex and ERP
"I still maintain the point that fast progression in our project as software is even more complex,
designing a monolithic kernel many parties downloaded and test any release that is not well done or
in 1991 is a fundamental our software on a round the clock has gone through some basic
error. Be thankful you are not basis. You can see from our bug testing will be considered
my student. You would not trackers how it would not have dangerous. It would be regarded as
get a high grade for such a been possible for a small software a damaging or destabilising action
design :-)" company to do that. It would have which can receive inflamatory
cost us millions in salaries to do remarks from another strong
Linus wrote back,
what we did the last few years. committer.
“Your job is being a The bugs were solved freely
professor and researcher: This has happened on occasions
because each user has its own and there is no real way to resolve
That's one hell of a good installation which they are already
excuse for some of the it but to revert and conduct the
paid to do, and so by contributing review process off-trunk. Again,
brain-damages of minix.” [9] the remedy back they are actually having things outside the trunk
Everyone Loves A saving themselves the effort to means less people get to see it and
solve again the same bug in future
Story test or review it. Thus there is a
releases. needed balance, and lessons has to
As you probably guess what I evolve and mature the peer review
So such collaboration is a bigger
have been telling you all this cycle.
sum than all the individual pairs of
while, humans love conversations
eyeballs. As time goes along I can say that
and of course to listen to a good
story. That is why for an Open Source we have got use to the norms with
project it is not only highly most of us and know what to do
Linus and Linux provide a and not to do to avoid undesirable
important that sourcecode are
fantastic story. Coupled with implications.
Research
▪ What is Linus up to now?
Discussion
▪ Go through and discuss the debate here[11].
▪ What are the basic points of contention between them?
▪ How has others commercialise Linux?
▪ How would you capitalise on Linux?
▪ What are the famous mantras of Linus and what do they mean in Open Source
development?
Did You Know That?

▪ Richard Stallman who founded the GNU project dislikes the name Linux and insist it be
called GNU/Linux?

Glossary

Terms Definition
Unix An operating system that was proprietary and not open source at that time
Business Model A formula that will give you monetary profit in return for your effort
Essay Test
▪ What was Professor Tanenbaumʼs intention in creating Minix?
▪ Why isnʼt Linux called GNU/Linux?

4.3 Bazaar Culture and Policy
Eric Raymond’s article titled ‘The Cathedral and The Linus is said to be of a non-conformist nature that
Bazaar’[12] described a basis of open and anarchic advocates adhocracy and peerocracy.
creation of software where the bar to entry is about
non-existence low. It uses the case of Linux where But critics pointed out that there is some centralised
contributions came in fast and furious. control somwhere particularly when it comes to
making official releases.

When Chaos Is Good The trackers are abound with Management By

helpful testing, bug reports, and
What surprised all of us is that Charisma
ready made remedies.
Linux was created and grew into a What Eric Raymond points to
formidable software without any Crowds Are Not about Linus is his leadership
planned and controlled Enough which metes out a lot of charisma.
environment of software He is communicative and
development. It thrives when it is Even though our openness draws
engaging in his grasp of the
promiscously open and kept alot of contribution and materials,
technical and overall big picture.
patching itself constantly. but it does not necessarily
translate into all round He accepts contributions all too
Another famous project called contributions. easily and is known to make even
Apache is similar as its name several releases within the same
stands for ‘All Patches’. The areas that are not really taken
day.
care of are non-profitable work
The Bazaar argument is used by us such as the maintaining of the Such a person to manage in such
too to describe the successful sites, packaging and making new conditions has to be highly
phenomena behind ADempiere. releases on a more systematic tolerant of mistakes and also be
This project is classic in that it basis. firm in settling disputes. But it
practices both approaches and it helps if he is likable by everyone.
The project also lack in proper
has interesting results that not standard manual guides. However In ADempiere I have a huge
necessarily works in theory. some independent professors are challenge because I am not that
I myself am heavily and directly assisting this with their intern technical. There is so far charisma
involved in many of the debates students but it is done in a more can go to help in keeping plans
around this during decision- close door approach. They only together, but there are many issues
making on whether to accept report when there is progress and that needs a deep untiring focus.
certain modules into the trunk. do not use the wiki approach to
Of course delegation or an open
evolve materials.
self managing peer approach
Open Draws Crowds Their reaons been that the wiki is helps.
Been open and a promise that we still chaotic and they need to be
won’t sell out or close the project isolated and approach the project
draws lots of early crowds to our from an indifferent viewpoint
project. It quickly amass their little away from the over-technical
contributions and soon the context which many lay-users are
ADempiere project hit the number still struggling with.
1 spot in SourceForge rankings
I allow a pragmatic approach, as
within record time around
long as things happen faster. There
December 2006, abit over 100
will be upset members especially
days after its inception.
when they are left in the dark.
The wiki site experience
tremendous contributions of
writeups and technical
documentation.
Research
▪ Are there any examples of close door decisions in Linux development?
Discussion
▪ When do we use Bazaar approach and when do we use a Cathedral approach?
▪ If you have a chance to do what Linus did back then, would you give it away? What
would be your concerns?
▪ What if you have a big company with alot of costs and have produced a perfect
software[13]. Would you give your software away? What would be your concerns now?
Did You Know That?

▪ That someone not linked to the Linux project registered Linux Inc USA and sue the
Linux community from using the name. The community has to pay and buy back the Inc
and put it under the care of Linus who wasnʼt too happy about spending more time
managing it.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Bazaar An open market where activity happens without central control
Pragmatic Been realistic and practical at the expense of philosophy and ideals
Peer Management A self organising culture where mutual discussions lead to decisions easily
Essay Test
▪ What must a leader do in a Bazaar?
▪ What are the weakness of the Bazaar approach?

4.4 Microsoft vs The World
No matter what free software advocates do, Microsoft Microsoft uses free gifts to coerce others to use its
is still king of the road for many desktops and laptops ware. Nevertheless it has pragmatically read the
using it for its operating systems and office writing on the wall. It tries to fight its own ground in
productivity tools all over the world. the Standards market by imposing its own version
such as Open Office XML specifications.

Free Windows Perhaps its strongest weapon yet is However it always has it ears to
its army on the ground, the the ground and razor sharp in
That is what Microsoft is thousands of partner offices ensuring it is one step ahead of the
cunningly willing and have been around the world that gives marketplace.
doing all over starting from its free physical support and warm hand
Internet Explorer that has shakes over some coffee or beer - If You Can’t Beat
devastated the dreams of Netscape all paid for. Them, Buy Them
to own cyberspace. It now embeds
MS has been using its buying
the client Windows Operating Open Source Closing
spree. It has helped fueled the
System in as many notebooks or In dotcom boom in the 1990s when it
personal computers to discouraged
MS market share is constantly bought Hotmail from young
them from been loaded with free
been threatened by Linux[15] and Bangalorian, Sabeer Bhatia for
software. But it has less luck in the
even so by the recent explosive $400 million.
server market where Linux is
Google that released its web-
stronger. Fast forward to 2006, it misses a
browser Chrome in open source big boat when Google beat it by
Many see Microsoft business hoping that it can repeat the battle g u l p i n g Yo u T u b e u p a t a
model of swallowing other grande which Netscape lost. whopping USD1.65 billion [18].
competitors as evil. The major
Google already has its on
weapon that MS uses to built its Recently MS attempts to slow the
GoogleDocs which runs on the
wealth is the patents[14] it holds imbalance by attempting to buy up
thin client browser concept to
over its Windows Operating Ya h o o ! I n c [ 1 9 ] a t a
peck at the Office’ client market.
System and the Office tools. unprecendented USD45 billion tag
The US Government has antitrust The Giants Are but that deal seems to be dead.
laws to curb that. So does the Falling I feel Microsoft has better luck
European Union. investing in ADempiere and
MS traditional partner cum
converting to anarchic
But Bill Gates argue that it is a competitors are facing the music.
socialism. :-)
world of ideas, and a good idea Sun MicroSystems produces Java
should not be stopped. It is others that is very popular but wasn't
who have failed to come out with open source until lately[16] when
a better idea. He believed a young it is suffering a downfall.
kid somewhere could still come IBM succesfully invest more than
out with one and displace his a billion USD per year in Linux
empire. and Apache and derive more in
Perhaps Google is one such idea. services’ profit back[17].
Microsoft Domination You can see that IBM is much

wiser and holds dearly to be
MS does not stop just at desktop community friendly.
sotware. It now has interests in the
game and entertainment industries Microsoft through its cut-throat
such as the XBox. But its core tactics has created an image of
base is still in its OS and Office capitalistic greed that is not liked
tools. by the younger free-wheeling
generation.
Research
▪ How well is SAP stocks doing in recent years?
▪ Anyone out there challenging Google after it became commercial?
Discussion
▪ What should Microsoft buy to better survive the future?
▪ What is stopping you from switching away from Microsoft products?
Did You Know That?

▪ Malaysiaʼs PM at that time, Dr. Mahathir did ask Bill Gates for a discount on the
Microsoft Office and only got a one dollar discount. Mahathir then decided to go for
Open Source. - related to the author by his son, Mukhriz in 2008.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Windows Microsoft patented operating system that is challenged by Linux X versions.
Antitrust Law US law that prohibits anti-competitive behavior (monopoly) and unfair
business practices.
Standards An established norm or requirement that acts as reference for others to follow.
SAP German based world class proprietary vendor for ERP Software.
Essay Test
▪ What is the most popular client operating system?
▪ Why would many people hate Microsoft?

Summary
▪ Open Source was the original way software was written and shared among university
students and professionals.
▪ It was then closed by commercial vendors, forcing Richard Stallman to start the Free
Software movement.
▪ Open Source has evolved and mature with different players and philosophies.
▪ Eric Raymond wrote about The Cathedral and The Bazaar in which he points out 2
different models to modern software development.
▪ The main merit of the Bazaar way is a self-organising approach that minimises
unneeded delays to allow fast evolution of the project.
▪ A successful business model is based on a free membership with profit coming later
elsewhere.
▪ You need champions or moderators to keep the faith going and interest high.
▪ Many giants are affected by FOSS and have to change their strategy to adapt to it.
References
1. ↑ http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/bsdl-gpl/history.html
2. ↑ http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html
3. ↑ http://static.userland.com/userLandDiscussArchive/msg019844.html
4. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_terms_for_free_software
5. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
6. ↑ http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-software-for-freedom.html
7. ↑ http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/
8. ↑ http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/f/freax.htm
9. ↑ https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rhasan/linux/
10. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw&feature=channel
11. ↑ http://oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/appa.html
12. ↑ http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/
13. ↑ http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks_Chapter_2.pdf
14. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4021775.stm
15. ↑ http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/03/06/ms.linux.idg/index.html
16. ↑ http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/23/2037220
17. ↑ http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-825723.html
18. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6034577.stm
19. ↑ http://news.cnet.com/Microsofts-big-bid-for-Yahoo/2009-1028_3-6228762.html

CHAPTER 5
Getting Online
And Staying Online

Learning Outcomes • Identify online poisonous behaviour;

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • List the reasons of involvement by participants.
• Participate in the social and project forums; • Practice some level of participation in the project;
• Start performing basic member activity; • Understand more about the different types of
members, and that not everyone agrees with you;
• Communicate with the other project members;
• Evaluate what is the best approach for your
• Appreciate the culture of the community. involvement in the community;
• Differentiate the different forms of participation in • Carry out more self publishing.
online projects;
• Appreciate the social forces around a community
that culminate as good all-round business for the
community;
Introduction
The Web opens your reach to the whole world and you
will most likely and easily come into contact with
people not of your culture or background. It is no
surprise if most of you find it scary or embarrassing to
say anything and not getting any reply right away. In
face to face communications, we get immediate real
time feedback from the person’s body language so we
know if we are ok or not.
Getting on the Web requires the patience and attitude to
try kicking the ball first and coming back later to see if
it bounces back. Most will learn by immitating what
others are doing. Most will wait and see. Some will be
brave and are rather talkative.
Many fear that if they say something wrong it is
irreparable. There is also concern about differences in
culture or understanding even about similar wordings.
There can be differences in attitude and intention of
being in a forum or chatroom. Some may want to help.
Some maybe trying to figure out what is happening.
I myself am talkative but at times regreted to have said
something on the Web. However things often turn out
well if we do not take things to heart and are willing to
apologise and return back to cheer things up.

5.1 Soft Tools & Skills
Today's knowledge worker in a community open quite limiting to have only techies in the project.
source must know certain basic tools and skills to Much of the work other than coding are also similar
perform efficiently. Among the usual tools you have in importance such as wiki editing and forum
to familiarise are Chatroom client, Sourceforge replying. That kind of work can be even more
repository[1], and Wikimedia[2]. valuable as it provide the eco-system and attractive
environment by which more users can participate and
Skills involve soft skills such as been able to follow
become part of the project without been too highly
forum threads and response to them, and editing
skilled.
wikis.
It is thus desirable to pick up such productivity tools
In an Open Source Software project, the contributors
and soft skills and make it part of one’s natural ability.
have to possess a high level of programming ability
and be familiar with the subject matter. Thus it is

Activity List

Location Steps
www.adempiere.com/wiki Register and build own user page. Follow other users as guide
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/ Create our own user account in this Wikiversity project. Take a
Open_Source_ERP/ tour here [3] if you are a newbie.
Executive_Masters
irc.freenode.net Download from xchat.org and get into the #adempiere chatroom
www.sf.net Register and introduce yourself in Project Forum. Refer to Tutor.
www.sf.net/projects/adempiere Browse through the trackers[4] and forums

5.2 Levels Of Participation
source: parisparfait.typepad.com/ paris_parfait/2007/0...
Just like in a movie, there are different type of expense of been sociable enough. For those who has
involvement of the characters in a project. It will be free time, perhaps they have no responsibility and that
good to know who is who and who does what. can be good or bad, depending on what they prefer.
Many of those serious participants are often very busy

people and they have to manage their time at the

Be A Good Guy be allowed to vote if they have not way technical questioning which
contributed anything. you can use the forums and wait
You probably are a good person, for reply via email so as to save
and so am I. :-) But to me, they already have
everyone time.
contributed from just reading! By
But when it comes to be online,
sometimes flames flare up and that
doing so they give a high hit rate If You Are New
to our project and also they most
can happen quite easily. Those are called newbies or noob
likely can say something qualified
comes in all size and wordings.
Poison can be injected into a due to having shown a deep
Some are very vocal and some are
project and everything can break interest. Otherwise why would
very shy. Some need small talk
down and when that happens to a they want to lurk here? They may
such as about their weather and
global but remote online project, be busy executives who are highly
whatever they feel comfortable to
that can be bad. It can be further professional and feel they need not
talk about but do not demand for
aggravated by the fact that none of add to the noise.
quick responses as usually today
us are face to face to grasp each My policy will be to treat lurkers people online may be multi-
other ’s true body language with respect and listen to them tasking alot. If unsure just keep
expressions. when they finally ever open their praticing getting online and chat
Even when online, the people we keyboards. until you get the right feel of
deal with are still humans and things.
behave humanly. They have The Fearsome Geeks
feelings and motivations why they The people I would fear the most Constant Gardener
do certain things. would be the experts and seniors If you have many free-riders but
who seems to know everything no contributors yet, it won’t be
Been nice is highly important.
that you don’t but are very helpful. long before that happens. When I
More often than not, we have to
think twice before saying They are often very busy but started my red1.org forums I
something that may be seen as would answer a direct technical would advertise in Compiere
nasty. issue and answer them quite forums subtly by pointing those
precisely and brief. asking me for more assistance to
Always using the smiling refer to my tutorials which are
emoticon when you are really It is important not to engage them done in PDF format. In those
trying to be nice helps alot. in arguments or bickerings if they tutorials I usually drop hints for
Speaking in a humble and giving do not wish to. Sending them or the readers to visit my forum or
t o n e i n f l u e n c e s p e o p l e ’s anyone private emails is not good sign my guestbook. In due time
perceptions. unless they ask you to. visitors do that. At times the
Start As A Lurker Enjoy and Have Fun website seems to be in the middle
of a desert where travellers are
According to surveys, a high Been human, everyone likes to few. It is a slow pattern but now
proportion of online community socialise when they can and of and then some cheer do happen
are lurkers or those who mostly course you and your friends do when someone signs the
read and do not say anything. joke offline, and why not also do it guestbook or even help to reply to
They may do so very seldomly online? other newbies. With constant
and sometimes that raise concern Our project has a live chatroom pruning and presence, a
to the admins whether they should where you can try to socialise. community began to take shape at
Avoid using it for too much one- the site.
Example
▪ Debian[5] has been a highly successful project with 1,000 developers and faces
issues[6] giving rise to forks such as Ubuntu[7].
The Information Model

▪ Information is free, people are not, contributors are priceless [8].
▪ Web Economy for FOSS is a new medium and paradigm that many do not know how to
fit in. For example in the old economy, people hide or sell information. However here
we cannot do that and regard information as free. We can only sell people's time as a
service and it is charged in dollars for man-hours or man-days.
▪ However there are those who still manipulate information such as delaying it unless the
users pay and apply time-delaying tactics where those who pay shall get the
information earlier.
▪ The Web perpetually threatens information hiding as another party can or will expose
earlier or easier infomation to forge ahead. Therefore any profiteering model has to rely
on top of the rule that information must be free.
▪ Still we have to be aware that there are different reasons for taking part in a FOSS
project[9].
Did You Know That?

▪ You are a contributor without knowing it? By been friendly and welcoming to other
people is already helping an online community to be more comfortable and at home with
each other.
▪ Poison is anyone or activity that makes a project loses focus and end up losing energy
unnecessarily? We must be aware that the important contributors of the project just
want it to continue without incident. So do most of the dependent users.
▪ Forking is regarded as a good act by many? That is the hallmark of been Open Source.
However before forking, one must consider if it can attract enough participants.
Otherwise time will tell that it may be for ulterior motives and die needlessly.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Contributing Participating in a meaningful manner such as reporting bugs or checking up
things.
Trolls Internet slang for someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or
off-topic messages.
Geeks Controversial term, but now is a compliment, denoting extraordinary skill.
Admins Short for Project Administrators
source: itmanagement.earthweb.com/.../ 3711616
Essay Test
▪ How would you handle someone who behaves angrily online?
▪ How would you contribute if you are still new?
▪ What is the ratio and levels of users in a FOSS project?

5.3 Social Engineering
Social engineering is the art of getting information in It requires basic netiquette in asking questions[11] and
a sociably likable manner. Famous hackers[10] have some time invested in socialising around, helping in
used it for bad reasons. But we need it for good ones. small ways until others acknowledge you.

Getting Someone To Find A Partner errors. Anything that you are

capable of doing is appreciated by
Help Heard of pair programming? You the seniors and experts who
Even though there may be tons of sometimes learn better if you find definitely will notice your activity
information published on the web someone about your level and in due time.
resources such as the wiki and learn together sharing tasks of
maillists or forums, you may exploring the software of project. Be A Citizen
prefer to listen to real people. As You can then update each other Sometimes what is needed from
people are not free, you have to about own progress but do it in a you is to just vote well in the
invest time in cultivating warm specific forum thread so that polls. Whenever an opinion is
relationship with people before others can see and may even join requested from the community on
you can get anything out of it. in. a certain decision you can do so
Even though you get past the by first researching till you can
Form Your Little Club arrive at a sound voting decision.
etiquette of doing some research
and then asking politely, you If you get a 3rd partner, then you Making yourself heard more often
cannot expect others to assist you got a crowd. And you shouldn’t on the right notes earn you some
the way you want to. stop there. Keep on expanding visibility and hopefully correct
your scope and friendly circle.
One good way is to let people branding.
Constantly publish an info trail
know as much about your right that expands your virtual credit. In Be An Ambassador
side, and that is by publishing my red1.org forum i began to give
about your good deeds. If you do Sometimes you can be more
moderator status and stars to
not have that, then try building effective by posting or
reward the active ones. This
some and put into your user page commenting in foreign but related
makes them proud to stick around
or website or blog. blogs of forums with apt
and have such recognition. comments that highlight your
Be Famous Be An Apprentice project. Shout about the good
There are some of community points of your project to others so
One secret of getting a senior to
members who put what they have as to make it more popular. But be
help you is to help him back! Be a
done so that others can know careful not to sound like spam or a
good apprentice such as do what is
about them and this earns them troll. You can also paste good links
needed by the senior. It can be by
credit to be used back when they you found elsewhere that you
reviewing his codes or testing it or
need help from the seniors. think might be useful for the
even helping him to document his project members to know.
Avoid copying and pasting others’ work. Whatever you do to lighten
work. If you cannot start his burden. Pick the tasks that you
something great, start something are able to do so you can get to
simple and small. Read up others’ learn what you are not able to do
user pages yet.
Sometimes you can help out at the
fringe such as helping to edit the
wiki for typo or grammatical

Phrase Acronyms You Should Know

Terms Interpretations
IMHO Short for ‘In My Humble Opinion’ - good to start off your comment.
WDYT? What Do You Think?’ - good at end of your comment. WDYT?
My 2 cents Saying ‘here is my humble opinion’ on the matter discussed.
AFAIK ‘As Far As I Know’ which isn’t very far. :)
:) Smiley emoticon to show that you are smiling. You are, aren’t you?
$&^$@#! To show vulgarity without saying it. WTF is one of them, cool but not so nice.
AFAIR ‘As Far As I Remember’ which isn’t very much. :)
AYT? Are You There?’ - hello?
BRB ‘Be Right Back’
BBL ‘Be Back Later’
GTG ‘Got To Go’

Research
▪ Read up as much as possible on the ADempiere project forums to familiarise with some
of the main componentsʼ issues.
Discussion
▪ Here is a case reference of how some conversation seemed to catch flames [12] 13] [14].
Review it and discuss your thoughts and feelings.
Did You Know That?

▪ ERP is considered highly complex subject matter. It is 90% business rules and 10%
coding.
▪ Hands-on work or a real problem can speed up your learning process? So the next time
you hit a problem or a bug, smile. Youʼre on your way.
▪ According to Protagoras, each personʼs experience of a same thing is not the same. So
be aware when people disagree with you, it could be both see the exact same thing
differently.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Pair An approach for programers to learn quickly by pairing in twos.
Programming
Apprenticeship Offering to assist a mentor or senior in order to learn more directly.
Subject Matter Expert knowledge associated with a product or project such as ERP.
Bugs Problem, issue or error in the software that needs fixing.
source: socialsignal.com
Essay Test
▪ What is the international language used in the Internet?
▪ What has the trend been and will be [15]?

Summary
▪ There are different type of user participation in any online project.
▪ They are lurkers, trolls, newbies, geeks, veterans, and poision.
▪ Participants have to be very diplomatic and cordial as everyone are real humans.
▪ If you do not contribute, someone else will. Contributors are priceless, you have to be.
▪ A huge base of free-riders can lead to a higher level of growing contributors. Thus
accept as much free-riding.
▪ You can start somewhere socially among the community.
▪ You can learn fast by apprenticeship and pairing with other members.
▪ It is a sharp learning curve to cover something as complex as ERP.
▪ The bazaar is the best way to tackle such expertise without paying anything.
References
1. ↑ http://sf.net/projects/adempiere
2. ↑ http://www.adempiere.com/wiki/
3. ↑ http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Help:The_original_tour_for_newcomers
4. ↑ http://sourceforge.net/tracker2/?group_id=176962
5. ↑ http://www.openskill.info/infobox.php?ID=248
6. ↑ http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/12297_3765826_1
7. ↑ http://mako.cc/writing/to_fork_or_not_to_fork.html
8. ↑ http://www.adempiere.com/wiki/index.php/Information_Is_Free
9. ↑ http://freesoftware.mit.edu/papers/lakhaniwolf.pdf
10. ↑ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9995253-83.html
11. ↑ http://catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/smart-questions.html
12. ↑ http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=2383002&forum_id=610548
15. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_internet_usage

CHAPTER 6
Total Cost of Ownership

Learning Outcomes • Look at gaps in a bigger picture;

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • Calculate against long term benefits for gap
closure;
• Understand why Total Cost of Ownership is
important; • Compare between Return of Invesment (ROI) and
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) aspects;
• List the reasons why many are still not using
Linux; • Look at the TCO Model to identify the right
payback on FOSS;
• Evaluate the executive decision in choosing a
software solution; • Pay attention to TCO concerns of potential users;
• Carry out your own analysis of free software based • List the payback options for using FOSS ERP;
on TCO. • Present a long term strategy for the user company
• Grasp the concept of Gap Analysis; in considering ERP.
• Identify the different gaps of FOSS;

• Understand that each gap has its hidden costs;
Introduction software. For a business, if the software fails, their

business is on the line. But for the software
Even before anyone can say anything about free developers, it is just a bug, or a typical client they
software, the word free can create suspicion and can afford to lose because they may have other
even raise concerns to those who has a lot at stake. clients.
Business people are often suspicious of the ‘free’
word. Either they take it as worthless or its trying to For years, clients have been paying good money to
hide something somewhere by been free. software vendors and do not care if the software is
open source or not. The users just want to pay
In a way they are right. Logical thinking would ask someone to get it fixed and fixed fast.
why would something be entirely free. In Compiere
‘s case, in the end the truth was found out. It was The traditional culture of software supply and
free to gain the power of word of mouth via the Web maintenance is not about to be uprooted by
until they become a household name and then sell seemingly free and open software without business
off its controlling equity for a large sum of money. concerns been addressed first hand and fairly.
To many this is called business. But it gives a bad When I was in Berlin during the first ADempiere
name to Open Source Software. conference in 2006, we were visited by a large
Now with ADempiere as a community fork of prospective company who expressed such a worry.
Compiere, the free spirit continues but a different Its project manager explained to us that he sees a
kind of fear comes in. Corporate users are afraid that need for the community to give assurance that the
it been free and community-based bears no community has a proper management structure and
commercial substance. There is no neck to choke in culture that users have been used to all this while
case of failure. There is no supreme command centre with proprietary software. This means the project
or head office that you can ring to make a legal should also have a proper office, company setup and
decision as to what is to be done about problems warrany of service for them to count on. Until this is
along the way during implementation of the done, they can be considered gaps.

6.1 Why Aren’t Everyone Using Linux?
There was initial excitement when a free alternative training needed before one can use Linux as well as
to DOS came about in the form of Linux. But it soon Microsoft.
fade off when realisation sets in that it takes alot of
time and technical prowess to be able to handle linux. Techie users are always a minority.
That translates to real costs in terms of expert time or

Who Moved My Are You A Techie? When Ubuntu came about in

recent years, it was thought to be
Windows? That onlymakes sense if your are a the gap fixer between freedom and
When I frst tried to setup Linux in techie by hobby or by career. user-friendliness. Indeed it
2001 it was fun. I got to be like a Otherwise it will be a pain and a certainly has but the target is a
techie. I even hack a bit to get the chore to be techie enough to do moving one. Microsoft in turn
monitor right. something simple with free and pays close attention to what is
open source software.[1]
But that is a bore for those who happening in its territory and often
wants to use it as a hassle free For Business Costs counter with copycat moves such
as a better look and feel to keep its
utility and not as a backyard More
project. Thus Linux is not for own loyal users fixated.
Now extrapolate all this at a
everyone expecially your grannies.
corporate or business level. the Its A Clients’ Market
Even among techies, not all of costs are even more compunded It is true that Linux server
them are that technical or are of because the office will need a software is more popular than MS
the same equal interest and separate maintenance contract to Server but it faces two forces.
skillset. engage a techie or a techie
One is commercial parties buy up
company to see to all the users’
Why It is More Costly interest in FOSS for server side
complaints or issues with using
Lets say you saved 300 dollars for and charges a license such as with
FOSS. Top management will be
not buying a licensed MS Redhat.
too occupied with its own core
Windows OS with Office Apps. issues rather than managing a new The other is again Microsoft itself
But you spent 2 days to setup all desktop client for the whole locking its client users to use its
the drivers and files conversion organisation. server tools and purposely makes
and that can cost you 30 dollars a life hard for them to convert to the
day of lost income from working Linux Windows new religion.
at the office. If you are a boss, that There are 3rd party projects
will be more. Multiply by two and building X Windows that work on Remember Risk
its 60 dollars starting cost. Linux but they are not matured Techies may like risk but not
Then you have to keep on adding and also owned by competing companies or your parents. A
for any extra time you spent commercial or project interests. buggy OS will cost more loss to a
making things work on your own. business. It will take a longer time
Gnome and KDE are popular ones
Not just the lost time. But also lost than usual to have top
but as a FOSS project, the energy
business which is called management feeling secure and
is more driven by maverick and
opportunity cost. You might even confident about using open source
self-interest rather than corporate
lost your gym workout times and when its stigma is still techie and
and paid interest.
also dating your girlfriend time. even kiddie. It has to shed its
Novel has invested in Gnome but hobbyist image and put on some
In the end after a year or so, it all it won’t be that clear that Novel serious 3 piece suit and necktie
adds up to more than you been private would want to keep and begin to speak in a comforting
expected. Gnome that public or free. salesman tone.
What About Ubuntu?

Research
▪ Find out more hidden costs from using FOSS.
▪ Find out how many in your neighbourhood are using Linux compared to MS.
Discussion
▪ Does the web helps in using FOSS? How?
Did You Know That?

▪ IBM is heavily investing in FOSS such as Linux, Apache and Eclipse? It even has its
own office focusing on patent buying and making it available to the world. Do you think if
it is more of a cunning reason is to stop its competition?
▪ Microsoft offers a good business deal to PC makers to pre-install their desktops with MS
OS where the price is lower as a bargain to their customers? End-users also find this
convenient. Not necessarily with the techie ones!

Glossary

Terms Definition
Client Side Usage of software at desktops as opposed to a server
Server Side Usage of software at a server and not on the client side.
Techie Been technical minded and experienced at solving technical problems
Eclipse IBM contributed Interactive Development Environment for sourcecode.
Essay Test
▪ How can the TCO of FOSS be overcome? Be aware that solving it may take cost or
investment.

6.2 Cost of Gaps
Today cost is becoming subjective. It is not like going And that is just the learning gap. For software there
to a store and buy a torchlight if your house is dark. are feature and performance gaps between FOSS and
You have to calculate which kind of specialised torch! proprietary ones that users like to look into.
Today a programmer cannot just come into But for sure FOSS has advantages which are quite
ADempiere and work right away. S/he would not only intangible such as community support and no
need to learn alot but most likely unlearn what s/he information hiding. Sometimes the noisy part of the
learnt incorrectly! Gaps such as these can kill a bazaar is helpful as you would really get to hear what
project and other high hopes for freedom. you normally would not get to hear!

Finer Gap Analysis Buy or Build Cost Software is a living dynamic

creature where a slight change of
You probably seen a Gap Analysis There are those who rather hire condition can throw the whole
illustration like the one below. cheap IT staff and build from piece down the drain.
However in real life it is much scratch or now with FOSS, build
more complex than you think [2]. from ADempiere! But the cost of Consider it more like a ship.
training or slow learning is still Remember Titanic. A small gap
Take for instance the question of
there and really cost alot if the will sink a mighty ship.
training. Some companies think
trainees take a long time to master For a car, if you find a hole, you
otherwise. If they send a staff for
it. can patch it up or change a tyre
training, they are afraid he will get
smarter and more expensive and One way is to outsource to a with a different one. It will run
they will lose him to better pay capable and experienced company slower but not explode. For
elsewhere! Now that is a risk but how many are out there? And software it might just crash.
which carries a cost too. how sure are you that they are As said elsewhere doing software
really capable and experienced? is like going back to the old
Once we know of the gaps we are
well on the way there in solving a Thus important carefully cottage age. It is like a big ship
mystery. Putting all of them down referenced information is vital. where a single hole can sink it.
on paper and then we set off to That is why if a university Artifical Intelligence software
seek out what each of the gap is recognised and issue certification where it can repair or heal itself
about and how best to remedy on it will build that confidence and has not really arrived. It still need
them. hub of reference. a skillful human developer to look
at the code. Even with smart tools
What is the Cost of A Forget Version 1 such as IBM Eclipse that highlight
Java Developer? It is important to approach a new which code part is improper, it is
technology based on maturity of only like a fuel gauge saying that
In looking for a good Java
that technology. From the graph your fuel tank is at ‘E’. You need a
Developer, I am faced with a
below, we can see that things get knowing fellow to tell you what
dilema. It is because if I get a
matured in an emotional way for ‘E’ really means and what you
senior person, will cost a lot. If i
FOSS. have to do next.
pay someone cheaper and train
that person from scratch, I will be Even for Microsoft products, you
paying for the expensive training. wouldn’t go for its newest version
And s/he will definitely get a until some time has passed or its
better offer elsewhere. I cannot next version is out. Then you go
raise the pay yet as i have not for the previous version knowing
recovered from the cost i invested better and all the bugs resolved.
in training.
Unknown Gaps
Of course I can tie the trainee to a
bond, but how much? And there The quest of modern science is to
are laws against unfair contracts. know the unknown. For software
it is highly abstract and its not like
building a bridge where you can
calculate it before it is been build.

Software Differs The remaining 10% will be different are the terms and labels
unattainable. to start off with.
Software has different project
management behaviour[3]. With this rule-of-thumb, you can Gaps To Watch Out
Yesterday’s SDLC (Software set expectations more fairly.
There are few things between
Development Life Cycle) has ERP As Horizontal ERP and a particular business to
given way to Extreme focus on. Do they have their
Programming which needs fast An ERP solution is considered a
processes worked out and
turnaround time. It has its own one-size-fits-all where it tries to be
documented well? The task of
anti-pattern that needs strict everything to everybody. Of
doing that is a whole project on its
scoping control [4]. course that is awfully bulky. For
own.
any company, in order to use it,
You have to spend 50% time in some verticalisation or addon or at Once you have all the needs or
planning and you cannot change least some custimisation is wishlist on paper that is where you
horses midstream. You cannot necessary. That has to be done by get down to figure out the gaps.
even add horses, as it will make skillful and experienced ERP
the project worse. Most gaps are paper formats
practitioners. differences, as well as workflow
Software is still an archaic Each typical industry will be procedures that need to be
tradition of manual stitchers who called a vertical on an ERP. For incorporated. Those gaps are man-
are overpaid! example for the Steel Manfacturer days of work, and you calculate
Business Gaps versus a Shipping company, they that based on the expertise at
have different processes and hand.
The most important gaps only requirements. They are their own
exist in the end-user’s mind and it There is one good rule to follow:
verticals.
has nothing to do with technology. Avoid gaps. How? By trying to
They do not care about what your The gaps between the vertical and refit into the ERP by reusing its
software is or what the bazaar is the horizontal has to be a minmum components. I was surprised that
about. What they care is whether in order to make a close or near many times after careful study,
there is any gap between your fit. many new functions can be done
solution and their needs and on standards components of the
Some are misled to think that if
wishes. ERP.
some of the components are well-
Certainly there will be gaps. No fitted, the gaps are an easy breeze. So that is one cost to charge the
ERP software solves 100% of client - Study Time.
Before Assuming
what a customer wants.
Firstly is the wrongful assumption
The 60/30/10 Rule to accept at face value anything
ERP needs only make use of 60% anyone says about anything. You
at most of its functionalities and have to double-check and be sure
features of a particular software. if the accounting engine really
About 30% has to be developed or work, or the print format is easy to
customised on top of the software. use. Some assume that migrating
data is easy. It depends on how

Research
▪ Find out gaps that are interesting for using new software.
Discussion
▪ What are the type of costs needed to use Open Source software.
▪ Outline the remedy measures in real costing terms.
▪ What questionaire would you devise for an organisation to answer before switching
from proprietary software to Open Source software?
Did You Know That?

▪ If you have completed 90% of a software, it will take another 90% effort? This is called
the 90:90 rule.
▪ That 85% of Software projects failed to meet its objectives? And for ERP projects it is
above 90%! So the next time you plan for one, put in alot of caveats and contigencies
besides setting the right expectation.
source: mrcoyle.edublogs.org

Gaps Analysis
▪ Above is an example of process to handle a gap analysis
▪ Gap Analysis try to calculate what it takes to get there and what is stopping you from
getting there.
Cost of Gaps You Might Want To Look At

Gaps Reasons
Changes A change can be small or can be big in terms of costs and time.
Politics Obvious. If someone doesn’t like it, it does not matter if it is free.
Language You wouldn’t know what you lost if you are lost in translation
Comfort People cost a lot. Particularly those who are too comfortable.
Experience Learnt in School of Hard Knocks. It is the cost of failures.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Software Project The whole process of studying the needs through handing over the system to
Management the end-users, including training and documentation
Gap Analysis Analysis between where you are to where you want to be
Java Top Object Oriented Programming Language used in ADempiere project
Caveats Exit clauses in a document to allow a certain constraint to exist.
Essay Test
▪ List down any gaps you think exist between FOSS ERP and SAP.

6.3 The TCO Pyramid
The TCO is balanced by the ROI you can get from using SAP which naturally cost up to beyond a
using a FOSS solution. So when previously we doubt hundred thousand USD.
whether Linux is acceptable alternative to Microsoft
Windows, we are more surer on cost-benefit analysis But then, there are many factors of costs against
with ADempiere ERP. This is if it will save you from benefits that you have to weigh carefully.

Linux Earns Once expenses in getting consultants to community it can test its
study their requirements and longetivity against closed vendors
When you use Linux and replace propose the right solutioning. For that can suffer more serious mortal
your MS Windows, you probably a FOSS ERP it is same and can be dangers such as a take-over as
save one-time and not again. But riskier depending on the FOSS happened with JD Edwards and
the cost of maintenance may keep ERP consultant company whether PeopleSoft or oblivion such as
on running whenever you need to is it established and dependable. In what happened with so many
invest further in training and this aspect SAP wins as it is very commercial IT giants of the past.
adapting users who are established and known to almost
comfortable to MS DOS and not Microsoft and Yahoo! is now
anyone.
Linux version. under threat from Google. Linux is
So is it the same with other layers Vendor Lock-In not under foreseeable threat as it is
not owned by anyone but a global
such as for Database (MYSQL) Using SAP will means the client is living and transparent community.
and Utilities (such as Application locked into that solution and
Servers - Apache). These are fine definitely an SAP vendor will milk So is with with ADempiere. Its
to use but they save little the client via lock-ins such as structure may be loose but it has
comparatively and so to over disallowing to integrate using 3rd no salaried staff and liability to
focus on them does not justify party tools. The vendor usually pay for. There are also no banks
enough the payback. extract as much pipeline profit that have loan it money that is
from the closed customer. chasing after it. In this aspect
Go For Business Apps users can count on FOSS solutions
Here FOSS wins as it been open
Above the stack the tools you use that has a great community to be
source cannot lock-in the client
will give you productivity. ERP or free from commercial pressures so
that easily. There is still the option
Business Applications return high as to last for a much longer time
to open up and get another vendor
cost savings and cut down than those who aren’t.
to take over an ERP project. In
wastages in productivity as it runs this case ADempiere has an
and operates the business flows advantage but the client still has to
and reporting for daily business be careful at the Project
decision-making. Management aspect. If the
Comparing SAP B1 or MS ADempiere vendor or consultant
Navision will cost in the region of does not transfer know-how or
USD100k. To use ADempiere will findings faithfully and document
cost you the man-days of them completely this may spell a
consultancy, but as you can see wasted effort as another vendor
there is a sizable margin to beat. will have to start all over again.
Customising Cost But still it is a plus for using

FOSS ERP.
All ERP no matter how mature
will require customising costs. In The Long Term
Even for SAP, the client would If ADempiere has a lifelong
still need to pay on top of that guarantee of a perpetual
USD100k licensing further

Research
▪ What FOSS projects that are famous but are fading away?

Discussion
▪ What if another FOSS ERP project emerges? What will happen to ADempiere?
Essay Test
▪ What are the services that a client has to pay after implementing an ERP?

Did You Know That?

▪ OpenBravo, based in Spain also forked off Compiereʼs application model? However
they regard themselves as original by rewriting the codes again in a newer technology
framework. Nevertheless they got some USD18 million funding and began to introduce
a dual license model just like Compiere where users are charged for better upgrades. As
such they lose out to ADempiere in a fee vs free comparison. There are still no distinct
advantages in terms of software quality from commercial open source.
Glossary

Terms Definition
TCO Pyramid A model created by the author to describe TCO vs ROI among FOSS Apps
Vendor Lock-In When a client has no choice but to depend on the provider all the time.
Fork A new project that uses a previous project source and continues on its own

6.4 TCO Strategy
A strategy is needed when looking at implementing Are you prepared with a good team of resources to
ERP no matter if the client is thinking of SAP or learn up the application and is there a good PM?
ADempiere. TCO plays heavily in the long term. Is
there resources to sustain? Either paying an ongoing
expensive SAP or maintaining ADempiere.

ERP Goes Open of failures. What are its true their needs or enhance it as the
causes and remedies? market progress.
Source
Open Source has gone up the food Is the chaos clearing itself and the Throwaway Strategy
dust settling? What do we watch
chain. It is no longer about Linux Sometimes FOSS ERP can be
out for? What to believe or not to
and Apache. It has entered the used as a quick prototype maker to
believe?
realm of business software. prove a concept and then discard
Who are the pioneers and what it. Using ADempiere can be a
When Compiere ERP/CRM made
can they teach us through their quick and dirty test case.
its debut in 2001, it brings to the
mistakes and past assumptions?
territory its first serious player After the test, a review can be
challenging even the likes of SAP Approach With Care made and better decision with
and Navision. more calculated risk analysis at
As ERP is complex, great effort
Since then many play the path and hand.
must be invested first before
in many integrative units such as accepting a FOSS solution. No Big Bang
SugarCRM, Pentaho and Eclipse
Study should be made in detail on Whatever it is, the last thing a
BIRT.
what the roadmap will involve in client must do is to go for things
New Disruptive terms of cost of study, disruption all at once with all eggs in the air.
Landscape to workforce, changes, the whole
You should turn down such an
works as with any ERP project but
There is a need to comprehend this option even if the terms are good.
with added emphasis on the
new disruptive playing field in Chances of failure are high with
dependence on self-learning and
business applications and its all or nothing deals.
transfer of know-how to internal
impact to vendors and users or 3rd party vendor in view that It is better to build slow and
A new landscape brings new there are no established FOSS steady experience with easy
definitions and names to the ERP vendors yet. clients and work your way up the
market. Much confusion is caused value chain of service. Good and
by names-dropping and happy clients will recommend
repackaging of old theories and Where SAP Is Not others to you.
models. An example is the Good Enough
previously failed ASP
There are prospects who can
(Application Service Provider)
afford to pay high for an ERP but
been repackaged as SaaS
SAP does not fit the bill. These are
(Software as a Service).
usually those who has very niche
and unique processes that have to
be heavily customised.
The Need To
Understand Such prospects are more ideal for
FOSS ERP solutions. Particularly
Many early attempts to implement if they need to constantly change
Open Source in the business area
have met with their golden share

Research
▪ Why do most ERP projects fail?
Discussion
▪ What further uses are there in the POC throwaway or prototype testing stage?
Did You Know That?

▪ It may cost more if a client tries to implement a huge ERP on their own? Company time
is expensive, and asking staff to learn and experiment ERP is foolhardy.
▪ If a project fails, the vendor only loses a client, but the client loses business? The
vendor must be aware that it has much less risk than its client.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Navision Microsoft’s ERP solution
BIRT Business Intelligence Reporting Tools’ Open sourced by IBM
POC Proof of Concept, usually a small test case to prove quickly that the solution
works.
Transfer of know- Passing on the expertise and capability from a vendor team to another usually
how internal team.
Essay Test
▪ Why ERP has higher TCO than Linux?
▪ How can the ROI for using FOSS ERP be higher?
▪ Is this university course enough to fulfill the ERP market? What else should be done by
both government and private sectors?

Summary
▪ Client side operating systems in use are mostly Microsoft and not Linux.
▪ You can learn fast by apprenticeship and pairing with other members.
▪ It is a sharp learning curve to cover something as complex as ERP.
▪ The bazaar is the best way to tackle such expertise without paying anything.
▪ There are many gaps between the software and real user experience.
▪ Each item of change to a new experience is a cost. Change itself has a cost, such as
training and conditioning the users.
▪ There is also a collective cost of getting a critical mass of users to like something and
use it often enough to support an eco-system.
▪ Total Cost of Ownership[5] or TCO is the burning term used by practitioners to judge the
real cost of using a software that includes warranty, support, training and hardware.
▪ TCO are different from the Operating System level to the Business Application level.
Desktop setup displacement cost saves a user only 3,000 unit price as compared to an
ERP[6] that costs about 300,000 unit price.
▪ The author has created the TCO Pyramid illustrated here to demonstrate the high worth
of focusing on the upper layers of services such as Implementation and Maintenance of
Business Applications rather than providing for displacing lower layers such as the
Operating Systems or Database even. Lower rungs are relatively much lower in TCO
compared to the higher ones.
▪ ERP been complex needs a good strategy that takes into account long term TCO.
▪ FOSS ERP holds alot of promise but lack of local consultants can pose a risk.
References
1. ↑ http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070913/linuxs-free-system-is-now-easier-to-use-but-
not-for-everyone/
2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_analysis
3. ↑ http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/brokenTriangle.html
4. ↑ http://www.niwotridge.com/BookReviews/AntiPatternsInPM.htm
5. ↑ http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/article.php?article_id=161
6. ↑ http://www.oracle.com/corporate/analyst/reports/corporate/cp/es101306.pdf

CHAPTER 7
Web For Business

Learning Outcomes • List examples of successful community projects.

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: • Understand the importance of focus and finding a
niche;
• Explain the importance of branding even for free
software; • Comprehend the market strategy to excel
according to unique segments;
• Describe the behaviour of consumers to brand in
cyberspace; • Explore your own niche in the Open Source
market.
• Identify the need of consumers for good branding.
• Cooperate with other niches to form a cluster in
• Explain the market fragmentation caused by the ERP consultancy.
new medium of cyberspace;
• Describe how the web help in protecting your
• Describe the approach by new economy in gaining niche.
mindshare of the users;
• Understand the importance of creating value
• Understand tactics by old economy in buying up through positioning[1];
mindshare.
• Explore your own niche in the Open Source
• Appreciate how Open Source allows fast market.
occupation of mindshare and thus marketshare.
• Cooperate with other niches to form a cluster in
• Describe the ability of the Web in bringing a ERP consultancy.
community together;
• Describe how the web help in protecting your
• Explain how web tools come in handy to produce niche.
open source;
• See how availability of sourcecode and materials
online can attract and grow a community
Introduction not, how would we market our people or services

worldwide?
Fast though the Web may be in distributing an info-
product across the globe, wherever there is internet The Web allows new branding to be made based
access, there are old world issues and thinking for solely on an idea which has to be unique and
the entrepreneur to figure out. Been able to sell your unrepeatable by others. It has to maintain minimal
services to the other side of the world may pose informational dependency since information is easily
serious questions as to how you would fulfill such duplicatible. It has to have intrinsic non-replicable
business opportunities. How would you cater to the value.
needs of such customers? How would you package Or in ADempiere’s case, it has to carry on the novel
your services when you are not there in person? How idea that it will perpetually be free and supported by
would anyone pay for anything you sell over the a worldwide community in order to remain branded
Web if it is duplicatible? as numero uno.
Since we are dealing with products that are based on
the premise that information is free, and people are

7.1 Branding Philosophy
We been living with brands our whole life. We choose So in Open Source the brand question is important
things according to brands. We compare with what because many are still unaware of the existence of
our friends wear or use as to the brands. They help to FOSS ERP particularly. They are blind as to what it
make us aware of their existence. means and what it can really do or don’t.

It’s A Memory Take Your Time also involve character, deeds,

words, even small details.
Problem A successful brand is said to take a
If someone cannot remember you, long time to build. Some say 5 It’s Really Expensive
its either s/he has a memory years[3]. Many top celebrities go For some companies their
problem or you have an image through longer periods even and products are quite cheap to build
problem. You did not stand out or you be surprised how hard it was but their brand is what makes it all
impressed on that person well for many of them. If you get faster important and expensive[4]. A
enough for him or her to branding, then appreciate your Bally shoe cost 200 dollars but the
remember you. luck. Do not underestimate a rubber is only 20 dollars. Thus a
brand’s power.
But psychologically human brand is the most expensive part of
memory is said to be short when it Riding On A Giant the product. It has real monetary
comes to recalling names or value.
For ADempiere we are lucky
images unless it is triggered. This because we rely on the branded Corporate Image
is what brand promotion is all position of our parent project
about. So that when you think of FOSS been community based and
which is Compiere. It took 3 years
something you think of the brand. techie often missed having a
in SourceForge to become a corporate image with proper
Our brains are wired as associative household name and we ride on office, receptionist, phone and fax
memorisers. So called that. and nice name cards. It may not
photographic memory is actually It was a giant we stood on, and we even have a nice website. But
using the associative nature of the are grateful that we protect its some commercial open source
brain. We remember pictures position as our kernel contributor. companies are changing that.
easily and human nature is that we
remember faces better than names. Now that kind of honesty is one Now, there is a question as to
good brand image we have started whether been ‘Free’ is a good
That is why so many with and we intend to stay that brand or a bad image to a brand. If
advertisments use celebrity faces way. it is free, is it good? Many will say
or at least some pretty face. that there is no such thing as a free
What Brand Means lunch. There must be a catch
For sales, it means everything. If You Are Your Brand somewhere.
people remember you, they will It is fair to say that the most In some cases, I would be
call you and give you the deal. If expensive part of you is the image reluctant to tell a prospect about
they do not, you do not exist, and you trigger in people’s minds. free open source software for fear
neither does your business. That is your brand. You may not that either it will frighten or cause
like it and want to change it indifference on the prospect’s part.
Humans are emotional beings that
perhaps by wearing expensive That is fine because a brand image
need assurance from a grand and
looking watches and shoes. But does not really need to be in the
beautiful image. Brands can give
that does not really comprise of product. It can be in the service
that. A brand is supposed to
the true you completely. It must and your personal touch of been
promise something[2]. reliable and dependable.

Research
▪ Find out parts or character of FOSS that can be a good
assuring image to users.
▪ How fast did www.red1.org become a mini-brand? See
from the dates in the guestbook.
Discussion
▪ How would you brand community based FOSS?
▪ Discuss about Europe branding Open Source [5].
Did You Know That?

▪ Brands are image conscious? So making donations are publicised to give an image of
consciousness of humanity :-)
▪ The in-thing today is world-consciousness? So you see alot of concerts for AIDS,
EarthDay, Global Poverty, Anti-War and Global Warming. But it makes alot of money for
its organisers!
ADempiere hit no.1 spot in SourceForge.net a little over 100 days since inception. It even
took us by surprise.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Brand Equity Monetisable value of a brand.
Barrier of Entry Difficulty of others to mimick or copycat a certain brand image or advantage.
Kernel The core or main components of a system.
Essay Test
▪ How can the TCO of FOSS be overcome? Be aware that solving it may take cost or
investment.
Coca Cola is a very unique brand as it is highly focussed on a single taste and a
narrow product range. It does not go into other stuff or dilute its image. It is also
often easily referred to with a single word which is ‘Coke’. Pepsi has tried to
challenge Coke by advertising “The Blind Test” but failed.
According to Jack Ries and Al Trout, the gurus of advertising and marketing,
Coca-Cola had tried to play around with its brand image but somehow suffered
in mindshare and quickly returned back to ‘It’s The Real Thing’ meaning in its
slogan.
But in software this may be different as for example Microsoft and Google is
trying to be everything to everybody. Yet as in ADempiere where ERP is also
going for everybody, we can say our focus is on the ‘community’.

7.2 MarketShare and MindShare
For a brand to be successful it must have a big share Open source or been free is the fastest way (without
of the market in its competing category. For example paying any marketing fee) to gain mindshare.
the desktop market is under Microsoft[6] and also
flavours of Linux. Among Linux there are brands
such as Redhat, Suse and Ubuntu.

Like Julius Caesar marketshare of E-Bay or Amazon. first created my web presence. I
But how do you do that? thought about a short 4 letter name
“I came, I saw, I conquer”. It was as 4 lettered dotcoms are almost
that easy in ancient times when There are millions of others
dried up. Using my name
there are not much competition having your same idea.
“Redhuan’ it sounded like ‘Red1’.
and modernity. So was it with the Thus Open Sourcing your It is catchy and my friends and me
early days of the web in the mid sourcecode can be a good way to like it.
1990s. enter the game.
Freeware and the web allow Cyber Territory
How Google Did It
lightning fast adoption of it. When As you clearly are aware, territory
Netscape browser was first But how did Google took over or geography in cyberspace is
available it very quickly occupy Yahoo! from behind? And they did non-existence or in the form of
about 80% of all surfer base in is so quickly and without much ‘space’ rather than ‘place’[8]. Thus
1996. battle. what is expensive there is not
It was a well studied plan areas but names. URLs are known
For first movers: in the search
obviously. Knowing that hardisk to sell for millions and all the
engine it is Yahoo!; in email it is
space is cheap Google launches good generic dictionary names are
Hotmail. Been first made the
services that has almost unlimited taken up. Can you think of a good
creators multi-millionaires. For
capacity. They offered 200 name better than Google? Please
Yahoo! today its owners are
megabytes of email account space email me and no one else!
billionaires.
whereas Yahoo! standard was 4 Been of low or non-barrier of
Their secret was simple but not so megabytes! entry, web presence is tied to some
obvious when they first started.
They remove all advertising physical asset to ensure that it has
Most of us are followers. When
clutter (remember attention protection of its value.
they succeeded only then we say
“Ah! Why didn’t I think of it?!” poverty?) from their search engine
window. I suspect that is why they
Now You Know are faster (and even suspect
Even though the dotcom bubble further that their mathematical
burst in the early post Y2K years, algorithm superiority in their
many still believe the power of the search engine may be a facade just
web in flattening the new market to side-step the market).
in cyberspace. All you have to do The Power Of Name
is to anchor to something free.
But the most important element I
Too Many Cats believe is in its name. You can say
Of course you cannot do another ‘Google for it’, easier than “Yahoo
email service or a search engine for it”. The Google word has
that easily and hope to make entered our dictionary before
billions right away like before. Yahoo could! [7]
You got to wrestle away the That is why I thought about a
good brandname to use when i

Research
▪ How is cyberspace market strategy different from conventional market strategy?
▪ Find out about viral marketing.
Did You Know That?

▪ Business.com was sold for USD7.5 million in 1999? The original owner bought it to
squat on it until someone offers that kind of money for it. He then sold it for USD350
million in 2007[9].
▪ When I was the webmaster for Bank Bumiputra in 1996, a squatter already booked the
www.bankbumiputra.com and asked for RM4,500 which he bought for about a hundred
odd ringgit at that time. I turned it down and create a subdomain as http://
bank.bumiputra.com.
▪ When I became Siti Nurhalizaʼs webmaster in 2000, her domain name was also taken
by other fans. So i did the same trick and made it as siti.nurhaliza.com. However the
project failed as that time broadband was not around and her admirers have no credit
card to make online purchases. They were either below 16 yrs old or above 60 yrs old.
▪ Google introduced an open source browser in 2008 called Chrome?
Discussion
▪ What name brand would you use for yourself?
▪ Why?

Glossary

Terms Definition
Startup New company launched by an idea to try to become a successful business.
Sub-domain A new domain prefix that is actually a sub-folder below the root domain
Mindshare Highly associated in consumers’ memory of a certain branded product
Essay Test
▪ Is conventional marketing useful for web products?
source: http://www.uoregon.edu/~ftepfer/SchlFacilities/TireSwingTable.html

7.3 Collaborative Community
The web has been evolving so fast particularly in Wikipedia having grown out of pure cyberspace has
social engineering support such as inter-relay waited to happen and such things are now inevitable.
chatroom (irc), threaded buletin boards, email feeds
and SourceForge tools for globally connected code
exchanges, that real software improvement can just
happen overnight.

When There Are No Magic of SourceForge am not needed most of the time.
Many volunteers help in managing
Borders Perhaps the greatest gift the web and share the burden.
What the web really did is to has offered is from SourceForge
which has free tools such as SVN The members from all over the
remove the walls that stand in
(sub-version to synchronise every globe allow a 24 X 7 existence of
between all the human creativity
developer’s code into a single the project. Multiple companies of
and energy that can synergise into
repository) and trackers to keep developers could commit codes
many wonderful projects. People
track of bugs and feature requests during their waking hours without
can now get together along similar
with automatic sequential ID needing to have the attendance of
interest and not be hampered by
numberings. other team members.
other criteria of physical
appearance or real-timeness. When they sleep, another side
Mob Politics
wakes up to examine the commits
Story of Nupedia It is now quite proven that without and repair or continue the work.
Wikipedia was an offshoot of centralised control and leaving to
Teams and individuals work on
Nupedia which was strict and the freedom of the masses more
their own paths and so we find
disallow unqualified entries. In the good can result from it.
some codes been neglected and
end Nupedia died and Wikipedia This has been given many names some been intensively attended to.
exploded into millions of articles such as ‘barefoot community’, The nett effect is like a beehive of
and dozens of languages with over ‘Smart Mobs’, ‘Pro-Am’ or non-stop activity.
a hundred thousand volunteers. professional amateurs, It has now
[10] However Nupedia’s Larry Thus even if there is a leader, he
evolved into a new science called
Sange still maintains that will not be able to sleep. In a way,
‘Wikinomics’.[11]
Wikipedia has got it wrong and his the self managing of it all is good
Somehow mass social energy has as there is no extra administration
idea of a more orderly qualified
intelligent design in it. When there that has to be paid to get things
community will succeed in the
is a wekaness somewhere, done.
end. What do you think?
something will pop up and see to
Getting The Smartest it. Project of None
Person The Missing Leader With zero employee but all
volunteers, the project will thus be
As the smartest person is not in From my experience in the perpetual and not be constrained
this room, s/he must be in some ADempiere project, I felt like a by bills to pay and commercial
other room in another place missing leader. Even if I am not threats or economic downturn[12]
perhaps thousands of miles away. there, things go along rigorously. that others are suffering now.
With web marvelous connectivity This is because there is no control
There were fierce flames and
and chatroom or forums, that or restriction for anyone to join.
debates but somehow they learnt
someone can locate the Like Wikipedia, any vandalism to work better together. It’s a
community and barter some ideas can be reverted with a single click, living miracle.
and put down into codes, all decisions made in small pockets
within minutes rather than weeks. but openly for all to review, so I

Research
▪ Find more unmentioned examples of wikinomics.
Discussion
▪ What can threaten such an Open Source project that has a growing community?
Did You Know That?

▪ We in our ADempiere first Berlin conference, 2007, have called ourselves the ʻcoming
together of selfish individualsʼ or ʻcollective selfishnessʼ? Somehow the sum of it gives
us back more than doing things on our own.
▪ Even though ADempiere is a top ranked project in the world in SourceForge headed by
2 Malaysians, it is very little known fact in our home country Malaysia? The other
Malaysian is Low Heng Sin who is nominated as the Head of the Commit Committee.
His ERP domain knowhow and deep java knowledge in contributing alot is highly
regarded by the community.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Feature Requests Requests made by users to the project tracker asking for new features
Reverted Going back to the condition before a change is made.
Commit A virtual committee within the project to oversee and decide on trunk activity.
Committee

7.4 Seeking A Niche
As taught in the Attention Economy we have Not Like Frasier & Neave which has many kinds but
limitations of focus. Also, humans do not like to be can you remember this brand when you want a drink?
confused or cluttered in their thinking. They prefer
one brand for one need. That is why Coca-Cola is the You too are a brand and a niche. The faster you find it
most memorable brand for only one kind of drink. and focus, the better.

Be Good For Only another technical ERP expert to go Publishing Your Niche
after a deal better.
One Thing I also talked about publishing
No one can be an island today. what you know best to others so
This is not a limitation if you are
Even inventions are no longer its known and your marketable.
good in one thing. You have to
created by a single scientist but by
focus to be the best in that field If you are a coder, your commits
a large group that most likely are
[13]. At least there is a market for are already tracked online and
from many different places but
good people in your area. If you other coders can see you. Some
working together.
digress and focus on other areas editors will also give credit to you.
you won’t be good in your core Give and Take when they notice your work.
area for long.
You should also assist other You may have a weakness in
If somehow you think you are no experts even though you may not wiriting or you may just hate to
longer interested in your focus get the deal. You are just opening write. But via the web and
area, then you have to explore for up your network of goodwill, so involvement in such an open
another one before deciding to when you do get a deal you may source project, the word gets
move to a new one. Nokia is one need to outsource to them, and around that you are the best or at
such company that has vice versa. least good enough in your area.
successfully changed its previous
business focus to the present one What Are You Good This is part of the many
advantages of working in a FOSS
of mobile telephones. At?
ERP project.
The ERP Dilema Usually it is what you have been
doing such as documenting, Room To Play
ERP solutions try to be everything project managing, coding, trouble- Been good but no room or friend
to everyone[14]. There is pressure shooting or even selling. Whatever to play with won’t make you that
from different users wishing for it is you can focus on been the best good for long. Why many are
different things from their ERP. It in your area and work with others using the web and FOSS projects
is important to separate the core in a whole unit to tackle larger is because they get to mingle with
from the extensions of an ERP. ERP prospects. If you are a sales other gurus and develop good
Some specialised area such as person, you can do alot of friends to give them moral support
garment or steel industry or food prospect qualifying and cold calls in pursuing their passions within
processing can be a separate add- to build a sales funnel for the their core expertise. For me it is
on and vertical. It is best to team. training and writing and as you
delegate that area to another
If you are a documenter you can can see I am happy and excelling
expert and work in a smart
help editing better sales brochures at it.
partnership together with them.
and share them out to the whole
Cluster of Experts world. With your name as the
Open Source ERP gives this author it helps to brand and sell
special chance to everyone to your services back. At least you
work together but yet specialised are opening your chances rather
in each own’s field. You can be a than been and remain a nobody.
tax accountant and work with

Research
▪ How would you apply or develop your niche area? Find ideas of others like you in the
web.
Discussion
▪ How can you all work together to complement each other as if you are in a virtual
company?
▪ Is ADempiereʼs niche market where giants wonʼt want to go in? Give examples if it is
more than just low budget projects, very partial use of ERP, and academic projects.
Did You Know That?

▪ If you are too good at everything, some people wonʼt trust you?
▪ Salesmanship is an important niche for Open Source? Why it cannot sell well is due to
lack of good sale-personnel or sales training. That can be a niche to cater to.
▪ Most look for profitable niches but missed the not so seeming ones that have profit in its
protected ponds.

7.5 Positioning and Aligning
Just like you see in chess where a pawn piece is people call this is ‘value-adding’ through no further
useless in a certain position but when placed in aother cost but just aligning strategically your resources.
position can become so powerful it means the turning
point of the battle for the opponent. Another term This university course is also part of a srategic plan to
take on a blue ocean of a market.

Chess At Web Speed Since we do not and just wish to You may have to quite your
sell services around it, we have to present job and join us full time!
As you can see how Amazon has think of the next best thing.
taken over the global book market Learn From Chess
by storm, or how Wikiepedia beat Aligning With Others Just like gambit in chess, you can
Britannica, Google over alot of Been famous and big can give us offer something valuable away to
cyberspace and money, you can clout to position with other players get something better back. Also in
guess that today’s strategy in the or movers. That is why I am chess, often the better return is a
web is undefinable and will bring aligning with Asia e-University position of a low pawn but that
about changes to the game like and other universities with the can attack the field devastatingly.
never before. promise of ADempiere as an IP You can think of many such
Valufacture generating machine, as well as a tactics in your present situation
highly potential professional and also with ADempiere for the
This is a term created by Dr. course for postgrads to take on to present market.
Edward de Bono about value been enter the business market.
of, what else?, higher value than Today SMIs and SMEs need
manufacture of mere physical I am even promoting to align with software to be efficient and predict
products. He also preach es SAP where it need not die out but availability and sales of their
simplicity and pure ideas as the its users maintain SAP at the core products. Perhaps we can take a
cornerstone of creating immense but its branch systems talk to leaf out of the chess game by
wealth when doing the right things ADempiere [15] . This cuts the progressing step by step and even
that have not been done before. costs of large organisations IT slow but sure steps. Let’s install
budge ts that cannot afford one ERP suite at a small factory
Open Source As multiple license fees in an first and wait till it matures before
Position economic downturn. As it is win- rolling out to others. The
win then it can become immediate chessboard or market is too huge.
By going open source in the first
value adding to the market. If we No one can ever cover it all. It is
place is already taking a strategic
talk to SAP, its market may shrink more of a matter of slow chess
position. You are putting your
but is more protected against other than fast checkers.
contribution up on the mountain
threats as people who loves FOSS
where everyone can see it and get
will not threaten to choose
to it at lightning speed. This is
between SAP or else. SAP can
what has made Linux, Compiere
also sell more services as they
and now ADempiere becoming
know ERP better. But this time
household names almost overnight
they can let the lower market go to
while its propagators sit at home
the lower cost ADempiere
and use normal effort. The returns
consultants.
are abnormal and enormous.
Even though we may be paid less
Positioning Open as that, but its alot on a global
Source scale. Asia e University probably
However, after going open, what run out of lecturers on this course!
is next? Do we sell out? Many do.

Research
▪ Find out some of Dr. Edward de Bono most brilliant concepts. Write about one you think
is the best.
Did You Know That?

▪ Kasparov, the World Chess Champion from Russia at that time, was pitted against the
most powerful IBM computer, Deep Blue?
▪ Deep Blue could evaluate 200 million positions in one sec. Kasparov could only think of 3
moves per second. But Kasparov could draw and even beat it with a score of 4-2 in the
1996 encounter.

Summary
▪ Most consumers buy brands. Every product is a brand. They choose brands according
to what they can identify and believe in, the brand image and promise.
▪ Brands take a long time to build, expect 5 years.
▪ Branding can be the most expensive part or value of a product.
▪ In cyberspace a brand can be easily displaced due to its low barrier of entry.
▪ Cyberspace is where new startups suddenly take on dominant marketshare with
virtually no resistance due to been first movers.
▪ However smart competitors could wrestle away the big players share by focusing on
certain tactics such as the Attention Economy and local culture.
▪ Naming strategy is vital in dotcoms as what is visible are usually the name spaces and
not geographical places.
▪ Mindshare can overcome marketshare easily as there are no geographical barriers.
▪ The Web allows virtual community to form across borders. The smartest person can be
in the same room. Much ineffiency of meetings are dispensed with.
▪ Forums and trackers in mailing lists can track down activity efficiently saving time and
magnify activity that was never possible.
▪ Small teams and little steps could overcome large established products.
▪ The Long Tail has no overhead in the era of wikinomics.
▪ Most of us cannot be everything to everybody. We must find a niche that is sustainable.
▪ Niches are best taken if no one has taken it before. Niches must also be worth our
while and passion.
▪ Most look for profitable niches but missed the not so seeming ones that has profit
through indirect means.
▪ Some people, projects or products position themselves ahead before the action just like
in chess.
▪ Some align themselves to others and use others as leverage or catapult to higher
ground.
▪ It all depends on what are your core competency or value that is not replicable by
others.
▪ Sometimes positioning is all about been honest in your own way.

References
1. ↑ http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/
2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_positioning
3. ↑ http://www.startupnation.com/steps/55/3760/9/1/establish-brand.htm
4. ↑ http://www.mewrites.com/2008/01/coca-cola-number-one-brand.html
5. ↑ http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2649
6. ↑ http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/01/2009-linux-and-the-desktop
7. ↑ http://www.millwardbrown.com/Sites/optimor/Media/Pdfs/en/BrandZ/BrandZ-2008-
Report.pdf
8. ↑ http://internetmarketingandmessages.blogspot.com/2008/01/communication-and-
spaceplace-call-for.html
9. ↑ http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/26/businesscom-sells-for-350-million/
10. ↑ http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49296926-5,00.htm
11. ↑ http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/
12. ↑ http://www.epicom.com/business_week_on_open_source
13. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_generic_strategies
14. ↑ http://www.serensoft.com/manage/
15. ↑ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10063951-16.html

CHAPTER 8
Contemporary Open
Source

Learning Outcomes • List the main characteristics of a community open

source project;
• Describe the advantages of community over
• Describe the type of licensing concept used by commercial ones;
FOSS;
• Explain the reasons for commercial open source.
• List the type of common licenses in application;
• Explain how open source require institutional
• Describe the salient differences between GPL and branding;
non GPL licensing;
• Give examples of institutionalisation of FOSS;
• Explain the politics behind certain licensing.
• See the opportunities of those yet to achieve it;
• Identify the loopholes of FOSS Licensing in
commercial applications. • Explain the reasons for commercial open source.
• Differentiate between commercial and community

open source;
Introduction run their business well with it, and leave it to a

commercial party to see to it all. This is evident
One way to know that Free and Open Source more in USA as compared to Europe where the DIY
Software (FOSS) is taken seriously is when you need culture seems to be more grounded.
a lawyer to read its license. It also has drawn in
philosophers that debate over what is truly free and US business culture may tend to be more corporate
what is not. minded and pays more attention to face value and
proper packaging. These can give ideas to FOSS
What has been community open source has now advocates in presenting their services so as to steer
given rise to commercial ones, that seeks to make away from such grey areas of needs.
direct monetary profit out of it. This is a rather new
idea that is undergoing furious debate and evolving In Asia, the culture may be entirely different, where
test or real life cases to be proven upon. free products are valued and the proper service and
support model is not so sought after. Or the FOSS
Can we accept that a business model can ride on provider has to work harder in making their service
FOSS easily without allowing a free-riding seen as necessary and worthy of been part of an
community, which many commercial ones has adoption budget.
shown clear attempts to be just that?
It is also often misunderstood that when people give
away software freely, they stand to lose out quickly.
Free-riders also got a bad name as been ungrateful
and useless in the equation.
There is also a type of end-user base that insist on
the commercial model. What that means is that they
are not techie and does not wish to care if the
software is open source or not. All they want is to

8.1 Licensing and Business Models
During the cave age or the beginning of humanity’s is all about excluding others from making the same
first memory, any creation of art or industry was free money from such an exclusive right. In the FOSS
and not copyrighted nor patented nor subjected to any world it is all about freedom. But that doesn’t mean it
license agreement. Fire, the wheel and spears are not cannot make money. In fact, money has caught up
copyrighted where another caveman need to seek with it.
permission or acknowledge the creator before using
them. Today the concept of patents[1] and copyrights
in the proprietary world is a common reality of life. It

Lend Me Your Pen Viral Law

When man began to write, it The GPL license is thus
was for the pursuit of by definition a viral
knowledge and sharing the joy license because any
of it. Today you make money modfied or added code to
if you can copyright and sell it. it has to be GPLed too.
For FOSS advocates, they This is good news for
believe in the moral right of FOSS advocates as more
been recognised for it but not and more sourcecode
keeping it under the condition enter the public domain.
of payments. It is indeed to be However commercial
the rights of the free software
shared for all its worth. interests that produces proprietary
definition and uses copyleft to software become restricted to
So licensing for FOSS is more for ensure the freedoms are preserved, participate, and cannot take any
protecting that freedom.[2] even when the work is changed or such GPL code or they will get
added to.
All Wrongs Reversed infected![4]
In 1976, a programmer Go Forth And Publish The Mozilla Pass
mischievously put the first known The most important clause in When Netscape was freefalling
copyleft notice in his code (see GPL is that any derivatives of the due to the onslaught from the free
figure top centre). It was not a sourcecode must be made public Internet Explorer agressively
proper licensing notice and has no again. In this way any creative taking over its territory, it decided
legal significance until in the mid innovation is always available and to go open source as a desperate
80s Richard Stallman used a can be further improved upon attempt to avoid sudden death.
proper licensing model that spells perpetually. This is a basic However parts of its code are
out the specific condition of fundamental by which FOSS lives using proprietary software and so
freedom to share and distribute ad on. using the GPL license would be
infinitum without anyone locking
up creative works again. Standing on Giants incompatible. It thus created the
Mozilla license which allow the
By such a clause, small coders or
GNU Public License intermixing of both free and
‘dwarfs’ can now stand on the proprietary code. It would allow
Stallman introduced the GNU shoulders of giants before them selective blackboxing.
General Public License or GPL and see higher than before.[3] Interestingly the FSF recognises
which is used in the first GNU
This principle is what spearhead this as a qualified free software
projects, and then naturally
Linux development in an license.
adopted by Linux that gave it a
exponential manner without fear
serious future in the licensed
of the sourcecode been taken off
sense.
the public domain or worse, its
The GPL is a copyleft license that new coders sued and obstructed
requires derived works to be from continuing their creative
available under the same copyleft. pursuits.
Under this philosophy, the GPL
grants the recipients of a software

The Loophole independent software vendors It is more used for APIs or

should focus on resolving this gap. libraries that link to other software
Thus with commercial fundings not requiring the viral effect.
and success stories such as Business Purpose
SugarCRM and Pentaho, Open Since commercial interest has The Fallacy of Paid
Source started to become like a cropped into Open Source territory Software
new mini dotcom bubble wave. and with the above stated tactic, With FOSS running around how
Even Compiere was not spared. there have been opinion from our would one be able to sell any
Many of these projects are community that the commercial software? The only way possible
individual owned and played the ones are often breaking the Open is when the software is
dual license game. As owner they Source stipulations of not putting overwhelmingly superior than
can issue out one GPL license conditions on the sourcecode. FOSS which most are not. In fact
version of their code and another
They started imposing restrictions many of the FOSS ones are highly
commercial version of their code
as to what version of (crippled) competitive. They only lack
usually called EULA to request
sourcecode is open to public and packaging and strong corporate
from commercial users who wants
what (latest) is only open to presence.
to pay to obtain better warranty
and value on paper. paying customers. In that manner SAP is still leader in the ERP
we dispute that as not truly open market as the market base is very
Non-Warranty source but as a wolf in sheep well established with SAP. But in
Clause clothing! Our argument is that it is time to come with ADempiere
ok to conduct paid licensed improving unabatedly the scenario
All licenses such as Apache and
software business, but not to abuse might change. One thing however
GPL has clauses which says that
the term Open Source when it is must be done by FOSS ERP in
no warranty (see box below) is
not. o r d e r t o c h a l l e n g e S A P ’s
given or is there any liability by
marketspace. It got to have its own
the creator over any damage or Lesser GPL
loss of data from the use of the strong market reference which
Many regard the Richard Stallman means that FOSS ERP has to be
software. This is not only present
been overly strict and for been used by Fortune 500 companies
in FOSS but most likely present in
critcising the restrictiveness of and used for a long time before it
proprietary ones too. However this
GPL for commercial interests. It is can be on par. The only way to
clause can be an excuse to engage
said to be in between the stronger shortcut this is when those
the software developers as
copyleft of GPL and the more corporate giants make their own
consultants or commercial entities
permissive ones like BSD and political decision to switch to
to provide standby or on-site
MIT. FOSS ERP. That is unlikely unless
warranty in case of need. ISVs or
they have really run out of cash!
15. Disclaimer of Warranty.[5]

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT
WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE
PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
CORRECTION.
Proprietary Position other FOSS projects. Many FOSS projects made alot
Proprietary software components such as in libaries of money when they are adopted by big vendors that
are now quite protected within Open Source via require the software to be closed back or semi
more liberal licensing such as MIT, Apache and closed. This is the dream of startups today going into
LGPL. Closed source software is still not something Open Source, as its exit plan.
that can find resonance with the idea of been free as
Many did not make it due to either huge intra
alot of money is invested into its creation.
competition and also the bar has risen on what is
This brings back to the argument of why we need to profitable to be open and not. Thus been a new field,
go open source in the first place. It is to allow lesser licensing will bound to evolve along with the whole
investment in creating and maintaining software. history of open source, defining the borders of what
However the arguments are still valid for closed is free and what is not.
source as the ideal world does not happen with many

GPL version 3 But this noble desire of Stallman does not go too
Richard Stallman was not happy with the loophole well with other FOSS advocates including Linus
which commercial entities found in the GPL v2 Torvalds who regard the boxes as the domain of the
where they can use digital signature to stop further vendors and should not be of concern to FSF or
versions of a software from running on their boxes Linux Foundation.
such as PDAs, IPods, etc.
In the end Linux did not take on the GPL v3 and
This means that the commercial players could stick with v2. So did ADempiere, but mor due to our
effectively stop a free software from been used code been already specified by the creator, Jorg
again . The players would be back in charge in FOSS Janke before we forked.
territory.

Research
▪ How does FSF enforce the license compliance? Has there been any cases?
Did You Know That?

▪ Letting other committers into your code will put their names as part of the authors and
contributors but do not dilute your original copyright name? Thus as the original
creator of a program module it is the best thing to happen as your name remains in
the first copyright statement. That is why Compiere remains in most of the sourcecode
copyright statements in the ADempiere project.
▪ Open Source licensing can be a new branch of legal practice? So in this way lawyers
can also be involved in Open Source.
▪ Pharmaceuticals have forego the long patenting process of their products so as to get
to market faster? They do this by adopting the open source model so that others can
also share in coming out with value-added ones. By the time the market reacts, their
product life-cycle is already over.
Discussion
▪ Do you think closed source licensing will continue to exist in the future? Why?
Essay Test
▪ What is the best license for the ADempiere project? Why?
▪ If you want to go into Open Source for business returns which license will you adopt?

Glossary

Terms Definition
Proprietary Software Licensed software that is not FOSS
Blackboxing Having certain binary code closed up without revealing the sourcecode.
Closed source Another term for proprietary software.
GNU GNU’s Not Unix, a recursive acronym.
Dual License A licensing strategy by the software owner to issue 2 licenses to cate for the
two opposing communities.
EULA End User License Agreement that may spell conditions that are not Open
Source in spirit.

8.2 Community OS vs Commercial OS
Anything that is famous will bring to the next word - foul with the community. Are there politically correct
rich. Many have come into open source projects ways to commercialise out of open source without
hoping to make a decent living or beyond. When you stepping on the toes of the fanatics? Certainly there is,
can easily become a household name within months and it involve not just diplomacy and regular visits to
you will tend to think about cashing in. Giving away the temple.
your ware is not a good idea to many. The owners
began to think of ways to relicense their freeware.
Whatever it is, commercialising open source has run

Is It A Dirty Word? Perhaps what Spring Co should do Mecca in the desert. By been a
is to have expanded its training top project will draw alot of open
Commercial OS is often a division like what I am doing with continous attention that goes a
company runing a FOSS project as the university and issue its own long way to brand and market it,
an owned product with a business recognised certification and move saving the advocates tons of
plan which will include milking up the value chain by reselling its uneeded funding from venture
that project for an expected profit. high worth project base to rope in capitalists.
At times the company will make more expensive projects.
corporate decisions that Loans Against Free
cannibalise its FOSS nature such Whatever it is, by going
The paradox is that when you take
as introducing an EULA that commercial the OS project will
funding or investment, it has to be
charges a fee for extras that not be called such anymore and
paid back, with high interest. But
community view as counter to the fall from the charts and lost out to
from what extra earnings can you
FOSS spirit. another community FOSS or fork
pay that back with?
that will enjoy the bulk of the
Spring was an immensely popular community’s attention. I doubt If you charge others, the forks will
project that in 2008 has been whether they get much payments take over your users who refused
bought over (its owner company’s from those who want bug fixes. to pay more. Thus your pool of
equity) and the result is a Most likely they will wait for captive market shrink overnight.
communique to the users to pay another FOSS framework to
for prompt bug remedy. Thus FOSS is not a pool that can be
emerge!
those who do not pay will get the converted back easily. What is free
bug fixes at a later date. This is certainly true in Compiere cannot be stolen nor be unfree
and OpenBravo case where back.
This is contradictory to what the ADempiere is now the defacto
project wants to achieve as Thus this is why I say that there is
champion of FOSS ERP and
without bug fixes then everything gross misunderstanding of the
received the best reputation in
slows down with the community. FOSS business model.
SourceForge.
There will be less report of bugs
and less voluntary fixing of bugs. Perpetual Fork
Bug the Spring Co board rebuted Everytime something goes
that before it went commercial commercial the community can
there has been hardly any bug easily fork the sourcecode and
fixes from the open community, continue from there. There is
and mostly were done by the apparent concern that a
inhouse paid team. community-run open source will
not be structured well enough to
I disagreed easily because our
be taken seriously by giants. I feel
ADempiere project is completely
there is misunderstanding of the
non-commercial based as there is
role and strength of community
no commercial owner paying any
based FOSS. It cannot be
single staff. Yet it has been going
measured in the same light. Its
on with lots of contributions
strength lies in its bazaar spirit that
which challenged Compiere and
is unstructured and constantly
OpenBravo head-on.
drawing on the wilderness like a
An Ordained Paradigm open. How would Mecca sustain itself? The answer is
Perhaps a good analogy to draw from is in the it need not, but leave itself be.
proverbial holy city of Mecca itself. There is an
It is Mecca because of the community that revolves
underground stream called the Well of Zam-zam
around it. Before all this, there was nothing. So it
which together with the Kaaba draws millions of
cannot question or displace the form and function of
pilgrims each year to taste its water and bottle it
its existence.
freely.
FOSS was nothing until a community came to it. All
The government there would not and need not put a
it gained is due to that fact and that fact alone. Its
stop to this practice with a fee as it may stop the poor
subsequent success will continue ad infinitum.
pilgrims from coming again. Mecca since biblical
Commercial tendencies are only nothing short of
times has been thriving from the caravans that comes
short term greed and often proven to be its undoing.
along and trades flourished all around it till this day.
As in the Meccan analogy, it just have to let its water
The City Mayor cannot exact any further tax other
run.
than see to it that the Well continues to be free and

Wool Industry Sales Seminar

I couldn’t agree with you more. But if you allow me to explain, we have a 5 point plan
that ensure guaranteed employment, dental care, housing loan, children’s fund and
retirement benefits. - Dr. Babe, PhD.
Discussion
▪ Why would some parties prefer commercial open source rather than communityʼs?
Essay Test
▪ What can funding for a FOSS project be wisely used for?
▪ How would you answer to contributors who complained that they are not paid enough?

8.3 Business As Usual
ERP is more about business rather than IT. that in and out. Many software people are not good at
Sourcecode is only 10% of the picture. The rest is making their ware simpler. In the end its the end-users
subject matter, process flows, document formating that matter. They just wanted functionality that they
and reporting, standards and compliance, rules and can use confidently and easily.
more rules. Expect the experts to deliver that to know

Don’t Mention It journey. Thus my advice would be Prospects would demand the same
to plan in that broad sense or if as they been taught by proprietary
Making money and feeding your not, hang on to a conducive software vendors. They expect
cat is a given, so it is best not to project from a company that can you to come bearing gifts, wearing
bring that subject up. I do have a sustain you that has some relation skirts, do a demo, prepare a
family and I feed them everyday. to what you are learning here. prototype and pay for the lunch.
To be a serious supporter and Only when you have gain more
contributor to open source can Of course all this is factored in
contacts and market prospect pool
give you real chances of earning into the license fee. For FOSS
that you think about making that
more and in better terms than there is no license fee. It is a
big jump or biting that red pill in
before. However the road to been dilema to explain to the prospect
open source where you may not
a contributor may have started as a that there is no fixed bid possible
earn anything for a while.
hobby where you are working for until there is a preliminary
someone else as a first daytime job But this is if you are thinking as an payment for pre-sales effort.
or you are paid to do open source. e n t r e p r e n e u r. A s f o r a l l
enterpreneurs, this is common and Think Product
So there is no issue there. But if
you are full time relying on your it has less to do with the product If that is not enough, you have to
open source project to feed you, or yourself but more about going present your product like its well
there may be some issues and you through the path of maturing a packaged in a box, with manuals,
have to be prepared with business of your own. CDs and proper documentation.
contigencies or strategic alignment Perhaps a good site to refer and
Know Your Product speaking of which, some reference
to survive.
ERP is a wide thing. You may not sites. All this is the bad news after
My strategy has been to use be able to know everything of the hearing all the good news about
multiple marketable skills such as business rules if you are a coder FOSS ERP. However such gaps
teaching, and consulting as well as and would rely on a specialised can be look upon as big oceans for
writing to get myself other jobs business expert. And same thing new ventures to come in and
while waiting for a pure vice versa. Business with open explore ways to productise it.
ADempiere deal. Like this source is unique because the
moment conducting this master How about a nice box to put a
product is sold even before the
program is going to take alot of DVD with all the software stack
sale. It is free, remember?
my time and it is where most of all worked out and ready to
my income will come from for this But it is a tough sell to make users install? Include some printed
year or so until i have trained want to pay for anything further. manuals in colorful design. Some
more interested second stringers of The culture with products is that pin-up instruction sets. A FAQ
tutors and coaches. There are once I bought it, I expect it to reference book. Support vouchers.
times where i have to do indirectly work, and if it don’t I can shout at The list goes on and on. It is all a
related projects such as ERP the supplier. matter of the imagination of a
coaching, Systems Design, Project creative and entrepreneurial mind.
In this case the supplier (you and
Management and Presales me) are not paid and cannot afford
Consultancy. I have to plan ahead to do any further charity until
my fee structure so as to earn there is some money involved.
enough to sustain the whole

Research
▪ How do FOSS vendors sell their products? Note how they reconcile with the free
license and community aspects of the product.
Did You Know That?

▪ US expats charges about USD500 onwards per day for their services. In Malaysia,
RM1,000 to 2,000 per day is common practice. In Europe it can be Euro300 onwards.
▪ That most clients do not understand open source and its better not to try to explain to
them too much? It is better to sell on the benefits and explain a different fee model.
There can be a soft license fee structure because they are more used to that!
Discussion
▪ What is the best way to sell FOSS ERP?
▪ Why?
Think About It
▪ In the cartoon above, you can easily see what is wrong with the salesman words. This
means you can visualise the problem and easily and would not trust the salesman.
▪ As software is not easily visible, how would you make it so?

Glossary

Terms Definition
Startups New companies setup to try to become successful businesses.
Sub-domain A new domain prefix that is actually a sub-folder below the root domain.
Mindshare Highly associated in consumers’ memory of a certain branded product.
Gnome A windows like app for the Linux platform that tries to be like MS Windows.
Essay Test
▪ What is the best way to introduce FOSS ERP to a prospective customer?
source: www.wordsellinc.com/.../ cartoons/page/2/

8.4 Institutionalising Open Source
The community was initially regarded as a bunch of from Pentagon, the United Nations or Oxford. Some
nerds who do not comb their hair or own a necktie, soft recognition are already coming in for ADempiere
and should not be taken seriously. Even if they are 40 such as IBM, some world universities and certain
something with years of expertise and having served government agencies. It is a match to be made in
in high level corporations, there still must be heaven for the community if this is captured well.
something wrong with the project if it did not come

What Cisco Has on. Do you have an Inc in USA? missing link to make all of the
Do you have a tol free number? above happen.
Famous vendors like Microsoft,
Cisco, Novel, SAP, IBM or Oracle Do you have a salesgirl we can The ideal way to get into the game
has institutionalised collateral. call? Do you have a neck we can is via academic institutions that
They have certification courses in choke? Open source projects are looked upon to fuel this
their respective products and hardly care to come out with such change to withstand the coming
specialties. They have training collateral or icing on the cake. storm.
centres that carry the same Technically the community may All sectors are facing the
corporate name. They have VARs be far superior than anything else pressures. Universities must
- Value Added Resellers. They on earth. But the end-users do not produce not only graduates but
have lots of books. They have tons give two hoots about that. employable ones with the right
of papers. FOSS projects and products are skills and values. Government
An open source project may have now hot cakes for commercial agencies must stop businesses
tons of materials but that have to institutions to profit on. But I feel from closing down and control
be organised in coherent structure that it been community based, it unemployment. Software is
that carries inherent value as in the will have a longer meaningful life recession proof as it helps
above example. if social and academic institutions organisations cope with less
exploit the opportunity to build people and more automation. But
University of Technology, Sydney some IP and goodwill on it. That is proprietary software is hyper-
has the first batch of graduates that why we have approached such inflationary due to its high license
conduct work together with IBM’s institutions and this course is a costs and foreign exchange. Thus
Innovation Centre there to port ground breaking step towards it. FOSS ERP can be one of the best
ADempiere to IBM’s database kept open secret to happen in the
DB2 and its application server, The university can gain to build a
present time.
WebSphere. Papers are been curriculum that has market
published and this lends to getting potential and job prospects for its
ADempiere recognised as a graduates. It can also build IP and
serious enough application for innovation as well as apply its
adoption by corporate users. R&D work to boost its world
rankings.
B i rg h a m Yo u n g U n i v e r s i t y
English Lecturers who specialised Win-Win
in Technical Documentation are Today’s financial turmoils is said
conducting projects to document a to hit home around mid 2009.
complete user manual for There will be many thousands of
ADempiere. unemployed, many of which are
Are You Certified? fresh graduates. Government
agencies are preparing huge funds
The first thing people ask for are to retrain them and fund SMIs and
academic certification. Then SMEs to use ERP tools to reduce
professional certification. Then cost and increase efficiencies. By
industry reference. The list goes having more experts in ERP
implementations, will be the

TODO Check-List

Collateral Status
Name ADempiere is same as ‘Compiere’ but to accomplish ‘with honour’
Adempiere.org is held by the author, as its leader. Adempiere.com is held
by Carlos RUiz, Head of the PMC - Project Management Committee
websites .org and .com not maintained. Other company members are self
maintained quite well.
ADempiere Inc, USA Registered but not activated. Held under trust by US member, Idalica, CA
ADempiere Society Not-for-profit society in Germany with office in Berlin under Schaeffer.
ADempiere University - pending - (papers already done by UTS, Australia, BYU, Utah, AeU)
Certification - pending AeU -
Corporate HQ Building
Reference Hub
Repository
Library
Incubators pending Universiti Malaya, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Centre of Excellence
Case Study Sites
Master Degree Program in progress Asia e-University
Short Courses self done in USA, Germany, Colombia
Awards & Scholarships
Student Exchange
World Conferences June, 2007, Berlin. Coming up in June, 2009, Berlin again.
Expo Showcase


Above - Breakfast with members from Germany and Poland

Below - Speaking at Linux Tag, Berlin, 2007.
Previous page - Global Alliance. Lower - After the first ADempiere Conference.
Research
▪ Previously Universiti Malaya was in the top 100 in the world and now not even one in
Malaysia is in the top 200. Why? How do we get into the rankings again?
Did You Know That?

▪ Silicon Valley was attributed to Stanford University? MIT is said to have brought about
Boston Route 128.
▪ Billionaires are created by enthusiastic entrepreneurial spirit in California due to its
tolerance for failures? In fact they expect you to fail 5 times before you can succeed.
Their laws and culture is set to make success happen.
▪ ADempiere Deutschland e.V is registered in Berlin, Germany? The German community
organise themselves in a not-for-profit body to help also promote Europe-Asian
collaboration as alot of Asian nations are booming and require expertise from the west
and vice versa the West require partners here in Asia and also for outsourcing projects.
Discussion
▪ Give simple ideas to make our FOSS ERP project even more recognised internationally.

Glossary

Terms Definition
Startups New companies setup to try to become successful businesses.
Sub-domain A new domain prefix that is actually a sub-folder below the root domain
Mindshare Highly associated in consumers’ memory of a certain branded product
Essay Test
▪ Why would FOSS projects need institutional recognition?

Summary
▪ Licensing is a necessary evil for Open Source. The basic principles of free software is
to always be free and never owned by a party that might control it.
▪ Open Source began to differentiate from Free Software with semi open licensing.
▪ Commercial tendencies began to crop into licensing and business models. Some uses
dual licensing models but it has been difficult to capitalise.
▪ A self increasing community saves a project alot from investing in marketing, branding,
testing and development as well as sustenance.
▪ Commercial interests began to control open source projects[6] as much money can be
made quickly with minimal investment [7] [8] due to the energy from communities that
form around them.
▪ Communities are allergic to commercial tendencies and often fork to maintain its
openness[9].
▪ Forking is an important and necessary character[10] of Open Source.
▪ There were business pressures onto projects like Linux such as to buy back Linux Inc
and control its trademark.
▪ For example Linux has to consider user friendliness for non geek users and welcome
Gnome.
▪ Community members have to survive and often argue of their monetary needs not be
neglected so that they continue contributing to open source.
▪ Open Source been still new and formless need institutions such as Certification, Centre
of Excellence, Academic Training Centres and Reference Sites. It is to advance the
productisation or packaging of the project for commercialability.
▪ It can be social business[11] where dividends are not taken but help advance further its
cause.
▪ It can have a foundation behind it and the people running it has to be well chosen and
accepted by the community.


References
1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent
2. ↑ http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
3. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants
4. ↑ http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/2025
5. ↑ http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
6. ↑ http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/any-open-source-
alternatives-to-sap-erp-635407/
7. ↑ http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/04/surviving_throu.html
8. ↑ http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/29/146201
9. ↑ http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2006/10/forking_compier.html
10. ↑ http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2006/10/open_sources_fu.html
11. ↑ http://www.philanthromedia.org/archives/2007/02/yunus_on_microcapitalism.html

CHAPTER 9
The Next Generation

Learning Outcomes • Identify new technology such as voice recognition

as further enabler of end-user applications;
• See the possibility of having Phone-ERP
• Anticipate the future of media based technology; integration;
• Describe the potential of ERP based applications; • Explore further viable applications for consumers.
• Corelate ERP with supply chain devices; • Grasp the potential of ERP on a global scale;
• Be confident in the future of web based technology • Detail the general components of an ERP;
around ERP applications.
• Note the supply chain inter-relatedness from one
• See the inevitability of the Single Window concept domain to another.
coming to ERP;
• Follow Google’s vision for the future;
• Anticipate that if Google does not do it, someone
else will.
Introduction how that constant may change in face of the

technological advances, can give us some food for
Since things are so fast moving, it is not wise to put deeper and careful reflection as to what we should
a full stop to anything that is out there. In fact, things pay attention to for our future.
are already moving ahead everytime we revisit them.
Technology is a moving target. By the time we
finished studying a certain thing, another would have
taken over its place.
It is best to anticipate the future as much as possible
even though this can be a futile attempt. There are
certain trends that are certain. Like the saying goes,
what is constant is only change itself. Everything
changes. It has been happening, is happening and
shall keep on happening.
What is in the horizon today is already mind-
boggling. High performance cloud-computing where
every device and every point on earth is connected
and seamless. Every known service can be pushed
intelligently and in human-like manner.
But career-wise, there will be value in certain
expertise for us to hang on to. One of them may be
ERP subject matter know-how. The processes by
which goods need to be made, stored, distributed and
consumed can be a constant science. By observing

9.1 Era Of Convergence
Processing power is doubling every 18 months[1]. accounting processes. There will be some new big
Web is getting higher broadband and more pervasive. wave and I can feel that it will happen in this space.
We can see how the major devices such as the Question is ‘are we prepared for it?’. The world will
telephone, television and office is getting connected need such an open ERP and its experts will be in high
to a single device. As things advanced we can predict demand.
that ERP can be at the centre of it - managing and
auditing the supply chain’s document exchange and

Borrow Your Phone? picture and not be just fixing one remain sustainable in the long
part. S/he may need to get in term.
Today the phone has become contact with one friend in Tehran
mobile and part of the human Something somewhere will crash
to make a tunnel, one in Bogota to
clothing. It carries musicbox, and one day the owners will just
fix a bug, one in Romania to make
social networking, office space, turn to something more open and
a patch, and s/he transering fees
business apps and edutainment. It transparent in software making
all from his farm in Kuang! In fact
is all getting rolled into one. and that will go to the free and
this is what the community and me community non-commercial based
At the same time technology on are doing now this last 5 years! software of the world[3].
wire is getting onto ordinary Thus the future must be wilder
power electric cables making than that. The Next Big Wave
telephone lines obselete. Also
getting away from physical lines Upstream Business Recently many parties are trying
to recreate the old failed ASP
making any line obselete (via I believe the potential is only model with a new name called
WiMax). going to get better and bigger. SaaS. As it is from an old failed
there will be mega institutions
Remember also that the world are model, recent information
requiring ERP like ours for the
prosumers where they produce as surfaced that it has failed again.
Red Cross, United Nations, the
well as consume content. In the
World Bank, Air Asia, and so on The next big model has to be what
end it will seem a complete global
that runs across many countries in may be appealing to the masses
mass where nothing is
multiplpe currencies and mutli- today. It has to be something
disconnected or unknown or
languages, requiring support which they want to touch and be
unreached.
around the clock or ‘follow the part of, It will be a socialistic
What then will happen or set to sun’. SAP is still king because empowering model where micro-
happen? Definitely more big there is no alternative the last 30 cyberpreneurs make micro-profit
bangs. But what? Lets find out and years. It is a dinosaur from the while lazing around.
we can become the next time before the web era. One thing for sure is that the
billionaires! Remember the web changes previous billion dollar explosions
everything and now the world is
Applications Is King such as YouTube and Google are
our personal computer. not the only spikes. It is a signal
In such a world the only richer that it is going to be a future trend,
people won’t be those who own Software Breathes
where more suprises even larger
networks as cheaper ones can Software is a living creature and it than before have yet to emerge.
intrude into their territory easily. needs fresh air (updates) everyday Too bad is most of us will miss
Think Skype and how it removes or it will suffocate and even die in been the one creating those ideas
local telephone exchanges. 3 months[2](when new technology and become truly legendary.
It can be the application makers or upgrades). You can see that
technicians who understand the Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Nokia,
applications that run on the web. Oracle, SAP has patches and new
versions all the time. It will never
The future app technician will
stop and so no old legacy will
need to grasp the whole complete

Glossary

Terms Definition
ASP, SaaS Application Service Provider, Software as a Service
B2B4C Business to Business for Consumers, with global JIT (Just In Time)
ERP Enterprice Resource Planning that has integration to financials
Essay Test
▪ What will happen in the future of web technology?
▪ Ten years ago who predicted the Web, SMS and WiMax?

9.2 Google ERP
The future is becoming very impulsive. What the windows coming together there will be realisation of
mind can conceive, it will certainly achieve. If the vaccuum at the back. What will such an
Microsoft or Yahoo! did not do it, Google will do it. If environment be? Where everything you do is
Google does not do it, someone else will. It is like a integrated for your income, savings, expenses and
fate ordained. ERP is one back-end that the world has kitchen replenishments.
not yet envisioned. With so many front ends and

The Android Project Up For Sale? (Customer Relationship

Management) with even a POS
In November, 2007, Google What if Google or another big (Point of Sale), added with BI
launched its open source soft player comes in to buy up the core (Business Intelligence) and
phone project[4], that can community in order to own the Corporate Score-card metrics.
potentially threaten Skype and project? There may be a billion or
claim further cyberspace territory. more dollars on the table. That However not forgetting it is still
may be unimportant as far as the complex and this can be the future
Then it launched its open source
open source journey is concerned. effort for FOSS ERP in years to
web browser called Chrome.
I won’t sell out as I know come, to make it more and more
It already has Google Earth which someone else will fork again. It is user-friendly and as open as
was amazing as it can zoom to any a religion to me. What about you? possible.
location with never before clarity Would you sell? But think about
and ease. Imagine if you can use FOSS Promise
this: How can you sell what is
the GPhone and via GoogleEarth free? The demand for further progress
‘s GPS (Global Positioning will be higher, faster, and more
System) have the logistics system The Single Window comprehensive. Today producers
tracks your order inventory and Everything that we need to do is want to match up with consumers
distribution routing from your already within reach. There is a and vice-versa, and they want to
ERP. Wouldn’t that be interesting? proven web that can reach and be be able to do it from anytime,
But will it happen? Is it avoidable? reached from anywhere anywhere and anyhow from their
effortlessly and cheaply. Nations simple mobile phones.
Impact To Us?
that has no public phone such as Only the concept of open source is
Of course Google has a choice to Afghanistan are installing WiMax. closest to making it happen. No
take ADempiere and do it on their Technology is getting cheaper than wonder Google is using it well.
own. That will be a tremendous the one before. Thouse countries
boost to the whole project. Even if that has no ADSL can jump
Google dose not pay us or use our straight to WiMax.
effort, the immediate leap in
All the applications and tools are
branding and recognition is
there. For some it may be just the
enough all round to enrich anyone
political will. But politics and
in its vicinity.
borders cannot stop a virtual
What if Google doesn’t even use community proceeding to improve
ADempiere? Again, the domain and implement ERP wherever they
area adoption of open source ERP are as is happening with
will benefit as the new confirmed ADempiere.
space to invest in by all the giants.
So what is the worse that can A TQM System
happen? Anything better than that Total Quality Management was a
is a bonus. If Google contacts us concept and a dream of industry
directly that is the ultimate that and today it can be a remarkable
can happen. reality where ERP now covers not
just MRP but also CRM

Glossary

Terms Definition
ASP, SaaS Application Service Provider, Software as a Service
B2B4C Business to Business for Consumers, with global JIT (Just In Time)
ERP Enterprice Resource Planning that has integration to financials
Essay Test
▪ Find out about one Google latest technology.
▪ Find out any ERP Application that uses Google technologies.

9.3 IPhone ERP
The Pentagon has open sourced the Sphinx Project “Please raise a Purchase Order for Mr. Smith for 3
which is a voice recognition algorithm. Together with bali chairs. Deliver it by next week”. The system will
Asterisk which is a PABX VOIP open source project, decipher, check the customer’s credit limit, create a
there is a potential to integrate all of them into a PO, check the inventory and issue a delivery order to
single seamless system for ERP. Imagine a user picks the customer location. Lastly the system will send an
up a phone and dial into the ERP system. A sms to the customer and the sales-rep of the progress.
synthesised voice will greet, and the user just say,

Beyond M-Commerce Checking Requests Cashing In or Out

Today, the mobile phone is the ADempiere has a CRM module When you are known to be part of
ultimate device. It can house every called Requests that can be called the incubator team that did such a
common application including up the phone. The user can listen a marvelous project you have alot of
FaceBook, GoogleEarth and voice saying the number of option opened up to you ranging
YahooMail. Of course commerce requests that are stored for his/her from overseas employment with
is right in there. Now the attention. The user can then ask work from home(!), venture
expectations is that it becomes for ‘first’, ‘last’, ‘next’ request. capital to come out and do
richer and more versatile. something more exclusive, to
The user can even ask for ‘who
becoming a regarded consultant on
Sphinx[5] voice recognition push send it?’ and the system access the
that subject area.
the frontier of user experience customer name of the request and
another step further. Been funded reads it back. If developing new ideas is your
by DARPA[6] it is still a raw passion, then you would return
project requiring expertise in voice Contributing Back back and pursue the next big thing
systems, and isn’t this just perfect If a university incubator team and start a new project all over
for some university R&D or using some R&D fund works on again. It will be a very fulfilling
incubator? this project, it can then contribute journey of constant achievement.
back all its findings including
Raising PO verbally codes, tests and documentation for
The concept of voice recognition the world at large. It can either use
is that the phone dials into the back the same ADempiere
ERP system that uses such a repository or create its own
Sphinx application to listen to the projects space. My advice will be
voice in real-time and decipher to reuse back the ADempiere
into textual instructions. Either it space and not fork off a self
takes a trained call i.e. where the project as it will only dilute energy
user must say only a limited set of and be harder to gain branding.
words such as “PO”, “Invoice”,
“Customer”, “Process”, and Always Stand Taller
“Post”. Remember the dwarf standing on
the shoulders of the giant to see
Then it is no issue for the system
further. By standing in the
to take the deciphered instructions
ADempiere project, you can go
as menu and field input and
further. Many other members can
process a search or form action.
help you back. It will gain
The ERP side has to be in synch immediate interest. Your spirit of
and this is where extra giving back without expecting self
modifications can be done to the profit will endure the community
ERP software to anticipate the culture further, and you might be
next options or menu action tree. nominated for some seniority! At
least I will.

Glossary

Terms Definition
M-Commerce Another buzz word for Mobile Commerce, after the fashion of E-Commerce
Asterisk FOSS for PABX use on VOIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol created by Mark
Spencer
MRP MRP I & II - Materials Requirements/Resources Planning
Voice Synthesis Artificial voice audio conversion from text and programming.
Essay Test
▪ What will happen in the future of web technology?
▪ Ten years ago who predicted the Web, SMS and WiMax?

9.4 Universal Supply Chain
In most businesses or plants, goods or what is called around this chain of events. Much of which are
the product is at the centre of it all. It is produced, managed via documents, ranging from Sales Orders
stored, moved, sold, shipped and tracked. Firstly it to Payment Vouchers. In the end, the management
has to be either made in the plant or just imported wants to see the big picture[7] - how much is stocked,
from another supplier. Usually the goods are stored in or produced, how much is sold or returned. Other
a warehouse. When orders come, they are selected for departments want to see who are the clients.
shipment to the customer. A lot of activity happens

Heart Of An ERP information can be retrieved at forth. When that order is passed
speed of light, and within a LAN from the sales to the warehouse,
ERP was first known as MRP and or even a WAN or the web to and the same content is passed from
meant generally for the from anywhere in the world. document to document.
manufacturing shopfloor. An ERP Documents once made in the
today allows supply chain At the accounts department for
system is made once only and no
management (SCM) to happen[8]. example, based on the same
repeat of the same information is
Essentially SCM helps the user to content, new information where
neccessary. That information also
anticipate materials or resource relevant is calculated. For example
has persistence. It will always be
requirements of the product, in let’s say tax is needed. The sales
tracked or audited and added on
quantities and at a certain price price is used to look up the tax
but never lost. Unless of course
and Unit of Measure (UOM)[9]. table and the appropriate one is
some idiot comes and mess with inserted under the invoice line in
Right from the moment it is stored the database. But today’s database the sales invoice. If posting to
in the Warehouse, the accounting and especially ADempiere system accounts, then looking up the
process comes in. Every item is has strict controls where data is default account elements is made.
valuated of its cost governed by a never lost once created. If you want to find out when the
pricelist, mostly dictacted by the
supplier. Freight costs may be From Farm to Fork next installment is due, you look
at the payment terms of the
added on to it to get its landed Theoretically you can now track customer, and the aging analysis.
cost. When the product is ordered, information from where it is
its quantity at hand is checked for produced i.e. in an example of a Extrapolate out
availability, and the locator in the farm of livestock, to a food Imagine when the whole world
warehouse updated when it is processing farm, right up to the uses the same basis, they can now
taken out. customer’s palete, where s/he can talked to each other in a global
enter the web and provide
Within the chain of events, chain from suplier to supplier. The
feedback on how the food tasted!
information is intra-related[10] so homogenity of a single paradigm
This idea has been talked about in
that redundancy is ruled out. A of standards and templates derived
the Muslim Halal Food
product description, UOM, from the same software will mena
conferences. Last year in October,
locator, and price is known lesser learning curves as more and
2008 I was invited to Brunei to
without retyping again from one more will know the same thing
present a paper on FOSS which i
department to another. The client and help each other.
termed as Halal Software.
computer connected to the There will also be less worry of
application server where the ERP The Same Document obselecense happening with the
is running can always pull out the
One secret of the ERP is the chosen software. Costs of
related information easily via the
document content which is ownerships will then indeed go
Product number or the Order
essentially the same stamdard i.e. down much faster as more and
number of a customer to view
what product it is; what is the more adopt them progressively
what is been placed with the
quantity; what is it made of and systematically. All this means
organisation.
(BOM); where it is located; who great opportunities for experts of
Digital Efficiency ordered it; who is the sales-rep; the ERP software and its
how much is it sold; how much implementation.
Or should we say electronic
discount; how much tax and so
efficiency. With computers,

ERP in Essence Now, at the selling or exporting side of the product,

ERP is a big inter-related process flow from the start the same concept is there. As a customer buys from
of a transaction cycle till it reaches its target such as the system, a Sales Order is issued followed by a
fulfillment of payment or delivery of goods. In this confirmation and a shipment of the product out. This
illustration above, it shows the inward movement of goes on until the receipt of payment from the
products into the system from a supplier. The ERP customer. Again the non-redundancy rule apply.
handles the passing of information from one However the purchasing and sales cycles may have
document to another to avoid repeating the same differences in activity and variances of treatment may
information already input into the system. More occur within the ERP system. Those that are the same
departmental records are created based on such are often carried out by the same major components
information as it pass from one department or of the system. This reusability function is important
function to another. In the end its accounting as the system can be better maintained and the
consequence is captured by a posting to the general learning curve shortened.
ledger.

Above - All ERP processes are integrated as a single unit. ERP shall act in the backoffice
where other front end verticals can talk to.
Below - Most developing nations can use the same open standards and achieve global chain
of supply management and resource control thus making unprecedented savings.

Supply Chain Economics

SCM is now even more highly sophisticated and
complex. It is related to so many industries or
different variances in usage of the ERP. At the end of
it is information for the top management in the form
of Corporate Dashboard containing KPIs, Balance
Scorecard and Business Intelligence.
Warehousing Management For the timber industry, wood is ordered when the
WMS is fast becoming a hot domain as the world ships carrying them are already out at sea! Of course
economy becomes more inter-connected and goods there must be a JIT (Just In Time) system where the
has to be moved quickly from one location to another ship’s course is smooth and anticipated.
around the globe. Even within the warehouse, the way
I wonder whether the Somalian pirates uses
goods are stocked, whether by LIFO or FIFO, and
ADempiere SCM to track them down!
how they are fetched can make or break a business
delivery schedules.

Research
▪ Research an industry that uses ERP software successfully.
▪ List out as many competing ERP softwares around today. Also list those that are dead.
Did You Know That?

▪ It can take between 6 months to 18 months to get a typical ERP system installed?
▪ ERP been complex can run into millions?
▪ SAP made its database open source? Its called SAPDB.
▪ ERP is not about a software? It is a set of manageable process to govern the data
within the business or industry. Its software would be called ES - Enterprise Software.
But habit has it to call the software ERP.
Discussion
▪ Any ideas on how to get as many organisations to use FOSS ERP such as
ADempiere?

Glossary

Terms Definition
Persistence Refers to data where it need to remain stable and immutable in the system
Redundancy Repetition of the same activity or data input - wasteful in an ERP
KPI Key Performance Indicators - graphs showing percentages against goals.
Corporate A single window for the top management to view at a glance of the KPIs.
Dashboard
BOM Build of materials - each produc may made up of sub-products, i.e. a Table set
may be a table and 4 chairs.
Accounting The accounting impact or changes done to the GL due to a certain process.
Consequence
Essay Test
▪ What does an ERP system do?
▪ Give an example of a business transaction that ERP handles.

Summary
▪ Technology including software tries to converge into the human experience.
▪ The TV and Phone are long considered killer appliances, now joining into a single even
more encompassing application.
▪ High bandwidth and high storage made cheap defines a more richer user experience
that removes the limitations from devices and applications.
▪ Present advancement is allowing players to revive the ASP model as the present SaaS
(Software as a Service) where users pay per unit usage rather than setup a whole
ERP.The future is accelerating faster with convergence of many devices onto one
platform which is the web, and ERP is going to be the at the centre.
▪ A massive open-ended application for B2B4C supply chain will take shape.
▪ It will be a future that will empower the masses with no restriction nor borders.
▪ As a killer application, IPhone can be integrated into an ERP System where our voice
through the phone can call up the CRM and ERP information without keypad or text.
▪ Many accompanying technologies such as voice synthesis and recognition, VOIP and
high storage and data carrier are matured to be integrated to give a seamless
experience.
▪ The User Experience will be as if s/he is interacting via phone to a real human operator
that is highly knowledgable and skilled in handling any operational tasks and
transactions.
▪ Companies or projects are trying to come up with a killer app that encompasses the
whole world into a single system.
▪ FOSS ERP can be one such system where the world supply chain of producers and
consumers are all connected via the web.
▪ For maximum connectivity, users should all rely on one single standard and protocol of
how things should be done.
▪ There has to be much lowering of prices to remove barriers of user entry.
▪ One target business model of SaaS providers will be to aggregate from a high ocean of
traffic and provide cheaper sources of suppliers and consumers.
▪ A massive open-ended application for B2B4C supply chain will take shape.
▪ It will be a future that will empower the masses with no restriction nor borders.

References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
2. http://www.codesqueeze.com/how-your-socks-can-determine-software-lifespan/
3. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1651
4. ↑http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2007/11/its-official-google-announces-open-source-
mobile-phone-os-android.ars
5. http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/html/cmusphinx.php
6. http://www.darpa.mil/
7. http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Is-The-Purpose-Of-ERP-Software?&id=680420
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_management
9. http://www.convert-me.com/en/
10. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/538282.html

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Based on an Asia e-University Masters Degree Coursebook

Conquering The World of Industry and Commerce

Asian Exec Master in Open Source ERP - http://www.aeu.edu.my

Asian Exec Master in Open Source ERP - http://www.aeu.edu.my

2. Tutorial / Face-to-Face Interaction - 12

1. On-line Participation 10%

3. Case Study/Group Assignment 20%

5. Final Examination 40%

Module Topics Schema

Asian Exec Master in Open Source ERP - http://www.aeu.edu.my

MODULE 1 - The Web Economy

January 19, 2009 Course I

1. WHAT IS THE WEB?

1.1 The Web is The Computer

1.2 The Web Changes Everything

1.3 The Attention Economy

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 2

2. THE HAPPENING WEB

2.1 Traffic is King

2.2 Content is King.

2.3 Community is King

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 3

3. THE WEB AND YOU

3.1 Email and Mailing Lists

3.2 Forums and Blogs

3.3 Second Life

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 4

4. THE CATHEDRAL AND THE BAZAAR

4.1 Brief History of Open Source

4.2 Linus vs Tannenbaum

4.3 Bazaar Culture and Policy

4.4 Microsoft vs The World

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 5

5. GETTING ONLINE AND STAYING

5.1 Critical Tools and Skills

5.2 Levels of Participation

5.3 Social Engineering

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 6

6. TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP

6.1 Why aren't everyone using

6.2 Costs of Gaps

6.3 TCO Pyramid

6.4 TCO Strategy

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 7

7. WEB FOR BUSINESS

7.1 Branding Philosophy

7.2 Marketshare and Mindshare

7.3 Collaborative Community

7.4 Seeking a Niche

7.5 Positioning and Aligning

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 8

8. CONTEMPORARY OPEN SOURCE

8.1 Licensing & Business Models

8.2 Community OS vs Commercial

8.3 Business As Usual

8.4 Institutionalising Open Source

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 9

9.1 Era of Convergence

9.4 Universal Supply Chain

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 10

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 11

What Is The Web?

Copyright (C) 2009, Redhuan D. Oon, Asia e-University Page 12