What has the demand been like for OpenAdvantage's services?
We started in January and for a long time things were slow. Since June or July it has been non-stop. The demand is massive -- every week we're meeting a new school, local council, voluntary group or company.
We're finding that in a lot of events open source takes over. For example, we gave a presentation about open source at a conference on IT in the voluntary sector in Hereford. Every talk that came after us, the first question they asked was, "That’s very interesting, but how can we do that using open source?" Open source had taken over.
What do you think should be in the next wave of open source applications?
John [Pinner, managing director of Clockwork Software] highlighted it at the launch of PayThyme [an open source payroll application] -- the main things that are missing from open source are boring business applications like payroll and accounting. After the launch of PayThyme, the big thing that’s still missing is an open source accounting package. One of the companies we work with is an accounting firm and have used SQL-Ledger [an open source accounting system], but they know how to argue with Inland Revenue about it [SQL-Ledger doesn't contain details on UK tax regulation]. They have the knowledge and balls to argue with the Inland Revenue. But the average SME doesn't have the knowledge to do that.
In software there are very few things holding people back. The main thing that's holding people back is the perception that there's not the software and about support. People think, "Where will I get support?", "Who will I sue when it goes wrong?" This perception is misplaced, particularly as the world isn't littered with people who have sued proprietary companies.
What are the best ways to drive more open source uptake among large businesses?
It often infiltrates in the way of a guerrilla marketing scheme. For example, MySQL is now a de facto piece of the toolkit of many programmers because they used it while doing a database course at university. When their boss then comes and says "I want you to develop this database system," they are likely to use MySQL as they are familiar with it.
It’s the same thing with PayThyme -- if you are studying accountancy and need to set up scenarios to practise with, you have a free tool that you can use. If your uncle, who runs a small business, needs you to do his books you have a free one to plug in. As his company grows the open source business model kicks in [the company is likely to pay for support, which will providing revenue for the company that supports the software].
What are you going to do when you run out of funding?
We are we are in the process of trying to extend our funding, but if that doesn't work we have an exit strategy -- any project funded like this has an exit strategy.
You can look for more funding, for example, from the EU, or can commercialise some of things that you do, for example, we could provide paid services for bigger companies or companies outside the West Midlands. You can also look for industry sponsorship, for example, the OSDL [the Open Source Development Labs, one of the main groups promoting the business use of open source software], is sponsored by various vendors.
There are other funding opportunities, for example, research funding or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships [which enable, say, universities, to act as consultants towards businesses by applying their in-house knowledge to strategic business problems].
