Re: How can I make Erasmatron open source?

[Morbus Iff <morbus@disobey.com>]

>1. Is there any way that I can make the Erasmatron technology open source,
>yet still derive some financial benefit?

Yoy may want to take a look at the archives of the free software business list:

   http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi/0/

It won't give you the magical answers you seek, but can help. I've run into
the same sort of discussions with my own AmphetaDesk, but ultimately
decided they were in vain:

   http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?sss:6076:200107:jecdnpdnmnlacjdakbib#b

In my case with AmphetaDesk, there'd be a couple of ways to make money:

  - via tech support. helping people use the program.

  - via custom modifications. "i want this feature, and I want you to
    rebuild it to look like my company's webpage."

  - amateur / pro version. one version free, another more powerful
    version that had more features and was more desirable.

None of the above are magical solutions - anyone could take
the AmphetaDesk source code, and do the exact same stuff for free.

>2. If I did so, would that be enough to kickstart this whole floundering
>interactive storytelling effort? (Assuming, of course, that you agree that
>interactive storytelling is floundering.)

Probably not. Whilst open source is super nice and all, I don't see a mass
amount of people who know, love and understand open source, also being the
same sort of people who'd like to spend time storytelling. In my case, I'd
certainly give working with E more thought, simply because it is open
source, but I don't think that's a dominant view.

-- 
Morbus Iff ( i desire penance for your sins )
http://www.disobey.com/ && http://www.gamegrene.com/
read me: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/07/apache.html
icq: 2927491 / aim: akaMorbus / yahoo: morbus_iff / jabber.org: morbus