| Nov. 28th, 2007 @ 04:59 am Status Update |
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I haven't updated in a while, so, forgive the intrusion from your favorite person.
As I was writing an essay on the death of big media, I was able to understand more of the benefits of open source. As many of you know, I am a die-hard capitalist; money dominates. As bad as capitalism is, it is the best we have. Open-Source does, by nature, runs contrast to the traditional model: Make money by selling our labor. Open-Source is a different beast, and I think I understand it better. Namely, my understanding is this:
Open-Source is the investment of time to generate money. Example 1: Linux, by being open source and mostly "free" (in the free beer sense) generates money for the users labors. By generating money for the users of open-source software, that money can recycle back to the original developers. It can do so in a couple of ways. The first way is by using a restrictive license agreement (for personal use only, etc...), then require commercial license agreements. The second way is by support costs, fixing broken features and adding new features: it is several orders cheaper (this being the key) for the designer of a product to fix/add features then someone not familiar with the code base. The third model is by donation. This can work, and I cite wiki-pedia as a leading example.
As many of you know, I am a stubborn bastard. So far, no one sold me on idea of open-source because it is a radical departure from the standard business model. It is not clear, or seemingly viable. I can only understand it now because of the WGA and the Hurox.com business model. I shall explain.
[[Shameless Plug]]
As you are aware, the Writers Guild of America is striking; this means I cannot watch The Office. As hurox.com is launching in less than two weeks, I will give a preview on how Hurox.com is going to stab “Big Media” in the heart and reduce them to content delivery boys.
One aspect of Hurox.com’s business model is the ability to sell content. Copyright law protects copyright holders. By using Hurox.com, content producers give us very few rights such as the right to advertise and promote. In the end, content producers control their creative work. Suppose a writer (or a writing team) creates a handful of scripts; in and of themselves, the scripts can generate revenue by allow users to read previews and buy the full script. Well, not many people will read scripts, but some will; namely, avid readers and independent producers. Avid readers will serve as a way to promote awesome ideas and generate hype. Independent producers can use the site in two ways. First, they can use Hurox.com to negotiate production rights and subsequent royalties. Second, producers could use Hurox.com to raise funds from fans (either by donation, or selling tickets, etc) to turn a script into a show (or a movie). By using the second method, Hurox.com can set up an escrow service and public auditing for fans to get what they want; the show/movie is already paid for when finished, and all new ad revenue/selling is pure profit to the producers and writers.
How does Hurox.com make money? Simple: advertisements (free content) and Transaction Fees (sold content). Ideally, we make little profit on each individual sell and the content producers get the lion share. In the long term, I believe this business model will generate more profits (for me) and for the content producers (writers, actors, directors, etc) than traditional content models (i.e. the big media conglomerates). Why? Our primary operating cost is bandwidth and servers, which are cheap (Transferring a DVD over the internet only costs 50 cents). Second, we allow content to be cheaper (more demand + less piracy = more customers). Third, we can satisfy more customers; the internet lets our content producers fulfill a demand and not fit a schedule.
The days of big media are numbered unless they invest in hurox.com (they could compete, but… they have two weeks to start competing)
[[/End Shameless Plug]]
How does this relate to Open-Source? The fall of Big Media (oh, they will fall, whahahahahahahaha) requires questioning similar business models. Software is a leading example. There are two types of software: Software for nerds and software for non-nerds. The non-nerds do not use software because they want to (unless it is entertainment related); they do so because they have to. No one enjoys writing accounting software; they do it because there is demand. Demand and our mortality will indicate that software will generate money if there is an appropriate business model to capitalize on the demand. Now, nerds (here, I refer to the software writing species) usually write code because.. well.. it is entertainment. Its probably a mental defect of sorts (I am very.. very.. defective..).
Why do I bring this up? Well, its getting time for a new computer. That means, Vista/Mac/Linux. Well, I am not trendy enough for a mac. Vista only brings DirectX 10 (which doesn’t matter as I moving towards console gaming, the Wii is awesome!). Linux is cheap, powerful enough, and has a stable driver base…
You heard it right… The time has come for me to make that decision, and I am going to go with linux for my next machine. The biggest reason is that my fun project “Kitchen” is at the point where I do not need dev tools for the C++ aspect; I am developing my own dev tools. I have my own programming language now (Grill) and a C# based IDE. In theory, much of the IDE could be ported to the Mono Platform. As nice as visual studio is, mine is better because.. well.. its mine.
Furthermore, if I open source my game engine technologies, then I may be able to make linux a solid gaming platform as my language is many orders better than python for game development (has native compilation and can fully utilize the machine’s capabilities like SSE) and is a million times more productive than C++.
If my game engine stuff can enable designers to make games faster (in terms of both productivity and performance), then the hurox.com business model can empower game designers, content producers, enable collaboration, etc… Basically, the end of EA.
Personal Update: So, more or less, I have been working on hurox.com for the past... year... in a bubble or so. Fun Stuff. :)
Once Hurox.com is officially "launched", I plan on sending invite codes to everyone on this list (if I have your email or IM). |
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