Creating a TWiki marketplace

This has been mentioned in several places, the latest of which was in TWikiApplication. Making it easy for corporation who are currently using TWiki to package up a TWikiApplication and contributing it back to the community is a very good thing, but what about individuals who want to make money from their TWiki solutions? How do they preserve their rights (both copyright and licensing rights)? Will someone forfeit the latter, at least, if they package up a TWikiApplication and post it on twiki.org? How are potential conflicts of interest between core developers and companies such as structuredwikis or wikiring, both of whom are made up, in part at least, of core community members going to be resolved?

-- Contributors: MeredithLesly

Discussion

Since PTh has put packaging TWikiApplications high on the agenda, I think it's important to discuss these issues in parallel and to explicitly state what the intention of a TWiki marketplace is. I certainly don't want to put roadblocks in the way of corporations contributing to the entire TWikiCommunity, but neither do I want to see anyone get exploited.

-- MeredithLesly - 15 May 2006

FWIW I would like to see the software itself remain fairly "free" and by that I also mean "freely contributed back to the community". This may seem somewhat contrary to popular corporate views however I believe contributing code to the "Community at large" pays off not by means of direct profits (such as it might be the case where the software becomes more propriotary, protected and sold/licensed) but by means of creating a repository of "free" contributed code that companies (and individuals) can immedietly utilize with little or no cost. The key is, it has to start somewhere, nobody wants to "tip their hand" but if we would all do so, think of the solutions we could create by "putting our heads together" creating apps by combining several good ideas from several different sources, rather than "reinvinting the wheel 1000 times over in a dozen different places. And, as far as "Making money with TWiki" goes, Many of the companies who wish to utilize TWiki code, even well developed "Apps" are still going to require professional consultants, and maybe even full time staff to setup, admin, maintain, and upgrade key aspects. If companies who use TWiki could begin to recognize themselves more as "partners" in business (like share holders in a particular stock) It might not be such a far reach for those companies to see the benefits of helping those partners by sharing the ideas that have made TWiki a success for them. IMHO The cream will rise to the top and you will see the TWiki community at large gain from it.

my $0.02

-- TravisBarker - 15 May 2006

For Example, I am currently working to develop TWikEcommerceApp a TWiki native shopping cart e-commerce solution plugin/app. needless to say, assuming the shopping cart plugin is a success, various companies who use TWiki will find themselves competing directly with each other for market share, now, on one hand I can see why company X may wish to hold back from contributing some code which if kept private might give company X some minor advantage over company Y, but imagine a situation where both competitors x and Y both contribute 100% of their code back to twiki.org. competition then becomes not about "who has the best site" because in theory both sites will have the same (better) UI/website. But, about what it should have been about in the first place, "Who has the best product/service?".

Lets make TWiki the best TWiki can be. and compete for business/customers by providing quality service and products to our customers/end users.

-- TravisBarker - 15 May 2006

IMO, there is a lot of work in "customizing" a TWiki installation (coordinating TWikiApps, organizing the Webs, tailoring skins) that the business can still be "profitable".

Only the building blocks will be available for free. You need a Builder to create something with them, or a Master Builder to have a work of art.

-- RafaelAlvarez - 15 May 2006