I am of course building my
I am thinking that a dual license (like Trolltech's qt licensing) may be best in this case, preventing people to use the code commercially without paying for a license. But even then I wonder... part of the idea is that the product will help generate a community that will then be interested in buying 'dead tree (books)' products.
I'm going to stop 'beating around the bush' on what the proposed product is now (even though this hypothetical question applies to other products as well).
I'm building a 3 part product, first is a character database for PnP(like World of Darkness, and Dungeons and Dragons) RPG games, people will be able to use it to store/share there characters and NPC's. Second, will be a chat system allowing Storytellers/Game/Dungeon Masters to play online. Third is an O'Reilly Safari Clone that will allow people to read the books (and get definitions in game) online.
I see my possible revenue's as Advertising, Library Subscription, Reselling, Support.
What do people think? How should I license the product(s) (I may build it as 3 ultimately)?
(Note: I am looking for partners)
I think you might want to start running your site/platform and gain some users, and when you feel that you have a strong userbase, (and when the internals are actually working well and more or less smoothly) release some parts of it as open source libraries.
ReplyDeleteThe network effect should allow you to continue growing your userbase, while you can contribute back to the community.