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Investing in Open Source?
echrist1 asks: "I'm in my school's investment club, and I'm in charge of investing $10,000 (real money) into technology equities. Clearly I want to make a profit, but I also want to do something to help the Open Source movement. Does anyone know of mutual funds that invest specifically in companies that further Open Source?"
I'm assuming two things that are implied but not clearly stated in your question: 1) The money that you are investing - or at least some of it - is not yours, and 2) You like open source, but the owners of the money have not specifically requested an open source preference. If either of these are false, please ignore my post.
Assuming those two to be true, you should not even be considering the issue. If you are playing with someone else's money - even as a learning exercise - you have an obligation to act in their best interests. Otherwise, you're just doing a Halliburton on a smaller scale. Save your good intentions for your own money.
BTW, Sorry to criticize. I like the idea of supporting open source. It's just not the legally or morally proper thing to do here.
Maybe you've decided that open source will be the most profitable type of investment, but I think you chose open source for more ideological reasons. If your goal is simply to make as much money as possible, then pick your investments according to that goal.
You seem to be under the impression that if you buy $1,000 worth of Red Hat stock (for instance) that the money somehow goes to Red Hat. This is not correct.
The issuing company got their money at the IPO. When you buy that $1000 worth of stock, your $1000 goes to the previous stockholder, and *none* of it - not a dime - goes to the issuing company.
The only benefit the issuing company has - and it's an indirect benefit - is that if you buy that $1000 worth of stock you create a slight upward pressure on the stock price, which, in turn, will increase the "market capitalization" value of the company.
Frankly, if you want to help Open Source financially, your best bet is to take a percentage of the profits and donate it to your favorite non-profit Open Source entity.
-Maple Syrup