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Ask Slashdot: How To Get Paid For Open-Sourcing Your Work?
kc600 writes "Say you're a freelancer, using mainly open source solutions. You notice that customers, although they don't object to the whole open source idea, don't see the point in paying you for the time it costs you to properly open source your code. As a result, code is not released, because it would take too much time to factor out the customer-specific stuff, to debate architecture with the other developers, look at bug reports, et cetera. You feel there's something to contribute that many might benefit from. The code would also be better maintained if more people would use it, so the customer's project would also benefit. But you're not going to do it in your free time; you have enough on your mind and the bill is paid, right? What useful tricks can you think of to encourage yourself — and your customers — to properly share code, to the benefit of all, and get paid for it?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed
When I open sourced the programs that had made me some money, but I had no time nor the stamina to keep working on them, I didn't expect to get paid for that.
Instead, I thought of Johnny Appleseed.
The programs that I open sourced, to me, are old stuffs. I could have kept them under closed source, store them in CD-Rs or external hd or old computers, or ....
I could have done that, but if I did that, it wouldn't benefit me, nor anybody else.
When I open sourced those programs, I didn't even know if anybody else wanted them in the first place. I just placed them online, did some advertisement on related sites, and then, let go.
If the "appleseed" blooms, good.
If they don't, well, it'd be the same as I locked them up in CD-Rs.
The most important thing is that I've set them free. Their "lives" after being set free depends on their "fates", or in spiritual kinda speak, "karma".
Once they are open-sourced, they do not belong to me anymore. Now, they belonged to the world.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !