- What we have, and what’s coming -

Open source has been a hot topic in the software world over the last ten years or so, due in no small part to the widespread penetration of Linux in corporate environments (mainly as servers). However there has been a long running debate on how one can really commercialize free and open source software. Open source is one of the best friends of a modern web2.whatever startup, it provides cheap (usually) and robust solutions for companies that would have normally been forced to go with super expensive software to power their offices or applications.

The real reason I’m bringing up open source in this venue is that it plays a critical part in the development of many companies and people I deal with on a regular day to day basis, including my own. Over at my web development shop, we use open source software all the time, from ActiveCollab to PHP/MySQL for some of our development, to an open source phone system to handle our calls. Being in Miami we also deal a lot with companies in South America where open source became huge in the late 90s (the world’s largest Java app was made in Brazil).

So back to my original topic, the business models of open source, and how they are changing. Currently the most popular business model based around open source is that of providing support for people at a cost. So you give the car away for free, but the instructions on how to use it cost $200/hour. Some other open source models include ad and revenue sharing with partners (look at firefox, they make $90mil+ a year from google search).

So the question is, where is the business model going, and how will it affect my business? Well the next major trend I think we’ll see is in the SaaS market moving to partial open source. Take a gander over at Biggu’s move to release the source code to a few of their tools. This was a smart move for three reasons: 1. They couldn’t keep up with the hackers trying to break their apps, so they let everyone else deal with it. 2. They weren’t making money from the apps they open sourced, so this lets them reallocate resources to revenue generating projects. 3. It was a major PR tool, it allowed their other revenue generating products (podcall, podserve, etc.) generate some good buzz and ultimately some more exposure.

Now its hard to extract a clearcut business model from Biggu’s move, but its sort of what I’m about to get to. My suggestion for what could be a very successful SaaS move would be to open source the entry level version of your app. Give it away, free! But do that instead of offering a free for life account on your system. Let the community who was less likely to pay for your product or might have had their concerns about offloading their data to another host run it locally. Just give away a stripped down version of your product. This gives developers and end users a taste of what there is. Then turn around and sell/lease/rent your pro versions with more features. The users will see the missing features and flock to this paid model. The SaaS model itself has already been proven, as it gives end users a cheaper way to get into the software versus the high up front costs of a traditional software model, and people are more likely to try the software and keep it if its easy to get into.

So how does the Open Source Barebones model do for you? Simple:

1. Builds a community of users and developers who will contribute code back to your enterprise versions.
2. The community can help wipe out bugs in the entry level stuff and the core of your app. If people are willing to help you, TAKE THE HELP!
3. You are now building an army of marketers for your project, don’t forget that.

So I was looking through the Akismet spam bin to see if anyone’s posts had been erroneously caught, and noticed that the spammers started something new. Now spammers were posting droves of messages to .edu wikis as their urls, talking about some pain meds. Then a few hours later they dive in with messages like “i got the same XYZ attack on my blog too. I did XYZ” and their links seem innocuous enough, but turns out their urls pointed to similar competing online pharmacy operations!

A less astute webmaster would have approved the messages (had the counter spam not been flooded as well). So spammers, if you want to get in, don’t flood sites like that.

So unless you’re one of the RSS subscribers to the site, you’ve probably noticed the interface revamp and identity change of web+. Gone is the pseudo web2.0 design we had going there for a few weeks that wasn’t exactly polished in many areas. In its place we’ve put this much more serious and elegant design (at least I think its elegant). Unfortunately I can’t take credit for the design, that goes to my friend Antonio who did this as a favor to me.

So what does this new design and concept mean? Well hopefully it means we’ll be able to build a brand and identity for the site, and help it grow. We’re planning a few of our own social networking events (in firstlife, not second life folks, well maybe in second life too, who knows, we’ll see.).

So what do we have planned for the upcoming season? Well Barcamp is going to be a great event hosted by UM and organized by our very own Alex de Carvalho. We are also planning a web+drinks event in late February which will be more of a cocktail party/bar meetup than anything. We’re hoping some interesting conversations can emerge from events like this.

Further down the line, Josip Vilicic and myself will be presenting/organizing a web+marketing workshop. So keep your eyes peeled for that. If you’re interested in attending/presenting, email me brian[at]webpl.us. So I hope you enjoy the new site! Feedback is ALWAYS welcome.

Please excuse some of the dust, I am still working on the details/minor issues. They should be resolved today.

Are there any web based stat trackers like google analytics, but that I can install locally to track my RSS stats? I know feedburner is great, but I keep getting XML parse errors. So why can’t I install something on my server to do this?

Hey everyone, we’re working on upgrading the site to wordpress2.1, implementing an amazing new design, which should give you a better idea of what we’re upto. I’ve also migrated all of the old webimpresario posts over here as I no longer have time to update those 2 sites. So if you’ve got a webimpresario RSS feed in your reader, you should be redirected to the new web+ feedburner feed.

Upcoming changes:

• New design (you are really going to like the new image)
• TShirts (i’ll make them cheap, don’t worry) !
• More Events
• More Miami
• More People (both writing, and being written about)
• Maybe a podcast on Miami/SoFla

So stay tuned, I’ll try and roll out some of these things over the weekend.

So I’ve posted over at web+ the responses to a series of questions I asked Miami based entrepreneurs yesterday. Prtty interesting points of view. Maybe I should ask former Miamians what their thoughts are on the matter.

So this is part 3 in the series, this time the respondent is Alex deCarvalho from Scrapblog.1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

Miami has always been a hub for South American business and ties are being made to the Old Continent through a growing community of Europeans. Miami’s attractions include the outstanding weather, good facilities and infrastructure, the many options for entertainment, the great boating and watersports and the dynamic, multicultural, latin population. Miami’s financial center, ports, airport, free-trade zone and top hotels and conference facilities make it easy to conduct business here and attract, tourists, businessmen and real-estate developers and investors.

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

Miami has always been a hub for South American business and ties are being made to the Old Continent through a growing community of Europeans. Miami’s attractions include the outstanding weather, good facilities and infrastructure, the many options for entertainment, the great boating and watersports and the dynamic, multicultural, latin population. Miami’s financial center, ports, airport, free-trade zone and top hotels and conference facilities make it easy to conduct business here and attract, tourists, businessmen and real-estate developers and investors.

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

More so than ever, Miami seems to be going through growing pains as the city booms. The resulting inconveniences include frustratingly slow traffic during rush hours or downpours and many eyesore constructions sites. Friends of mine have counted up to 30 tower cranes just North and South of the downtown area. The real estate market also seems to be saturated and overpriced as supply has outstripped demand for the first time in a decade. Of course, these things will correct themselves with time and traffic is not a real problem for locals who know the ins and outs, backstreets and shortcuts of Miami

3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and long term strategies?

Apart for a few notable companies in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, South Florida is not considered a technology center. This means that for those of us working in the internet or telecoms, it is harder to find talent, interest, or investment. This has started to change over the past year or so and we are seeing new initiatives and conferences that will help organize and hopefully galvanize the web/tech scene.More so than ever, Miami seems to be going through growing pains as the city booms. The resulting inconveniences include frustratingly slow traffic during rush hours or downpours and many eyesore constructions sites. Friends of mine have counted up to 30 tower cranes just North and South of the downtown area. The real estate market also seems to be saturated and overpriced as supply has outstripped demand for the first time in a decade. Of course, these things will correct themselves with time and traffic is not a real problem for locals who know the ins and outs, backstreets and shortcuts of Miami.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Because of the attractiveness of Miami mentioned above, construction and real estate values will continue to grow. As the city grows, there will be more interest in art and culture and we will see more top notch performances at the Carnival and Knight Centers for the Performing Arts and other, new cultural venues. The other top industries in South Florida will hold steady, including import-export (which is heavily dependent on South American politics and trade restrictions), healthcare, and finance. Finally, I hope web/tech/telecoms related industries will make significant headway in Miami in the next 5 to 10 years and it would be nice to see some early success stories

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

A wish list would include better cellphone coverage, more choices in smartphones, greater broadband speeds and municipal wi-fi or WiMax deployment. This would presuppose easier access to high-tech venture capital.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Because of the attractiveness of Miami mentioned above, construction and real estate values will continue to grow. As the city grows, there will be more interest in art and culture and we will see more top notch performances at the Carnival and Knight Centers for the Performing Arts and other, new cultural venues. The other top industries in South Florida will hold steady, including import-export (which is heavily dependent on South American politics and trade restrictions), healthcare, and finance. Finally, I hope web/tech/telecoms related industries will make significant headway in Miami in the next 5 to 10 years and it would be nice to see some early success stories.

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

A wish list would include better cellphone coverage, more choices in smartphones, greater broadband speeds and municipal wi-fi or WiMax deployment. This would presuppose easier access to high-tech venture capital.

So with all those responses posted. How would you respond? email me brian[at]webpl.us and we’ll post yours up too. Or even better, post them on your own blog, and link back here!

This is part 2 in the series of posts on Miami from an entrepreneur’s point of view.The following are the responses submitted by Carlos Garcia, CEO of Scrapblog.

1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

Miami is booming. You can see it in the skyline. According to Wired Magazine, Miami is going from a few skyscrapers to over 50 by 2012. How many of those buildings will host Web startups? It¹s great to be part of acommunity that is growing at that rate.If you are a parent, Miami has great schools and lots of outdoor activities to enjoy with the family. If you are single, Miami is supposed to be a party town (just don¹t ask me to where to go).

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businessman in Miami?

Nothing major. Recruiting is still more difficult than in cities like San Francisco or even Austin. However, as the community continues to grow and connect it has become more viable to find great people. There are great Web professionals in Miami, it is just a matter of doing lots networking to find them.

3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and long term strategies?

Well, I end up traveling a lot to the West Coast and up north. The main reason I travel is for conferences. Also, there are very few local VCs focusing on consumer Internet. However, East Coast VCs from Boston and New York are starting to spend more time in Miami.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Hopefully, Web and Tech startups, but I am sure that real estate will continue to dominate for a while.

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

There¹s lots of momentum in the Miami Web community. I would like to see that continue. I would also like to see more local starups leveraging from the diversity that we have here in Miami, not only in relation to Latin America but with Europe as well.

So for those of you awaiting the responses from my survey, here are the first ones I received from Leonard Boord the CEO of theGorb.com1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

An attractive lifestyle that allures people to live here. A gateway city that connects the US to Latin America. An airport that allows you to easily travel to many destination with non-stop flights. A mix of people that allows one to obtain unique perspectives. No state income tax. 

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

None. I have been able to build successful companies that have been acquired with out any issue. 

3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and longterm strategies?

In my web endeavours, the biggest issue is the smaller list of VC’s that consider Miami home. 

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

With the changes in the political climates in LATAM Miami will continue to grow. Miami is now an attractive destination for people from Latin America as well as Europe 

I was sitting here at my desk last night wondering 2 things, one, why was I still at the office at 7pm?? and two: what draws does Miami have for the budding entrepreneur? So I decided I’d ask some of my friends from Refresh what they thought about Miami. So here is what I asked them

1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?
2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?
3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and longterm strategies?
4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?
5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

I’ve tagged Carlos Garcia of Scrapblog, Alex DeCarvalho now also of Scrapblog, and Leonard Boord of theGorb. I’ll post their responses today.