via Stephen Walli

Stephen has published some inputs concerning 3 possible benefits of open sourcing, and 3 things that you *cannot* expect from such kind of process.

The 3 benefits

1. Open source software is a great way to enable innovation on your platform. […]
2. Your community of users is an incredible asset to spread the word.  It’s not just about people using your software for free and telling other people about it, but rather the fact that developers will start taking it to work and it will sneak in under the floorboards. […]
3. Use open source software to rapidly develop new product complements for your solution.  It helps amortize the cost of development/support/maintenance across the community of developers/users/customers/partners/competitors. […]

The 3 “do not expect”

1. Just because you published the source code does not make your product any more remarkable to your customers.  At the end of the day, you have a business to run, and that means customers need solutions to their problems. […]
2. Understand your value proposition and your core competency, and choose your license wisely: if your entire core competency that enables your core value proposition to your customers is embodied in the software, DON’T publish it in such a way that you give away the company. […]
3. Just because you published the source code does not mean the world is going to work for you for free.[…]