[via PlanetEarth]

The iceberg image is a digital composite that I designed to illustrate the concept of “what you see is not necessarily what you get”. As an underwater photographer I knew that my “vision” of what a big iceberg looks like was impossible to get in reality so I had to create it. The image exists in nature but due to water visibility is not possible to capture on film. There are 4 separate images involved; the sky, the background, the top iceberg (shot in Antarctica), and the underwater iceberg (shot above water in Alaska and flipped in the final composite). The image is available for licensing through CORBIS at www.corbis.com Ralph Clevenger

Beginning of November, I have published a first post about sugarCRM. As promised, some other inputs about this open source company.

Positioning of sugarCRM within the Open Source Stack (view from Optaros):

As far as I understood, sugarCRM has about the same (working) business model as mySQL, that means:

• a GPL license BUT they keep their roadmap totally under control, as the technical decisions. it is exactly a so-called “dual-license”, that means it exists a commercial and open source version of the product.
• the collaboration with the community is not very extensive, that means, the development is mainly based on internal resources.
• they are spreading their application on internet (website, blog) because of the availibility of an open source version (325’000 copies within 8 months!!!).
• they are using the LAMP (linux apache mySql PHP) stack, which ensures a) a very low cost structure (no license required) b) a complete portability of the solution c) a very attractive technical solutions for the geeks and SW-engineers ;-)
• the core team has a huge business know-how and they are specialized in CRM solutions for years.
• it is the first time that a start-up is entering the so-called open source business-solution-stack. till today, the succesful companies were more present in the so-called infrastructure-solution-stack (linux, apache, mySql, jBoss).
• their business case is based on “derivatives”: consulting, plugins (as the outlook ones), hosting (ASP solution), support, customization.
• they found a *lot* of investors who invested a *lot* of money. last round: 19 mio $.

Have a look at what they are saying on their website:

We believe the SugarCRM open source business model is far more efficient than the classic approach to building propriety CRM software. We do not believe in the notion of hiding access to code in order to lock-in customers.

Since the open source project is such an effective marketing mechanism, open source companies can keep their sales and marketing costs low. Revenues are invested back into product development. Our prices are substantially lower than what CRM vendors charge today the majority of your subscription costs goes back into product development, not into marketing and selling the solution. Download and install the freely distributed Sugar Open Source application. If it works for your company, we ask that you participate in the SugarCRM Community through forum discussions or code contributions. If you need the functionality in Sugar Professional or Sugar Enterprise, give us a call. We want you to become a customer once we have proven we have generated value for your company, not one minute sooner.

And, on sugarForge:

The reason there are so few CRM vendors is not because it’s costly to build great CRM applications, but because of the costs required to market and sell CRM applications. Take a look at the financials of any of the established CRM players, both hosted and on-premise. What you will see is that less than 15% of a CRM vendor’s revenue is applied to product development and easily 50-70% of revenue is allocated to sales and marketing expenditures. This has been the norm for traditional software companies, but is it the right model for today?

There is a perception today that if you host or rent your CRM application you will save money over time. The marketing engines of the leading hosting vendors have done an outstanding job selling folks on this premise. It is completely false.

Renting a proprietary hosted CRM application at $50-100 per user per month over a three year period far exceeds the cost of running an open source based CRM application. With a stock Linux server you can be up and running with SugarCRM in less than 15 minutes – installation is that easy and SugarCRM is far more flexible and extendable than anything you can rent from a hosted CRM provider.

Recently there have been a number of industry analysts quoted saying “the enterprise applications industry is dead“. We believe they are right. Modern open source based software companies are built on business models that are much more efficient and cost effective in building software, distributing software and acquiring customers. They spend far less on marketing and sales and far more on engineering and quality. Since the open source project is such an effective marketing mechanism, open source companies can keep their sales and marketing costs low.

Providing application source code is a good thing. Gone are the days of ‘custom demos’ by trained sales consultants or “Model T” application trials from hosting providers. At SugarCRM, our source code is available to all. Our bug lists are published, our feature roadmap laid out, our quality assurance testing shared with real customers – in real time. Download SugarCRM today. Install it, run it for free, build new components, interact with other Sugar enthusiasts and the Sugar team on the forums.

Before lying on the beautiful beaches of Anguilla and St.Barths, you have to….get there!! I have forgotten this part of our holidays, and Loic has just posted a funny picture of an Airbus landing in Saint Martin at the Princess Juliana airport (SXM).

© airliners.net

We were there last year, and I can tell you that this picture is not a fake :-) The landing happened exactly in this way. Generally speaking, the runway is *very* short for these kind of big airplanes, as the Boeing 747/400 and Airbus A340/300. Last year, there was some little wind from behind, and the pilot had to realize a beautiful touch-and-go. Then, we had to go to the Dominican Republic, where we slept, and then re-took the plane, and flew back to Saint Martin. Great…

Another picture of a Boeing 757 landing, also in Saint Martin, taken from the other side of the beach.

© airliners.net

So, after the first “challenge”, you are in Saint Martin. It is not finished! Then, we will flight to Anguilla’s airport, Wall Blake. No idea how is the airport there. BUT, I know how is the one of St.Barths. Wow, that was (and will be) a beautiful flight with…crazy landings, have a look:

© airliners.net

© airliners.net

© airliners.net

Again, no fake pictures here, the pilot has to “jump” the pass, and then, to stick to the mountain slope, in order to touch right at the beginning of the runway. If it doesn’t work, touch-and-go :-) Some planes also finished their flight in….the beautiful sea :-)

[via amazon.com]

Best selling products on Amazon.com in 2005 by total units sold:

1. Books: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
2. Music: X&Y; by Coldplay
3. DVD: Star Wars Episode III- Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition)
4. Electronics: 2GB iPod Nano (black)
5. Home & Garden: Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized 8-1/2-Quart Saucier with Lid
6. Health & Personal Care: Airborne Effervescent Health Formula Dietary Supplement
7. Computer & Video Games: Madden NFL 2006
8. Tools & Hardware: Jorgensen 50XXX 3/4″ Pony Pipe Clamp Fixture
9. Apparel & Accessories: Columbia Bugaboo Jacket
10. Shoes: Tommy Hilfiger Women’s Erin Slipper

Products most frequently purchased as gifts by Amazon.com customers in 2005:

1. Books: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
2. Music: X&Y; by Coldplay
3. DVD: Lost – The Complete First Season (2004)
4. Electronics: Apple 512 MB iPod Shuffle
5. Home & Garden: Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized 8-1/2-Quart Saucier with Lid
6. Health & Personal Care: Pampers Swaddlers diapers
7. Computer & Video Games: Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) Value Pack
8. Tools & Hardware: Black & Decker SS925 Storm Station All-in-One
9. Apparel & Accessories: Prada Women’s Small Rectangle Nylon Handbag, Nero
10. Sports & Outdoors: Diamond Gen IV – Rechargeable No Battery Forever LED Shake Flashlight

I wish you and your family a happy, successful, and healthy New Year 2006.

I would like to thank you very much for taking some time here on my blog. It was really a pleasure to post (exactly 351 posts in the last 12 months) during the last year … and it is crazy to see how many *you* are, month after month!

365’000 unique visitors during the last year (48’000 in December), who generated more than 565’000 pageviews (70’000 in December). An increase of more than 300% from January to December 2005. Wow.

The list of the first 30 countries of my visitors:

And my first tagCloud (via PointBlog):

I received from one of our provider quite an original X’mas gift last year: a marvelous GEO calendar. These beautiful pictures have accompanied me during the 12 months of 2005.

I have decided to order some of the new versions 2006 for the ecenter. I find that they are even more impressive as in 2005. Have a look!

GEO calendar “die Erde von oben (the Earth from above)”

GEO calendar “Genesis”

[via Nick-are-you-really-on-holidays and BusinessWeek]

Very good summary of the status of the Open Source trend and business! Some excerpts:

• In fact, open-source programs have become so popular, they now pose a legitimate threat to the established software giants.
• According to a new study by consulting firm Optaros, 87% of organizations are now using open-source software, somewhere.
• Red Hat finally proves to everyone it can make money from free software. […] Red Hat is one of the best-positioned stocks in software and should be able to further capitalize on the growing demand for open source.
• Sun Microsystems open sources everything — except Java. […] The move transformed Sun into one of the largest open-source software players overnight. Yet critics have complained that what open-source developers really want is Java. Several experts expect that Sun might finally capitulate in 2006.
• Even more exciting for penguin lovers, Motorola, the second-biggest handset maker in the world, announced that Linux would be its standard operating system for the bulk of its future phones.
• Firefox goes mainstream.
• Venture capitalists wake up to open source. Industry estimates show some $400 million was invested in open-source startups in 2005. Two types of companies dominated the landscape: First, so-called application companies, such as SugarCRM which makes customer relationship management software for companies and aims to compete with Siebel and Salesforce.com.

  The other category is services companies, which play the middleman between open-source projects and the info-tech departments at large corporations. Companies such as SpikeSource and SourceLabs test and maintain applications like SugarCRM for companies […]

  Half the companies that raised venture money in 2005 won’t be able to raise money in 2006.

• All in all, it has been a pretty great year for open source. And 2006 may be even bigger and better.

[via Nick]

Nick has pointed out a Swiss website called FOSS-directory, which contains a directory of available Free and Open Source Softwares and companies, sorted by different criteria (industry, region, type of service, etc.).

Seems to be quite extensive!

Hey, in about 4 weeks now (yyeeessss), we will be in Anguilla and St.Barths in the French West Indies. I gave you some details beginning of November, remember?

Let’s compare the weather:

Ok, it seems to be clear!

More than clear :-) 4 weeks!

[via nielsen//netratings, as pdf]

Interesting study from Goldman Sachs, nielsen//netratings, and Harris Interactive about the eSpending (Online shopping) in the US for the 2005 holiday season (Christmas’ period):

• total holiday spending hits $25 bn (oct. 29 till dec.16), excluding travel
• +25% compared to the same period in 2004
• categories ranked by revenue

• apparel/cloting: 17% (!)
• computer hardware/peripherals: 14%
• consumer electronics: 14%
• books: 10%
• video games (HW/SW): 7%

Crazy, how the shopping structure is changing from year to year and how the remaining issues are evolving. Paiement security seems not to be a problem anymore for example.