So the real question is whether a radically transparent business can make money. In order for a competitor to exploit an Open Source Business, it needs to do more than just have access to all its information, it needs to operationalize that information. That takes time, money, equipment and supplies, and some expertise. How much of an entrance barrier are those things? To a small business, they’re substantial, but for a large, multi-national corporation, not so much. But the large corporation will only be interested if there’s volume and profit in it. So the Open Source Business (OSB) can choose to do something small and unscalable, or to make very little profit, and thus keep the competitors at bay.
For that reason, I suspect that OSB isn’t for those who aspire to be millionaires. But suppose the objective of your business isn’t to make a profit, but to make a living. The OSB might work just fine.
Technorati tags: startup, opensource, business, entrepreneurship
Ken Dyck 