economical issues

Master on Free Software

Economical issues

Course: Introduction to libre software

Israel Herraiz<[email protected]>

A Coruña, November 9th 2007

mailto:[email protected]


How do projects sustain?


Free software funding

● Different schemes● Broad range

– From no funding at all– to company based and fully funded projects


Who and why?

● Public sector– Similar to research funding– Scientific motivations– Standards promotion– Social issues


Who and why? (cont.)

● Non-profit private funding– Similar motivations to public funding



● Ask for improvements (private funding)– A company interested in a project pays for

some improvements



● Private funding for profit– Books– Hardware– CDs

● Business models– More details in the next slides


Other ways

● Bounties– Paying for tasks yet to be done

● Marketplace– Developers and companies


Examples and questions

● Let's see some examples

economical issues

Economy & Finance