Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: My open source dilemma

Author:Steven Vore
Posted:8/16/2000; 5:54:05 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 8/15/2000
Msg #:19753 (In response to 19742)
Prev/Next:19752 / 19754

My greatest flops happened because I followed my heart instead of the hard cold statistics gathered from sales and marketing.

By "flop" I assume you mean money-wise - you came out with a great program though, right? It did everything you wanted it to, elegantly, you just couldn't sell a copy. That's the thing that I came away from ESR's writings thinking. "Gee, you may get some great code but..."

Dave appears to be following his heart, he's passionate about music and Radio Userland is the outcome. Does that mean there was market research as well? We (I) don't know, but even if not, there's a good chance that he's going to hit a nerve with a lot of people. If his heart resonates with enough people, success. You're right - that resonating has nothing to do with how the code was developed.

The other thing that Open Source can do for you is to generate interest. Getting a set of beta testers is good, getting beta testers who are really interested and passionate is harder. Beta testers will tell some friends. Beta testers who are actively helping you work on your project, who are involved in it's success, will tell lots of friends, and do so passionately. Poof, IdeaVirus.

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