Hi Everyone,
I've already shared my plans to some friends a few days ago, and now
I'm ready to share a slightly modified, more fleshed-out plan for the
community of cpp-netlib users and developers.
Basically I'm going to bootstrap a company that will be dedicated to
developing and improving cpp-netlib. The business model is similar to
the BoostPro model of commercially supported Boost, but this will be
for cpp-netlib.
I know cpp-netlib is still in its infancy but right now I'm willing to
disclose that I'm going all-in on cpp-netlib. I see a bright future
for cpp-netlib and I would like to make sure that future is
sustainable not only for me but also for the users and developers
contributing to the project.
In the next few weeks there won't be much changes with cpp-netlib as
far as the targets are concerned. It's still being developed to play
nicely with Boost. I'll just be offering commercial support for
cpp-netlib customers, and setting up a commercial forum where those
willing to subscribe to commercial support can get their issues
addressed and the privacy/confidentiality of their queries can be
preserved.
Eventually, once there is enough revenue from the endeavor, I'm
looking to put in some dedicated platform testing resources as well as
a few developers to help out with implementing commercially-sponsored
but still open source features. The idea also includes doing a bounty
system to allow contributing developers to work on specific bounty
items with associated monetary value.
If you're asking what this really means for cpp-netlib, the answer is
really "nothing bad, only good things". I'm setting up the company to
allow enterprises and ISVs who use cpp-netlib to pay for
commercial-grade, dedicated support for their use cases.
Now the company will also be doing products that will be using
cpp-netlib. The products will be shrink-wrapped software that
(unfortunately?) won't be open source, or will be web-based services
that can be availed of through a subscription. This will be the "eat
your own dog food" mentality where it will use cpp-netlib internally
and all enhancements/changes to cpp-netlib will be released into the
open source version.
Don't worry, there will be no "dual-licensed" cpp-neltib or "copyright
assignment" that's going to happen. I believe in the open source model
and that will not change for cpp-netlib. And also, there won't be any
"private forks" that will be owned by the company. Everything to be
developed by the company in relation to cpp-netlib will be pushed to
the official repository.
With that said, I'm already ready to provide commercial support for
cpp-netlib as it stands, I'm just going to formalize the entity as
this year closes.
Thanks very much for reading through this, if you have questions,
concerns, or (ehem) you'd like to get commercial support for
cpp-netlib, send me a private email or reply to the mailing list.
Have a good day and I hope this helps!
--
Dean Michael Berris
deanberris.com
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