Re: [myhdl-list] New MyHDL Tutorial Available.

[Andrew S. <g.a...@gm...>]

Hi Christopher,

Please explain what you mean by:

"So the course material is not strictly open source.  By contributing to
it, you are allowing me to make some money off of it."

Please state what the license to the course material is.

There has never been any requirement that nobody make any money off open
source!  So I think that your argument to keep it closed source for that
reason is weak.  For example people can use OSS in their daily jobs, include
it as part of selling products, teach courses on it, write books,
consulting, etc.

If your idea is that since this course material is closed source, then only
you (or people who license the course material from you) will be able to use
it to teach courses, then I shall certainly retract my offer to test it on
the Lattice Brevia XP2.  And regardless of the goodness that you are
currently bringing, shall heartily wish that you find another endeavor.

However, I don't think that it would come to that.  Just open-source the
course material.  If and when myHdl becomes popular, you'll have plenty of
paid opportunities as the author of the course.  After all, who would you
pay to hear a lecture about myHdl from: Jan D. or me :-).

Frankly, if you keep it closed source, you are simply inviting a
competitor.  Once you've created a market for training classes, consulting,
etc, someone else will make a completely separate open-source course and
rapidly overtake your course in popularity due to its somewhat "free"
nature.  The value is not in the actual course material...the value is in
the generation of the market.  Fortunately that cannot ever be cornered
because of the OSS nature of myHdl.  Your best strategy is to dis-invite
competition by open-sourcing your training material.

Regards,
Andrew


On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Christopher Lozinski <
loz...@fr...> wrote:

> I am pleased to announce a MyHDL tutorial at
> http://MyHDLClass.com
>
> Thank you Christopher Felton for all the hard work, and more importantly
> for getting it done so quickly.
>
> I think that this demonstrates that MyHDL is evolving very rapidly.  The
> conference was over just 4 days ago.  Just watch!
>
> We invite you to read and download the material, and go buy a board.
> http://www.dsptronics.com/
>
> There are some other boards that people have committed to supporting
> shortly.
>
> I particularly invite you to edit the course material.  If we all make a
> few edits, in no time at all, there will be a rich deep and wonderful
> course.
>
> Let me talk a little bit about the business model.  We had a business
> model.  Jan Decaluwe was using MyHDL and consulting.  Things were not
> moving very fast.  There was a perception of a one man show.  We all
> appreciate what he did.  We now have a new business model.  MyHDL is
> still open source material, but we have a class to offer, and charge
> people for.  My intention is to offer that class at the upcoming DAC
> conference, and use the proceeds to support a booth there.  The booth is
> not that expensive.  What is expensive is engineers time to man the
> booth.   And there are a lot of FPGA trade shows around the world to
> exhibit at and travel to.
>
> So the course material is not strictly open source.  By contributing to
> it, you are allowing me to make some money off of it. Basically that
> will go to pay for my time, and trade show space.  This should allow
> MyHDL to grow much faster.   It is now easy for people to invest in
> MyHDL, because they know that things are happening very fast, moving at
> light speed.
>
> So please thank Christopher Felton for all his hard work, or better yet,
> go and order one of his boards.
> Please order one of his boards.   Please.
>
> And try out the course material.
>
> And if you want permission to edit the course material, just send me an
> email.
> Also let me know if you want to sign up for the class.
>
> --
> Regards
> Christopher Lozinski
>
> Check out my iPhone apps TextFaster and EmailFaster
> http://textfaster.com
>
> Expect a paradigm shift.
> http://MyHDL.org
>
>
>
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