Re: [school-discuss] Consulting opportunities in OSS / free ?

[Bryant Patten <opensource@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lee -

	Having just had another installment of this perpetual discussion with 
on the exact same topic with my wife, I had to smile reading your post 
here.  We call it the 'Can you really make any money selling water by 
the river?' discussion.


On Oct 11, 2006, at 7:39 PM, lee wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've been having a perennial discussion with the betterhalf, and that 
> is: How to turn OSS & free systems into a working, thriving business.
>
> Business plan one: Small school boiler plate drop-ins.
>
> My first inclination was to direct-market to small schools, offering 
> to drop-in working boilerplate systems, replete with all the 
> goodies... a mix of dual-boot Win/Lin boxen w/ a Karoshi core (online 
> classroom, content filter). Maybe w/ LTSP as an option. Well, my wife 
> hates this idea. She thinks there'll be so much T&E prone to high 
> overhead (or nickle&diming) that'll be hard to work with smaller 
> schools w/ small budget constraints.

After having spent a bit more than a year doing this, I would say your 
wife is a very smart woman.  The shrinking technology budgets do offer 
an opening but that is also a two edged sword.  There is a 
geographically centered successful business model buried in Business 
Plan One but it will take time and after the initial savings in 
licensing fees, it will look a lot like any proprietary educational 
technology support consultancy.  At least that is my take on it after 
doing it for a year.
> Business plan two: Large schools / small school districts.
>
> Same as above, but my question is how to market to larger schools with 
> either entrenched IT mgm't and/or other political barriers to entry. 
> That, and running a business to work with larger institutions without 
> having my lunch eaten for a different set of reasons. Suffice it to 
> say, I'm not seriously entertaining this plan, since the other-half 
> hates it even more.

My brief encounter with this market is that you lose the 
foot-in-the-door-because-no-initial-cost advantage since these 
districts have money to spend.  Now you are going up against real sales 
departments with real sales budgets.
> Business plan three: Write a "How-To" Book
>
> Write the step-by-step School Networking for Dummies book. Maybe 2 or 
> 3 books, detailing installation/deployment, operations & maybe (not) 
> curricula. Use the book to market the actual boiler-plate CD's & DVD 
> training videos. Have a related website that helps drive the book. The 
> wife likes this idea. She thinks web advertising/click-thru's could 
> gen alot of income (I suspect however that goldrush sucks tin).

I think the book is important - no matter who writes it.  Teachers will 
feel more comfortable when they have a book to hold.  I found this out 
after I started publishing the OSV Free Software catalogue 
(http://www.fossed.org/node/4).  It made a huge difference to teachers 
to have something on paper to thumb through.

Steve Hargadon (Steve - are you on this list?) is currently writing a 
FOSS and Education book for ISTE and I think I am on the hook for 
writing one of the chapters.  He may still be looking for authors so 
you should contact him.
> Business plan four: Consulting & training.
>
> Walk into schools & write recommendations. Not just glossy paper stock 
> with groovy graphics or "Powerpoint" dog & pony shows, sell manuals & 
> DVD training along with the consulting & onsite training. The CD of 
> free stuff are free, but the boiler-plate disks aren't. Maybe partner 
> w/ a body-shop service (subcontract all of it... ;-), training the 
> installers & the end-users, per site... but... Power users in 
> education: Do they exist? FWIW, I haven't met (m)any.

I think these are great ideas.  During the run up to the NELS 
conferences last summer I started talking with Matt Olmquist about 
starting a FOSS and Education consultants group to create and share 
resource like this.  We talked about it at one of the conferences but 
nothing has really happened since.  There is this list which is still 
fairly thin:  http://k12opensource.wikispaces.com/Consultants
> I'm curious what everyone thinks and what your experiences have 
> been.... To me, schools represent a neglected market  that could offer 
> a modest or decent income stream while doing good things, offering a 
> competitive edge b/c of the cost savings, ameliorating the license 
> worries, etc.

And with budgets being cut, schools really need FOSS and the kind of 
help we all could provide.
> But I worry that the market might be weak, not because of lack of 
> need, but because of institutional or budgetary obstacles. WRT to 
> Business Plan #1, can a good chap get his foot in the door, or is 
> free/OSS the kind of change that is limited to internal mgm't reform 
> efforts, consultants need not apply?

Ah - the ??? dollar question.  I do still feel that the untapped market 
is big enough that any success by one of us helps all the rest because 
at this point (and for a long time) - our problem is legitimacy and 
'who else has done this before'.  Thanks for sharing these thoughts - 
it is nice to see that others are mulling the same issues.

Bryant Patten
White Nitro, LLC
Vermont , USA