Over the weekend, my sometimes-partner-in-crime, V. Scott Ellis, wrote a post for WebLogTools Collection called “Exploring the GPL, Viable Models, and Business Risk.” WebLogTools is a blog about blogs, blogging, WordPress and best practices therein. It is extensively read and contributed to by the WordPress (WP) developer community, and since Wendistry and all our client sites are built on the WP platform, I (being non-technical) feel the need to wander by this site once in a while.
First, a definition before you start reading the post:
GPL– General Public License; GPL is one of the most commonly-used open-source sofware licenses. The distinctive feature of the GPL license is that it requires that any code derived from GPL code also uses a GPL license. What that means is any plug-ins or bolt-on applications that are created for the WordPress platform ALSO must be open-source. If you are a developer, that doesn’t mean you have to give them away for free. However, it does mean that if I create a widget for WP and I sell it to Person A for $29, once A pays for it, A then has full legal right to turn around and sell it on A’s web site for $25 (under-cutting my, the creator’s, price). If A sells only 2 widgets, not only has he recouped his investment, Person A has made a profit on MY work. Now, let’s take this further…
Person B buys Person A’s widget. Now, Person B turns around and sells the widget on his web site… for $20. Again, same principal. B now has undercut me (the creator and person who did all the work) and Person A. Eventually, the whole model breaks down because you finally end up with a product that Person Q paid only $1 for and is perfectly willing to give it away for free.
Now, I agree that money is not the only reward for hard work done well, but as the widgets/ plug-ins/ bolt-ons for WordPress become more complex, the need for deep expertise and ever-increasing amounts of support enter the picture. At some point a person’s (or organization’s) ability to match the demand will not scale. The need to make a living or support your family though other means becomes the top priority.
When that happens, by default, the amount of time a developer can dedicate to writing more code or providing support tapers off. If a developer has provided something of particular value, then the WP community suffers when that developer can’t be there, and it’s especially sad when the main reason is because he/she can’t afford it. The more complex these things become, (expertise required) the higher the barriers to entry.
Free “love” and free items work perfectly well in a small, “community-like” environment (like the WordPress community has been so far) with limited market size and limited complexity involved in widget/ plug-in/ bolt-on creation. Where all this gets sticky, and the reason why this discussion should be read by business owners/ founders/ designers/ creators, no matter the industry, is because BUSINESSES EXIST TO MAKE MONEY. A commune is not a sustainable business model.
Finally, to show how truly passionate and committed Scott is about supporting developers financially, he launched “Make a Donation to Your Favorite WordPress Developer on March 1st” before the opportunity for him to write this post on WebLogTools even came up.
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