it's All Around

Going Open Source 2 – “Will work for greater vision”

This post is going to be like the movie The Usual Suspects.  I'm going to show you the end then let those of you who are interested start from the beginning and take the long way back:

... so after dipping the strip into a bunch of sites, here are the ones that turned a favorable color:

The Micropreneur Academy and
47Hats - The MicroISV Digest

Subsequent posts in this series will focus on my journeys in these realms.

Do-do-de-loop x5 (the moving back in time noise with fingery hand waving)

In the first article in this series, I talked about my strategy of taking a code base that had been developed through a number of client projects and 'going open source' with it.  There were two goals that I was trying to achieve with the work I outlined back then:

• to have a stripped down tabula rasa code base to build up from, and
• to come up with a detailed, itemized, prioritizable list of steps to build the first package release.

I now have a fairly realistic idea of the time commitment needed to have a coherent engine together.  I have also designed a 'first module', if you will.  In classic programmer fashion it is a module that will aid people in building other modules...   So, yes, I do think I'm on track for the next step:

A step back

During this process, I realized a fundamental aspect of my approach to this project concerning what I call my point of action. As usual, I've been working from intuition, which leads to familiar patterns.

I've spent quite a lot of time with the code and the ideas and strategies to release it both to the open source community and as a basis for an ISV.  I have a solid plan, mostly still in my head, to the steps I will have to take in order to achieve open source as well as perceive a need that this could fulfill on a subscription basis.  These thought processes span a half dozen disciplines (marketing, accounting, support, etc..), all of which have to be implemented to support the greater idea.

It was not a surprise to me that I fell into the familiar pattern of diving into the code with the focus to take the code all the way to open source before putting substantial work into the other facets of a project / business that are necessary to support it.

If I go straight forward, I will have a sourceforge bill sitting on my monthly credit card accounts that leads to a spartan project page with a sad, lonely release with perhaps a dozen downloads and maybe one or two inactive contributors.

Tapping some experience

I've come across a lot of entrepreneurs that work to help entrepreneurs.  There's a lot of genuine folks out there selling access to valuable experience and community, but there's also a lot of charlatanism.  I have done a large amount of researched based on the free trials, posts and media out there.

My litmus tests for entrepreneur coaches:

1. Have they done this themselves?
   1. If no, then close the browser tab
   2. If yes, then, did they get it right the first time?
      1. If they struck it the first time, close the tab but keep an eye on their blog/product.  These folks are awesome inspiration but I've found that style and inuition doesn't come through in a practical manner.
      2. If they have tales from the trenches, more mistakes learned from than brilliant magical success and an authoritative tone of voice that's the result of excitement and energy tempered long by the pressures of experience then I keep them on the list.
2. Do they have an active community surrounding their work?
   1. Better be yes, because I want to be able to say, "I've been working at this damn phase for months and not one person has come to my site!" then for them to say "Try x." and for me to spend one hour outside of my preprogramed approach comfort zone and smack myself on the forehead for all the 'learning experience' 'character building' hours behind me.
3. Do they have good hair in their headshot?  Absolutely essential.  I mean they can't take themselves too seriously.  If I wanted to staple myself to a rigorous routine I would go work in the financial district.

The following are the blogs / communities that I have decided to participate in to develop the greater vision