Earlier this week DNN
announced they had closed a round of VC funding from Silicon
Valley VC's. My first response, and that of many others, was
'why?' To me, at least, capital funding for an open-source
project that is in the CMS space (which has many legitimate
competitors) targeted at 'increase DotNetNuke adoption' doesn't
makes sense. It's no secret that the DNN project is saddled
with legacy code and not on par with other open-source CMS projects
- from an architecture and standards perspective. However,
DNN does have a relatively large community (~600k) and a large
(have) installed base. [NB: anecdotes suggest many
users 'have' used DNN but no longer do. I am in the 'have'
used group myself.]
I do, however, share a similar view with DNN on the value of an
open-source project's community. This is really the essence
of monetizing open-source. So while the DNN project itself
may never be a commercial product (well, in some ways it
will, there will be a 'professional' license available) the
community of DNN users will need all manner of 'additional'
products - support, services, modules, etc.... And this DOES
have real commercial value. In fact, there is already a
booming market for 3rd-party DNN products - something the DNN Corp
is working on capturing a larger share of with their DNN
Marketplace. [NB: snowcovered.com seems to be the main
player here.]
So DNN is not forging any new ground here and, in fact, this may
be precisely what led to the funding justification. This same
road has been traveled successfully by other open-source projects
before - Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, etc.... But can DNN do it
- 'it' being generate a significant return on the capital infused -
with this model given the Microsoft Platform alignment?
Maybe, I hope so for DNN's sake and for the larger open-source on
Microsoft community.
For the record, let me be clear that I wish DNN success with
this endeavor but I do not think this is the best path to take if
your goal is to monetize an open-source project. There is
simply too much overhead to be accommodated which detracts from the
core task of creating great software that is easy to use and solves
at least one fundamental problem. I hope that Umbraco never
goes this way and I never intend to take either of my companies
this way. [NB: yes, I know it's easy to say when I'm in
the position I am.]
What does this mean for Umbraco? Not much
really. Umbraco will continue to do what it does best -
create great software that is easy to use and solves some
fundamental problems. And we, the Umbraco community will
continue to grow in number and dedication. We already have
some traction on the fundamentals: an organized, enthusiastic, and involved community; a nascent
marketplace for 3rd-party
products; a sustainable revenue model for core development; and a
growing number of high-profile, large-enterprise
successes.
-Paul