Lounge

Nicole - You are probably a really great archaeologist but your post suggests you don't know beans about business, particularly much about how successful open source projects are managed today. The fact is that most open source software projects that people are able to use on a daily basis and that have a vibrant development team (like Moodle), don't rely completly on the donate button to stay viable. If this were the case Apache, Linux, MySQL, PHP, Firefox and many other programs just wouldn't be around.

IBM alone reported earnings on their Linux related sales last year of almost $3 billion dollars. Now just who do you think pays part of Linus Torvalds salary so Linux remains a viable alternative to Microsoft? Additionally, most of the top-dogs in the Linux project actually work for commercial vendors like Red Hat, Novel and Oracle - who pay their salaries so they can work on the project full time. Do these commercial companies benefit... you betcha! Does the world benefit... you be the judge of that.

...but I think that you can't impose the traditional business model on open source so easily.

I find it astounding that you would even suggest to Martin what he can or can't do in terms of insuring the financial management and well being of Moodle. Why not leave all that up to him to worry about? As a business manager for over 30 years I can tell you that Martin is more than a pretty face and a cool programmer. He is an excellent manager of people and resources.

For the drama queens: Martin is also a Moodle partner, has a payroll to meet each month (and family to support). He is self sufficient in his business practice, no Moodle partner pays his salary! He flys coach when traveling, does not drink expensive bourbon or smoke Cuban cigars and drives an ordinary family sedan (to the office each day a few blocks from his house - which his staff thinks is hilarious). He has a talented and beautiful wife name Sarah who is an operatic singer, and two wonderful angels have come to live with them; his daughter Tui and younger son Tommy. He works incredibly long hours (we are sometimes on Skype at 2:00 AM his time) and religously supports the other Moodle partners who are demonstrating results in their practice.

I on the other hand do like expensive bourbon and will smoke a Cuban if I can get my hands on one. I have a bit further to drive to the office each day than Martin, and also have an average family sedan. I have a staff and payroll to meet each month, just like Martin and other partners. This (commitment) is what Martin wants to see in his partners, no matter what country they are in. I have worked very closely with the Canadian Moodle partner for the past 2 1/2 years and we have done some cool stuff together. Here in the US one of my staff members has been nationally recognized for what they do with Moodle (training) for our company and I'm very proud of her accomplishment. We all work long hours and try hard to provide the highest level of support we know Martin expects of us.

Recently it has become fashionable at moodle.org for a few participants to pile on Martin (and lately me) for what they perceive as unfairly wanting to manage how the Moodle copyright is protected and/or commercial services are promoted. I personally don't care that someone who doesn't have the stones to use their real name (while publicly attacking me) rants in a forum, or a disgruntled Moodler from the academic side of life goes off on me with a lecture explaining how things are in the real business world (). I think the community needs to take a few deep breaths and get back to the space where Martin is appreciated and respected for giving us Moodle, and left alone on this issue of commercial services.

So far, here are a few practical guidelines on this issue that have come up since last summer when it surfaced.

• You may not use the Moodle logo on your website without obtaining Martin's permission to do so. This is a copyright violation.
  
• You may offer whatever Moodle services you want on your website provided you do not violate the copyright, and provided you do not state these are authorized services.
  
• Martin is the sole person that can say who provides authorized Moodle services. Right now that is reserved for Moodle partners only.
  
• In general, you may not use the forums at Moodle.org as a place to advertise your business offerings. Forums are non-commercial in nature and the course moderator at Moodle.org has the discretion to remind users this practice is not welcome.
• You are invited to apply to the Moodle partners program. The application process can take some time so patience is in order. Far more applications are turned down than accepted. Martin trys to determine an applicants overall knowledge of Moodle, business practices and ability to deliver commercial services the Moodle Trust can depend on. Each Moodle partner contributes 10% from their commercial services to the Moodle Trust.
  
• You can reapply to the Moodle partners program 12 months after your application was turned down. There is no stigma attached to having been turned down once.
  
• Becoming a Particularly Helpful Moodler is a good step toward becoming a Moodle partner, but is no guarantee an application will be accepted. This designation is for someone that has shown a willingness to consistently (at least 90 days) help Moodle users with their problems.