One way or another, vast quantities of software gets created which either never gets used or winds up being under-utilized. Organizations may develop software for some internal needs, but it is never marketed to others because those organizations are not in the “software” industry. In other cases, software is created by entrepreneurs which never quite takes flight due to poor business models, marketing, or salesmanship. The result is a vast resource of untapped potential, and wealth, that currently does nothing more than collect dust.
Perhaps the time has come for the creation of a source code marketplace, where abandoned software can find a new purpose, and IT organizations are able to realize added value in the assets they create than the mere use of the applications they created.
Save money through recycling
In a tough economy where capital is scarce and budgets are being cut, finding economies through the use of pre-existing source code is a tremendous way to economize. Organizations with portfolios of internally developed software can defray their development costs, and take the sting out of budget cuts by offering their existing source code for other firms to license. Many IT departments are completely unaware they are sitting on a potential gold-mine.
Reduce development costs by licensing existing source code
Why re-create the wheel, building software that someone else has already created? You can dramatically reduce your development time, and costs, if you can find software in a source code marketplace that fits your needs. The price of licensing pre-existing code will almost certainly be far less than building it yourself. Even better, you can be confident of the quality of source code that has already been used (and ranked) by others.
Where abandoned software finds a second life
Instead of letting cool software created by startups just collect dust, and vanish into history (as so often happens when software firms go bust), the source code marketplace offers an opportunity to actually redeem some of the investment. Someone out there could find a use for your abandoned source code, even if it is in a field, or area, you hadn’t originally anticipated. The source code marketplace at least gives you a chance to find that elusive buyer.
After all, what do you have to lose by registering your abandonded software in the source code marketplace? It’s not as if it is doing anyone any good just sitting in the basement accumulating cobwebs.
The limitations of being Open
Open source software is all well and good for hobbyists working on community projects, or companies wanting to get wide dissemination of their technologies, but it offers little reason for those organizations who made investments for their own needs to just publish for the good of humanity. If you are lucky enough to find open source software that suits your needs, that’s wonderful, but you still have to worry about the implications of using software with an Open Source license in your own commercial products later down the road.
Features of the source code marketplace
- Choose your license model
- Do you want to offer exclusive licensing deals? Is it open for use by as many people who want to license it? - Pick your price
- Choose the price you want to sell the source code you register in the marketplace (pick a higher price for exclusive licensing vs common usage). - Rate/recommend the source code
- Tell others how well the source code worked for you. - View popularity for each piece of source code
- Shows the number of downloads, and can list items by order of usage. - Rich search options
- By category, language used, ratings, etc.
NOTE: You can check out another of my business ideas, for a social network marketing rewards program.
