The Consulting HOWTO
A Guide to Open Source Consulting
| Gary Lawrence MurphyPresident and CEO Teledynamics Communications Inc 7 Forest Place |
Copyright © 2000 by Teledynamics Communications Inc
$Date: 2000/03/27 17:46:46 $
Open Source consulting is as varied as the people who make their living at it; this paper only includes my own experiences, thoughts and advice on training for and entering this field. It is intended for practicing consultants curious about open source, and those interested in consulting as an occupation. Both wonder if this "Linux thing" is worth their while. The short answer is "yes".
The most current edition of this paper can be found online at http://www.teledyn.com/help/linux/Consulting. The document is also available in Postscript, Rich Text and Portable Document Format. Many people have contributed to this work, but I alone am responsible for what is written, and for what has been omitted. Please direct all questions, comments and corrections to garym@teledyn.com; it may not be exactly what you need to know, but it is willing to change.
Copyright
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the license is included in the section called GNU Free Documentation License. While the text of this document is covered by the FPL, before you do copy this work, be advised that many illustrations have been lifted from websites and correct attributions are not known.
prelude
Why should a mainstream, proprietary systems consultant make the shift into open source? What might draw a young entrepreneur into a business based on free software? We all know the the software is free but support is extra, but is this the whole of the business model? I hope to show that this a very good model, not just because of the free beer or the philosophical draw of free speech, but because of a surprise bonus that gives the free software consultant more to offer than their license-bound counterparts.
The secret of this surprise bonus is in the words of Linus Torvalds: "I'm basically a lazy person who likes to get credit for things other people do." Before I get into that, though, I should mention that I didn't expect any bonus when I started. I didn't even really notice when it did happen. It just kinda snuck up and was there. I expect others may be following me, also out of constraints more than requirements; if it does sound like where you are going, then the good news is there is a surprise ending.
Bibliography
[CTM] ClueTrain Manifesto, , Perseus Books, Jan 2000.
[RMS] Philosophy of the GNU Project, Richard Stallman and al, FSF Website.
[ESR] The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond, O'Reilly, Oct 1999.
[RBF] Nine Chains to the Moon, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Southern Illinois University Press, 1963.
[MM] Laws of Media, Eric and Marshall McLuhan, University of Toronto Press, April 1992.
[JP] The Last Dinosaur and the Tarpits of Doom, Jeff Prothero, MUQ.ORG Website, 1998?.
[NM] Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage: Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration, Dr. Norman Matloff, University of California at Davis Website, March 2000.
[RC] Learning About community currencies , Mose, Ratitor's Corner Website, Spring Equinox 1999.