Wednesday, January 04, 2006

How to Make Money off Open Source or off Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 and Open Source are idealistic non-profit creations. We are talking here about peer production of encyclopedias, sharing of links and photos, volunteering to write newspaper articles, developing better software and building a better world on the ruins of the capitalist money-centered Web 1.0 close source monster.

But there are capitalists that make money off Open Source or off Web 2.0:
IBM, for example,
makes Linux servers and mainframes, as well as offering applications and support. an IBM spokesperson told NewsFactor that the company invested $1 billion in its Linux operations last year, and said that by the end of 2001 it had recouped nearly all of its investment. (http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17137.html)

And today Israeli Internet portal Walla launched Wallapedia, a free Internet encyclopedia that draws its content from Wikipedia.
The more people need Wikipedia information the more they are exposed to Walla adds.

Money is such a strong and ancient concept that it refuses to be shares Web 2.0 style - it prefers staying in the hands of Web 1.0 close source capitalists.

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