Untangling a case study of benefit-sharing

In my introduction to open business models, when I discuss the commons model, I offer a triune model of social and economic organisation based on the self-governing community, the for-benefit management of the infrastructure of cooperation by the FLOSS Foundations, and an ecology of businesses that practices benefit-sharing.

The businesses involved have a triune relationship with the model as well: 1) it profits from the commons on which it is based; 2) it adds value to the commons through proprietary add-ons or services; 3) it practices benefit-sharing to both the community and the infrastructure of cooperation.

However, I have not come across much research about this, so it is a good thing to find a case study and interview by Glyn Moody, who has interviewed Dirk Morris, the CEO of a open source security business called Untangle.

First, a brief recall of the definitions:

– Regarding benefit-sharing:

“benefit sharing “refers to a commitment to channel some kind of returns — whether monetary or non-monetary — back to the range of designated participants: affected communities, source communities or source nations, participants in clinical trials, genetic disease patient groups … Instead of Revenue Sharing with individuals, this process allows benefits to be shared with source communities from which positive externalities have been derived. “

And to understand the logic of for-benefit practices and foundations, please read this.

Now, back to Untangle.

Here’s what the company does: “Noting that there were many fine open source tools in the domain of security – indeed, almost *too* many – the open source company Untangle was set up to simplify the acquisition and integration of open source apps in this area.”

Page 3 of the interview mentions the value-added or ‘commercial add-ons’.

And so we arrive at our case study, in which Dirk Morris specifically discusses the benefit-sharing practices of his company.

Benefit-sharing by the open source software company Untangle:

“GM: What contributions do you make back to the open source code you use? Do you offer any other kind of support to projects – financial, for example?

DM: Untangle has benefited greatly from the open source community and we try to give a lot back in return. First and foremost we have licensed approximately 95% of our own code under the GPLv2. But while code reciprocity and licensing is important we see it as the minimum and we actively attempt to do more. We do help some of the projects that Untangle leverages with both pure sponsorship dollars and by purchasing banner ads on their websites. But as a small startup our pockets aren’t quite as deep as the IBM’s of the world so we try to make grassroots contributions such as organizing the Installfest for Schools and several local Linux Users Groups.

This year Untangle organized two Installfests for Schools to refurbish older computers that were thrown out by their original owners with Ubuntu for schools in need. The first event took place on March 1st and the second from the show floor at LinuxWorld. In total 1,100 computers were refurbished for schools across both events.

We also provide a lot of help to local Linux users groups. Specifically Untangle team members help organize the Bay Area Linux Users Group (BALUG), the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group (SVLUG) and the Peninsula Linux Users Group (PenLUG), holding positions ranging from Speaker Coordinator to President. Some of the speakers that Untangle has arranged for these groups include Mark Shuttleworth, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Ian Murdock, and Andrew Morton.”

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