Personally, I'm fully in support of this (well, unless haggling for a
higher commission is an option). A logo-n-link on the support page for
third-party consultative commercial support, with of course a disclaimer
that these people are not affiliated with abisource and we're not
responsible for what they do and what not.
I also happen to be familiar with some of the people/companies involved,
no complaints there, although (disclaimer) I'm not familiar with them in
the context of AbiWord support. But like I said, I think a disclaimer
that they're support is direct from them and not us should be sufficient
to cover our <censored>es.
Regards
-MG
On Sun, 2004-07-25 at 22:40, Dom Lachowicz wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> What follows is an email I got a few days ago. I
> haven't given it much thought, but I guess I'll post
> it here for discussion.
>
> Thanks,
> Dom
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> Hi Dom -
>
> I am inquiring as to your interest in listing
> consulting and commercial
> support options for AbiWord on the AbiWord website. I
> realize that
> you may not personally provide commercial support for
> AbiWord, but
> there are a number of individuals and businesses that
> do.
>
> My company has just launched a new website
> (www.findopensourcesupport.com) where users can search
> for
> individuals and businesses that offer consulting
> services and
> commercial support contracts for various Open Source
> software
> packages - including AbiWord. I am wondering if you
> would be
> interested in referring users to this new website in
> order to find
> commercial support options for your project. In
> return for doing this,
> my company will pay you a 20% commission of any
> support profile
> sales that are generated from your site. Individuals
> can list their
> support services on the website free of charge, but
> businesses are
> charged a fee (after a 2-3 month free trial) if they
> want to participate.
> Your commission would come from the fee that is
> charged to
> businesses for having a listing on the website -
> regardless of whether
> or not they list themselves as supporting AbiWord.
>
> Here's some quick background on myself, as well as my
> new company
> and support website:
>
> I'm the creator of Nagios (www.nagios.org) - an Open
> Source network
> monitoring tool which has been around for about five
> years (previously
> known as NetSaint). As I was unable to personally
> provide
> commercial support for Nagios, I instead pointed users
> to a list of
> companies and individuals on my website that did
> provide commercial
> support and consulting services for my software.
> After realizing that
> my project was not unique in this situation, I decided
> last fall to start a
> company and develop a new website to help promote
> commercial
> support options for Open Source software. That
> website is located at:
>
> http://www.findopensourcesupport.com
>
> Users can use the website to search for support
> options based on
> criteria such as cost, geographic location, support
> features, etc. They
> are also able to rate and leave feedback for support
> providers they've
> had a chance to work with.
>
> I am a strong believer in Open Source software, and
> believe that
> promoting consulting services and commercial support
> options is good
> for everyone:
>
> - Users needing paid consulting services for Open
> Source can find it
> quickly and easily
>
> - Corporations are likely to be more willing to use
> Open Source
> software if they can purchase support contracts for it
>
>
> - Commissions received for sales referred by your site
> can help your
> project
>
> - Your project may become more popular in the business
> sector due to
> the availability of paid support options
>
>
> If you are interested in what I'm proposing, please
> let me know. I'm
> sure you have some questions, so feel free to drop me
> a line and I'll do
> my best to answer them. I look forward to hearing
> from you.
>
> Take care and best of luck in all your endeavors.
>
>
> Ethan Galstad, President
> Ayamon, LLC
> ---
> Email: egalstad@ayamon.com
> Web: http://www.ayamon.com
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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>
Received on Mon Jul 26 04:41:19 2004
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Mon Jul 26 2004 - 04:41:19 CEST