The following is a report from WebFWD Scout Thomas Bassetto, on the ground in Paris.
“This week the 4th edition of ‘Pas Sage En Seine (PSES)’ took place in Paris. PSES is a mix of conferences and workshops, free and open to anyone. The topics are more or less technical but the purpose of the event is to popularize all subjects, from Hacking and IT to the economy through art, electronics and media.
The Sunday I had the chance to give an introduction about WebFWD - my first that wasn’t a lightning talk. To start, I asked the public who knew of WebFWD, which turned out to be 3 out of 50 people. That was expected as I know I still have a lot of work to do :). I then briefly talked about the first year of WebFWD and the new 12-week program. Finally I presented the portfolio. At the end, I was asked two questions:
- What are business models for Open Source startups?
- Once enrolled, is it possible to get support from employee in the Paris office (underlying this was the question as to whether the program is English-only)?
Let’s use the blog post to publicly answer these two questions.
(1) Business model examples for open source companies:
The two best known are:
- Integration and support (example: RedHat)
- Services and hosting (example: WordPress)
Of course, other less common models exist (such as Mozilla in its partnership with search providers) - this is something WebFWD seeks to grow.
(2) WebFWD support for global teams.
The program calls, courses and coaching are delivered remotely via BigBlueButton, Skype, IRC and other channels as our teams are located all over the world. It is all in English. If your team is located near a MozSpace, you can certainly work there.”
A final note on the portfolio.
There were some questions as to whether teams needed to be 100% open source to be in the portfolio. WebFWD’s answer is no: the main criteria is that teams are aligned with Mozilla’s mission; how you do your code is important, but even more important is is the ability to build a sustainable business model around companies that disrupt closed markets to keep the web open.”