https://people.gnome.org/~michael/data/vendor-neutral-marketing.html
Yes I agree there are some problems. Michael Meeks.
But attempting to fix those problems is not a valid reason to make an
individual version as this creates more problems.
Collabora really is forking the brand making their own brand of
Libreoffice. Same with the Linux Distributions and all the different
LTS versions. Sorting out the Linux Distribution problem is really a
huge problem in itself by the end of this there is a path to profit
that does start to fix this. Why the different LTS versions will be
why X user of X distribution at times will have problems sharing a
document with Y user on Y distribution. .
I have no problem with a LibreOffice Enterprise and LibreOffice
Community. I have no problem with the about dialog and/or installer
heck even space out the toolbar being use to advertise that you are
using a non commercial version and where to buy a supported commercial
version. But this has not really be doable without a LibreOffice
Enterprise product.
https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/jzryGw7XDkJadmo#pdfviewer
Page 35
Ecosystem members providing a LibreOffice Enterprise version should coordinate their announcements with the LibreOffice Project
This reads like branding where each existing vendor makes their own
LibreOffice Enterprise versions with different features and different
levels of compatibility. We have distributions all ready undermining
the libreoffice experience doing this. We don't need commercial
support side doing this as well long term either.
Say we look at this position more carefully look at what competitors
and FOSS projects in the same boat have done that is successful .
Look what Microsoft has done to give us some base. Microsoft turned
out they were not making as much money as they expected from MS office
installed on personal machines as they expected. How did they fix
this. Cloud services.
Another one is blender. Application is free but if you want access
to training and resources you pay a monthly cloud access fee.
Adobe is another with their creative cloud as a marketplace..
Libreoffice online could be used by TDP and partners to provide a
software as service competing Microsoft Office online and Google Docs.
If this was under the Libreoffice Enterprise branding a percentage
of this income can come back to TDP.
Libreoffice has a problem getting extensions and templates and
documentation and training videos.... There is no money system here
this area has not been monetised. There is nowhere for people to
sell their content so there is no major reward to create this content
either.
There are a lot of places with Libreoffice to make a lot of money that
are currently not monetised. The want by the commercials parties
like your Collabera who Micheal Meeks works for is going the wrong
way. Yes, a lot of this monetise process requires the TDP really to
take the lead backed by the commercial parties not the current
commercial parties take the lead and expect TDP to follow.
This Libreoffice Personal edition is really the wrong way. You want
to have as many people install Libreoffice as possible and you want to
be offering something where they can pay and get something so profit.
If I am paying a professional party like Collabera does that payment
give me access to more templates, images, documentation.... that are
integrated so I can be more productive? Lets say I buy my office
suite from another libreoffice fork vendor. I get different stuff
right and Collabera has no chance to profit from that user unless they
change right. See Michael Collabera is not getting access to every
customer they could sell what they are making for Libreoffice today
because there is no market place that all Libreoffice users can access
to buy parts of your product that is integrated into the provided
client. So the problem is not just bad for TDP because they cannot
get a percentage on the sales in the marketplace/cloud those providing
support items are missing out on sales as well. So everyone is short
on cash here.
Lot of talk of how we can market Libreoffice. This risks the grass is
greener on the other side of the fence and you get tempted to poison
the item on the other side of the fence instead of fixing what you are
doing on your side wrong.
LibreOffice Personal edition instead of Community is really poison
what is on the other side of the fence. Looking at providing
something like a blender cloud/adobe cloud that the enterprise version
has access to with coded into the enterprise client integration and
even in the Community edition. Of course the Community edition could
show content for the enterprise version and that if they had the
enterprise version this would be buyable .
There are ways to split the community and enterprise versions without
having to say 1 version is not for enterprise or is for individuals.
Reality: this requires focus on making an ecosystem for end users so
that end users who spend get more access to items that are useful for
what they are doing and the possibility for end users to be selling
some of the stuff they have made. Providing end users with an
ecosystem they need cannot be achieved while all the companies
providing supported versions of Libreoffice are doing their own
things. There needs to be cooperation between groups supporting
Libreoffice to build the marketplace where all can profit including
TDP. Mind you for stock images and the like you may be doing
integration deals with services already providing this for a
percentage of kick back on any purchases done TDP because of
Libreoffice.
Yes, having a cloud solution like blender or adobe that the clients
are connecting to can be used to start pushing back against the LTS
version fragmentation. Yes cloud requires X version of client
software you are using someone fork the cloud is not going to function
perfectly so starting to undermine the LTS fragmentation as the
fragments end up less functional as they end up cut out of access to
the cloud services.
Marketing is a great way to waste money trying to sell a product with
critical defects undermining its usefulness to end users. Incorrect
marketing can basically destroy your market share as well. Remember
the best advertising is word of mouth by end users who use the product
and like it so recommend it. Best advertising will come if your
product is providing what end users need. Libreoffice is not
providing the paid content people need at times to-do their work and
does not have a workflow for using paid content this is one of the
biggest gaps in Libreoffice profitability.
Paid content Libreoffice could be providing a marketplace for or access to.
1) Commercial Fonts.
2) Commercial Stock Images/videos the paid for ones.
3) Commercial Templates yes paid for ones.
4) Documentations paid versions
5) Training materials videos/guides/workbooks paid versions
6) Certifications.
There are most likely a few more ways to make money I am not even thinking of.
Yes documents using Commercial Fonts, Stock Images and Templates there
could be metadata placed in the ODF format and product PDFs so that
end users were aware these are commercial items and where to buy them.
Profiting from all these areas does not mean needing to make a
Personal edition. Yes there would be a lot of coding work to
make Libreoffice up to task of being a client to end user to provide
ways to buy, acquire and use commercial content simply. Of course
those who don't want to use commercial content could. Doing this
would fix a lot of the Libreoffice profitability problems.
Commerical Fonts, Stock Images and Templates to be able use correctly
would require quite a bit of changes. All three you need to see
what is paid and what is not and what the restriction on usage for all
3 is in fact.
TDP being a not for profit does risk the mindset of not thinking how
to make profit because that seems counter to being a not for profit.
Long term stability you need to think how to make a profit so the
foundation stands on its own two feet very solidly. Making a profit
does not come from restricting how end users can use your software.
It is making your software provide what end users in fact need and
profiting from the process. Think is like printer makers selling
printers cheap and making money off the consumables. Fonts, Stock
images, Templates are the consumables of an office suite. Blender
consumables are like textures, models... all stuff the blender cloud
provides and the blender cloud basically funds the core blender
foundation these days.
Libreoffice project really needs to solve how to sell end users the
consumables they need as it a path to lots of ongoing money.
Peter Dolding
