The simplest ideas are often the foundation of powerful business cases. Roberto’s idea of a Free Software franchise seems a natural evolution towards a market that adds the power of a brand to the professionality and high quality services of many existing Free Sw Businesses.
I think that many potential users of Free Software, especially small businesses, can be reassured more easily with a brand if they need to buy services from small firms.
What’s a franchise if not the sum of the power of a brand, as Schwartz says, and quality of services?
An Open Source Franchisor could aimed at delivering to the market IT
basic services using OSS, with a fixed-time fixed-price formula,
training its franchisees to meet predefined performance criteria.
Simon? Jonathan? What do you think?
Commercial Open Source Software » Open Source Franchising: From artisanship to industrial
