Spring founder says, “Want money? Follow the IP”

Rod Johnson of Spring/Interface21 fame talked with Martin LaMonica at CNET and came up with this nugget of wisdom:

Rod Johnson, the creator of the popular open-source Spring framework, has boiled down the question of open-source business viability to a simple formula.

“If you want open source to thrive, find people who create the intellectual property and talk to them,” says Johnson.

Rod’s point is interesting on a number of different levels. At its most basic, he’s suggesting that enterprises not be short-sighted in how they view open source. If viewed as a free-for-all then soon the valuable open source will be in short supply. Open source developers must feed themselves/their families, just like proprietary vendors do.

But plumb a little deeper, and you come up with the notion (valid, in my experience) that the best support and services in open source come from those who write the code. The battleground, once customers understand this, is over the source of code, rather than source code. You don’t necessarily have to buy the source, as it were, but you really should buy from the source.

Even deeper is the notion that at the bottom of all this free stuff is good old intellectual property (IP). Open source does not exist without copyright law. Once you understand this, there’s no end of mischief you can do with your competitors’ business models while benefiting customers (and your own bottom line).

In the Spring Framework Rod has some fantastic IP. He just happens to give it away (or, rather, he gives away the code and charges for value around it). If I were a VC, I’d invest. If I were a developer, I’d give him code. If I were a customer, I’d give him my money.

You should, too.