The app marketplace is a great idea but for some reason, it seems to of stopped far short of a marketplace and is purely an app repository.
Own the bazaar and make it open! Don’t own knowledge or product and be closed!
Its almost 2 decades since the Cathedral and the Bazaar was published and many opensource projects still struggle to shake the shackles of monolithic churches of a singular method or belief that is closed to so many avenues and options.
Offerings of psuedo opensource and flaky community offerings that are a carrot to supposed solid commercial support. Access is often closed to those, who don’t make the minimum expected service contract.
Huge area’s of activity are closed, due to perceived conflict of interest and free (as in beer) offerings are often the realm of the hobbyist, often the first impression is of flaky, unfinished and inferior product to one that is closed to the blinkered minds of Cathedral like service and support contracts.
The Marketplace is the Bazaar and its open to all forms of transaction and promotes mutual benefit networks.
Where are the app developers donations, why have you not created a singular payment gateway, so developers do not need to do so. The mutual benefit of being able to see what is of worth to the community, the 5% or 10% cut that provides a transaction system of higher volume that can barter for better deals than the individual developer.
Where are the commercial apps and products, where are the p2p support networks that offer quick fixes, for the little man who is excluded from levels of commercial support.
Where are the tutorials and documentation offerings in free, donation and commercial offerings.
Where is this busy eco-sphere of mutual benefit networks, that as a beneficial platform it creates revenue, contribution, development and activity.
Why are the opensource Zealots occupying the cathedral and dictating the beliefs, that in practice are as dubious as current faith schemes.
Own the Bazaar and take a percentage and share in the mutual benefit that is open to all and closed to non.
So yeah guys, I am wondering why the marketplace seems to of ground to a halt and isn’t a marketplace.
Open a merchant account, paypal if you must, but allow people to donate and take your cut and pass directly to registered developers.
Control and protect your bazaar and not intellectual property or source, share in the mutual benefit. Protect your community and provide for your developers.
Give them choice and allow commercial offerings as app support and documentation, reward effort.
Do something extremely radical and allow the trading of contribution, that rewards community activity and gives access to apps, services or product at discount or for free.
Do not be closed to the Bazaar, do not opt for a cathedral of singular operation.
Free, contribution, donation and commercial models can all co-exist and they can all provide mutual benefit and cater to specific needs without creating areas of exclusion.
The marketplace is a great idea, but so far its only a marketplace in name, love the Discourse forum as its extremely close to a peer review contribution network that could be a form of radically new business model.
The platform / bazaar is symbiotic to the project and for some reason its progress, seems to of stopped and there is so much that could be done and offered in this area.