November 4, 2007 5:47 AM PST

MovableType's movable feast gets more definition, more open source

Six Apart announced some time ago that it would be open sourcing its excellent blogging platform, MovableType. However, it has moved dates around a few times, and originally intended to do a semiproprietary model with the software.

No more. As noted here, MovableType will be 100 percent open source, and will be released in December:

This is really good for open source community, but it raises questions for commercial users--what will be the benefit of purchased commercial version (apart from professional support)? Now it looks like new idea is not to remove anything from open source, but instead add something to commercial version!.

Exactly. That is the open-source model: to give more, rather than to remove more. It's all about finding and delivering additional "analog" value to add to an easily reproduced good (software). Give the digital away and charge for the analog.

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.

Topics:: Industry news,; Strategy

Tags:: MovableType,; open source,; Six Apart

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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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