Bricolage as a service - Is it a good idea?

Hi all,

I've been lurking on this list for a while, but haven't
really posted much.
I have a question for the community though...

I've been toying with the idea of offering Bricolage
accounts on a monthly
subscription basis as a hosted CMS solution. I'm not sure of
the price point
yet, but something like $99/user/month. I was thinking of
launching this as
a little side business. Has anyone done anything like this
in the past? Is
it a good idea? How does the open source community view such
ventures? Any
thoughts or comments would be welcome!

Thanks, 
Balazs

On Oct 25, 2007, at 2:44 PM, Balazs Wellisch wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've been lurking on this list for a while, but haven't
really  
> posted much.
> I have a question for the community though...
>
> I've been toying with the idea of offering Bricolage
accounts on a  
> monthly
> subscription basis as a hosted CMS solution. I'm not
sure of the  
> price point
> yet, but something like $99/user/month. I was thinking
of launching  
> this as
> a little side business. Has anyone done anything like
this in the  
> past?

Yep.  Check out http://bricol
age.cc/support/commercial/

> Is
> it a good idea?

Of course!

> How does the open source community view such ventures?

The more commercial/user support Bricolage has, the better.

-Matt

Hi,

> I've been lurking on this list for a while, but haven't
really posted much.
> I have a question for the community though...
> 
> I've been toying with the idea of offering Bricolage
accounts on a monthly
> subscription basis as a hosted CMS solution. I'm not
sure of the price point
> yet, but something like $99/user/month. I was thinking
of launching this as
> a little side business. Has anyone done anything like
this in the past? Is
> it a good idea? How does the open source community view
such ventures? Any
> thoughts or comments would be welcome!

We've been doing this for a while with Request Tracker, a
similar type
of project (open source enterprise ticketing system done in
perl).

    http://www.gossamer-threads.com/hosting/request_trac
ker.html

It's been a great way for people to evaluate the software
(fully working
copy for 30 days).

We're in the works at providing the same type of service for
Bricolage
as the RT service has been quite well received.

We currently host a number of Bricolage sites and are just
working on
some patches that we'll post back primarily involved with
installing in
a non root environment, and running under a light frontend /
mod_perl
backend:

    http://www.gossamer-threads.com/hosting/mod_perl.html

Also, as a side note, if anyone has mbox archives for the
list, I'd love
to add it to our list archive at:

    http://www.gos
samer-threads.com/lists/

Cheers,

Alex

--
Alex Krohn <alexgossamer-threads.com>
Gossamer Threads Inc. http://www.gossamer-
threads.com/
Tel: (604) 687-5804 Fax: (604) 687-5806

>
>
>
> > How does the open source community view such
ventures?
>
> The more commercial/user support Bricolage has, the
better.


Great to hear!

I have a bricolage server up and running so I could make the
service
available to the public very easily. I can have an ecommerce
gateway and a
web front end set up in no time at all. But, to make this
venture successful
I would need to offer two types of support: a) tutorials and
how tos b)
phone or email support. Any ideas on who I could look to
partner with to
assemble these type of documents and/or offer paid and free
support over
phone or email? The how tos on the bric site are pretty
outdated. Any other
written help materials available somewhere?

Thanks for you input!
Balazs

On Oct 25, 2007, at 6:00 PM, Balazs Wellisch wrote:

>  But, to make this venture successful
> I would need to offer two types of support: a)
tutorials and how  
> tos b)
> phone or email support. Any ideas on who I could look
to partner  
> with to
> assemble these type of documents and/or offer paid and
free support  
> over
> phone or email?

Hmm.  I would reckon the only free support you'd get would
be from  
this mailing list and perhaps irc.

Paid support, you can check the commercial section of the
Bricolage  
website.

http://bricol
age.cc/support/commercial/

> The how tos on the bric site are pretty outdated. Any
other
> written help materials available somewhere?

There's not a lot of user support docs available.  I'm
probably going  
to contribute back a Terminology and Interface Guide when I
get a  
chance.  I know Adams State has some tutorials available
online that  
they offered up  - you can probably find them by searching
this  
list's archives.

And if you check out the Pluggable Document Models thread
you will  
see that there are some on this list heading up an effort to
get  
better documentation up.  You might inquire of their plans,
although  
I think they are doing more template work than end user
support.

And finally, you can always write and contribute back some
of your own.

-Matt

On Oct 25, 2007, at 3:47 PM, Alex Krohn wrote:

> Hi,
>
>> I've been lurking on this list for a while, but
haven't really  
>> posted much.
>> I have a question for the community though...
>>
>> I've been toying with the idea of offering
Bricolage accounts on a  
>> monthly
>> subscription basis as a hosted CMS solution. I'm
not sure of the  
>> price point
>> yet, but something like $99/user/month. I was
thinking of  
>> launching this as
>> a little side business. Has anyone done anything
like this in the  
>> past? Is
>> it a good idea? How does the open source community
view such  
>> ventures? Any
>> thoughts or comments would be welcome!
>
> We've been doing this for a while with Request Tracker,
a similar type
> of project (open source enterprise ticketing system
done in perl).
>
>     http://www.gossamer-threads.com/hosting/request_trac
ker.html
>
> It's been a great way for people to evaluate the
software (fully  
> working
> copy for 30 days).
>
> We're in the works at providing the same type of
service for Bricolage
> as the RT service has been quite well received.
>
> We currently host a number of Bricolage sites and are
just working on
> some patches that we'll post back primarily involved
with  
> installing in
> a non root environment, and running under a light
frontend / mod_perl
> backend:
>
>     http://www.gossamer-threads.com/hosting/mod_perl.html
>
> Also, as a side note, if anyone has mbox archives for
the list, I'd  
> love
> to add it to our list archive at:
>
>     http://www.gos
samer-threads.com/lists/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alex
>
> --
> Alex Krohn <alexgossamer-threads.com>
> Gossamer Threads Inc. http://www.gossamer-
threads.com/
> Tel: (604) 687-5804 Fax: (604) 687-5806
>

Four words: Best Bricolage Hosting Ever.  


--
Phillip Smith,
Simplifier of Technology
Community Bandwidth