The Economics of Open Source Education
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| In economic terms, educational institutions filter people with skills
| and limit the supply of those they qualify, thus maintaining the scarcity
| of qualified personnel. Thereby putting a market value on the
| qualifications - beyond what might apply because of a limited supply
| of talented people.
|
| In the software industry, the same thinking applies. You can
| artificially create scarcity by controlling access to and so limiting
| the supply of software. This maintains profitability, just like
| limiting the number of people with qualifications maintains the value
| of your qualifications by limiting the supply of qualified folks on the
| jobs market.
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http://ecampus.typepad.com/ecampuscomau_blog/2006/09/open_source_lea.html
http://tinyurl.com/p5xju
Contextually-related:
Microsoft and the Broken Window Theory of Economics
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| While we don't usually report on anything Microsoft related (as it's
| outside PCBurn's perview) this tidbit was too good for me to pass up.
| Microsoft is reporting (at El Reg) that by releasing an operating system
| it will magically create $40 Billion dollars rather than simply suck
| money out of Europe. They've done this by positing a story somewhat
| similar to the theory of "broken window" economics.
|
| [...]
|
| In short form, a boy breaks a window and his father, the shop keeper,
| then has to have it replaced. It is a given to the people looking on
| the scene that this is good becuase it keeps the glazier employed in
| making windows.
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http://pcburn.com/article.php?sid=1788
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