FWD: AbiWord Commercial Support Listings

Hi guys,

What follows is an email I got a few days ago. I
haven't given it much thought, but I guess I'll post
it here for discussion.

Thanks,
Dom

------------------------------------------------

Hi Dom -

I am inquiring as to your interest in listing
consulting and commercial
support options for AbiWord on the AbiWord website. I
realize that
you may not personally provide commercial support for
AbiWord, but
there are a number of individuals and businesses that
do.

My company has just launched a new website
(www.findopensourcesupport.com) where users can search
for
individuals and businesses that offer consulting
services and
commercial support contracts for various Open Source
software
packages - including AbiWord. I am wondering if you
would be
interested in referring users to this new website in
order to find
commercial support options for your project. In
return for doing this,
my company will pay you a 20% commission of any
support profile
sales that are generated from your site. Individuals
can list their
support services on the website free of charge, but
businesses are
charged a fee (after a 2-3 month free trial) if they
want to participate.
Your commission would come from the fee that is
charged to
businesses for having a listing on the website -
regardless of whether
or not they list themselves as supporting AbiWord.

Here's some quick background on myself, as well as my
new company
and support website:

I'm the creator of Nagios (www.nagios.org) - an Open
Source network
monitoring tool which has been around for about five
years (previously
known as NetSaint). As I was unable to personally
provide
commercial support for Nagios, I instead pointed users
to a list of
companies and individuals on my website that did
provide commercial
support and consulting services for my software.
After realizing that
my project was not unique in this situation, I decided
last fall to start a
company and develop a new website to help promote
commercial
support options for Open Source software. That
website is located at:

 http://www.findopensourcesupport.com

Users can use the website to search for support
options based on
criteria such as cost, geographic location, support
features, etc. They
are also able to rate and leave feedback for support
providers they've
had a chance to work with.

I am a strong believer in Open Source software, and
believe that
promoting consulting services and commercial support
options is good
for everyone:

- Users needing paid consulting services for Open
Source can find it
quickly and easily

- Corporations are likely to be more willing to use
Open Source
software if they can purchase support contracts for it
  

- Commissions received for sales referred by your site
can help your
project

- Your project may become more popular in the business
sector due to
the availability of paid support options

If you are interested in what I'm proposing, please
let me know. I'm
sure you have some questions, so feel free to drop me
a line and I'll do
my best to answer them. I look forward to hearing
from you.

Take care and best of luck in all your endeavors.

Ethan Galstad, President
Ayamon, LLC

---
Email: egalstad@ayamon.com
Web: http://www.ayamon.com
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail