intertwingly

Matt Asay: I put together a list of ten principles that I’ve gleaned from my open source experience, which I believe can be applied to just about any business. [via Simon Phipps]

I’ve highlighted my favorite three:

• Adoption precedes monetization
• Lots of customers is a greater barrier to entry than lots of intellectual property
• A business' brand is its greatest asset in driving sales
• Lower barriers to evaluating and using your product
• Sell customer value, not vendor value
• Most businesses aren’t widgets businesses
• Product use should breed re-use and further sharing
• A collective product best serves a collective market
• Invest in service and your product, not sales
• Transparency breeds trust, and trust breeds revenue
• People make a business