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FLORA Community Consulting: Introduction

In order to avoid potential confusion I always like to explain my business model and how I will work with clients. While I may create software and other "works of the mind" as part of what I do, I do not offer these as products but as the outcomes of a service. Some of these outcomes will only be of value to the client, but some development will be of value to the greater society and should be shared. I do not ever charge royalties on these works, as I do not believe this method of production, distribution and funding of creativity is as effective as alternatives.

I am your liaison into an international open collaborative software and other knowledge development process. I should be seen as representing your interests in this larger process in the same way that a lawyer is your advocate in the legal process. When a lawyer makes an argument on behalf of a client in court, the results are part of the public pool of knowledge we call court transcripts and precedent.

For more details, see an article I wrote in February 2006 http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/1888

I also wrote about some of the feature and advantages of this model as part of my "online resume" http://www.flora.ca/open.shtml

The open collaboration towards the creation of public goods is also sometimes called "peer production". I try to offer some clarification of the various terms you may see at http://flora.ca/floss

My fees are based on the amount of time that I am working for you. With a few exceptions I do not price differentiate between what I am doing with this time. Those exceptions relate to work that I may do that is at the periphery or outside my normal business model, such as working with proprietary knowledge that exists outside the public pool of knowledge that I normally work with.

Updated Fees for 2006

I have a discounted rate that I offer for specific clients that comes with a few conditions.

• The client is doing something that I consider socially valuable such that I am motivated beyond monetary reasons to contribute.
• The work I am doing for the client fits within my regular business model of being their liaison into a peer production process.
• There must be a minimum of paperwork overhead. While I keep technical notes of what I do for the client, the assumption is that there is a trust and that I would not need to keep detailed notes to the level required to account for each minute or hour I have spent.

The discounted rate for 2006 is now $450/day . Details are at http://www.flora.ca/rates.shtml

Please let me know if there are any questions, or if you wish to discuss any details.

Thanks.
Russell McOrmond

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Canada License.

Last update: $Date: 2006/03/18 18:46:59 $ UTC