Moodle
Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment and is a free open-source LMS that offers many tools like quizzes, assignments and grading. It was developed by Martin Dougiamas who is the founder of Moodle and who continues to be the leader developer of the Moodle.org community. Moodle continues to be one of the most popular LMS systems with over 67,000 active Moodle sites in the World located in over 220 countries. Moodle consists of the Moodle Pty ltd which hires developers to design the core system files of Moodle. There is also the Moodle community which contributes code to the open source project. The Moodle partner network is the commercial arm that funds the development mostly through royalties.
Martin Dougiamastaken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dougiamas%5B/caption%5D
Martin Dougiamas was born in Australia in August 1969 and spent his early years in a small settlement located in the desert of Western Australia where he was the only non-aboriginal child. As a result he needed to complete his schooling by distance education which included a short wave radio and paperwork brought in by plane every few weeks. In 1986 Martin worked as a webmaster at Curtin University, Australia and was the system administrator for the WebCT installation. He found the system frustrating especially due to intellectual property rights which didn’t allow him to expand or customize the system. It was this that convinced him that he needed to come up with an open source solution. While he studied and researched for his Ph.D. he developed many online tools that would become Moodle.
Martin holds degrees both in computer science and education which he has used to create an intuitive learning management system which he strongly believes has to be kept open and free.
“I’m committed to continuing my work on Moodle and on keeping it Open and Free. I have a deeply-held belief in the importance of unrestricted education and empowered teaching, and Moodle is the main way I can contribute to the realization of these ideals.” .” (Dougiamas, Background)– Martin Dougiamas
This drive and expertise helped Martin to create Moodle into what it is today. It is rumored that he was offered money for Moodle but he has refused this and has stuck to his belief that it should be open and free. His lack of interest in creating a financial return would be concerning to some investors hoping for a large monetary return. However, he has been able to sustain his model of revenue from the Moodle partner network. Personally I have to commend him on his drive and determination to take frustration in one program into one that is widely used around the world. He is obviously a talented individual and he will continue to play an important part in Moodle going forward.
References
Moodle. (2012, May). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle
Dougiamas, M. (n.d.). Background. Retrieved from Moodle: http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Background
Dougiamas, M. (n.d.). Dougiamas. Retrieved from Dougiamas.com: http://dougiamas.com/
Martin Dougiamas. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dougiamas
Registered Moodle sites. (n.d.). Retrieved from moodle.org: http://moodle.org/sites/
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Peggy Lawson 5:43 pm on September 25, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’m interested in learning is Martin Dougiamas made money/makes a living from Moodle? When someone develops and releases open source – is it purely altruistic, for the benefit of all with no thought or at least key desire for personal gain? Or do they realize that production for the public good will produce spin-offs that will be personally rewarding?
Thanks for posting this Colin. I’d never thought of the venture aspect of something like Moodle before. I know there are developers who are hired to customize Moodle installations, but what benefit do the founders gain? Even though open source – do they profit financially, and if so how well? Would one invest in such a venture? You’ve mentioned the Moodle Network, so there are obviously some side sources of revenue.
This topic opens a wider question, for me at least – how do all of the “free” websites – facebook (pre stock options days), wikis, blogs, etc. exist? Strickly on advertising? Are they all working for years, for free, hoping for the eventual payoff when they’ve hooked users? Once Xtra-Normal starting charging users a fee – did it kill the enterprise or did they become suddenly profitable?
What is the best way for a Web 2.0 to become profitable – more advertising as more free users hit the site, or hooking users and then starting to charge for the service?
Peggy
Colin 11:01 pm on September 25, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Peggy, Martin Dougiamas does not appear to be in it for the money but he does generate revenue. In March of this year he sold Moodlerooms to Blackboard and this is what Martin had to say about the decision.
“The decision of Moodlerooms and NetSpot to work under Blackboard may sound very strange at first to anyone in this industry…but it’s my understanding that these three companies have some good plans and synergies. I’m happy to say that Moodlerooms and NetSpot will remain Moodle Partners, and have promised to continue…participating in the community…and contributing financially to Moodle exactly as they always have.”
As you can see they do have continuous funding from their Moodle partners. In addition to Moodlebooks they also have Remote-Learner and Classroom Revolution who contribute a portion of their profits back into Moodle. They also use proceeds from license agreements to continue their funding.
“Free websites” as you mention are not always free. When you sign up for an account on one of these sites you are agreeing to their terms and conditions and suddenly you are a captive audience. Advertising is one key way that sites do make money where they track your likes and dislikes and target market certain products to you. Other companies do sell the information you give them to third parties. In the case of free downloads you often find they include third party products who pay to be a part of the download. I find that companies are often quite creative in how they make money. With Facebook for a long time they didn’t generate much revenue but people invested in them for their potential. Coming up with a revenue model really depends on how you are positioning your product in the market and who your target market is.
Peggy Lawson 6:37 pm on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Colin. I know I am naive about how much money companies, esp. Web 2.0, make money strickly from advertising. This is something that will be useful to gain from ETEC 522 – how something that is “free” still generates sufficient revenue for investors. As I start work on my assignments for this course, I can’t help but feel that this is an important consideration.
Peggy