{"id":1852,"date":"2014-03-01T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hibbets.net\/blog\/?p=1852"},"modified":"2014-03-01T14:26:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-01T19:26:39","slug":"when-to-release-your-source-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hibbets.net\/blog\/2014\/03\/01\/when-to-release-your-source-code\/","title":{"rendered":"When to release your source code?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Open<\/a>This time last year, I was in full editing mode for my book, The foundation for an open source city<\/a>. I was also in the middle of my IndieGogo crowdfunding campaign<\/a> to raise awareness for my project. But there was one debate still going on in my head that I wasn’t sure how to answer. And to be honest, I’m not sure if I answered it correctly, but I made my decision.<\/p>\n

I was going back and forth on when to release the source code (an editable manuscript) to my book. My decision was to launch the book in April, both the hard copy and eCopy, and release the source code<\/a> in September. I wanted to give the book “time on the market” in order to recoup some of the costs that went into making the book. And believe me, there isn’t much money to make here. The margins are better on the eBooks and not so great on the physical book.<\/p>\n

I did, however, provide the source code to individuals who requested it during the grace period described above. And there were some benefits to that. I had two individuals contact me to ask permission to translate my book into Spanish and French. I’m happy to announce that the Spanish version<\/a> is now available on Lulu.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>

Image credits: Opensource.com, perpetualplum via Flickr<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

And this is the power of Creative Commons<\/a>\u2014a set of licenses that grant copyright permissions for creative works like my book project. I choose to publish the book under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license<\/a> for a few reasons. This particular license means that anyone can share the work\u2014copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and<\/span> they can adapt the work\u2014remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Although there is a non-commercial version, I didn’t want to restrict anyone, say, translating the book, from making a little money for their effort.<\/p>\n

So what does BY-SA mean? In order to share or modify the work, there are a few restrictions. From the license itself that require you to attribute the author and use the same license:<\/p>\n