- OpenFoam is a specialized software. So, it seems difficult to create an active community around this software. What were your expectations when you release OpenFoam ?

It seems there is no difficulty in creating an active community, the discussion site is very busy and we are getting ~5 registrations a day.  I guess we are now approaching 200 users (mainly academic) and it's increasing rapidly.  The problem is organising and financing a sustainable support organisation.  We setup OpenCFD for this purpose but we do not currently have any income and are having to do everything for OpenFOAM in our spare time which clearly is not sustainable given the rapid increase in demand for our time.

- And does the return from the community correspond to your waitings ?

We are getting some return in the form of contributions of code, cases, helping newbies etc. but not financial return as yet.

- Do your customers find a benefit in the Open Source ?

Yes enormously.  OpenFOAM is not predominantly a set of shrink-wrapped applications (although it contains many useful complete applications) it's intended to be used as a CFD development toolbox so that users can implement whatever complex physics they need to solve their problem. This is much more difficult in the commercial "black-box" codes which only give limited access to the source.

- Is this publication an engine for new partnerships (universities,...) ? 

Not particularly.  We are no longer running a commercial organisation and do not benefit directly from any development or partnerships, we work on OpenFOAM directly for the benefit of the users.

- Which is the share of the incomes resulting from the licences and the services in your sector ? 

Currently OpenCFD has no income.

- Publish software under Open Source licence means the lose of licences revenues, specially for  specialized software. Do you agree with this assertion ?

Sure, we cannot make money from licencing although we should be able to make money by selling support and services like specialised developments.

- And how do you imagine the business model of OpenCFD ? 

We hope to operate by selling support and services, particularly development paid for directly by a sponsoring organisation.  Nabla (our previous company) has a small number of University support contracts which will be transfered to OpenCFD shortly and we hope to increase the number of these.  We are also negotiating a few support and development contracts with companies and consultants who use CFD heavily and are interested in the freedom they get from using OpenFOAM.  We think a better approach to finance the support of Universities would be to obtain sponsorship directly from the University funding bodies, that way  a much larger contract could be negotiated to cover all the organisations financed by that body.  We are not sure this is possible because this approach is probably not covered by any standard procedure these organisation operate but we will investigate.

Henry G. Weller

OpenCFD Ltd.
The Mews, Picketts Lodge,
Picketts Lane, Salfords,
Surrey RH1 5RG.
Tel: +44 (0)1293 821272
Email: H.Weller@OpenCFD.co.uk
URL: http://www.OpenCFD.co.uk