Closed front, open back (was Re: ...Encouraging open code...)

[Rod Gammon]

Aloha-

Please stash away obvious inopportune comments from the title...

What do you all think about 'stealth' intro of open source?  Also open
infrastructure and closed content?

1. I'm working (still) on an open dictionary server.  Post Nuke, Apache,
Java, MySql & Postgres server for educational communities.  But the people
making the educational content [have |are used to] Access.  So I'm rigging
it so they can develop content in Access, dump to delimited text and then
load to the open sourced server.  Any comments on this?  Part of my approach
is the conception that MS Office is highly entrenched and also a pretty good
tool for this development content.

1a. How far to go with open source?  For example I have a bunch of Java
interfaces for representing dictionaries in a linguistically proper context.
But I want to be able to sell something.  So I'm considering LGPL for the
interfaces.  This will allow PHP access to the interfaces for all.  But then
a proprietary implementation of an enterprise Java bean that actually
persists and serves the lexicon.  Heresy? Expectably profitable? (In my own
defense I'll also provide full GPL default, in memory implementations).

2. I'm also working on a language testing framework.  Because of grant
stipulations the framework and a few sample tests will be fully open.  But
then we're working on providing other, 'premium', tests that are proprietary
content.  Get the server, run the basic tests, and then make or buy the
rest.  Heresy? Expectably profitable?

As a solo developer I am worried about developing something good, and then
being poor anyway because an organization 'swoops in' and low margins me.
One fulcrum of the problem is that these projects aren't for just fun and
love, they are to be vehicles for affording groceries.

-rg