Open-source projects turned into product companies, the WSO2 route, for the next 100 engineers

A first step

Choose one open-source project that companies abroad depend on, fix three real issues on it, and have the fixes accepted. Then find companies that use it through its forum or issue tracker, and offer a paid support hour or an integration job. Accepted fixes are your credential, and one paid engagement is the proof that the consultancy exists.

Who pays first

A company abroad that depends on an open-source tool and pays for support from someone who has already fixed its code.

What leaves today

Engineers here contribute to open source for free or not at all, while the consultancy fees around those tools are earned abroad.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. ThreeWhat We Have Already Built
  The stock exchange in Malabe

More from cluster 15

• 296Remote-work hubs in Kandy, Galle and Jaffna with fibre, power and a lawyer who knows the tax
• 297A Sri Lankan software product, not a services firm: one tool, sold by subscription to the world
• 298Accounting and bookkeeping outsourcing for small British and Australian firms, in their time zones
• 299Legal paperwork done for foreign law firms, since commercial law here follows English law, the higher courts work in English and the lawyers are here
• 300Typing up doctors' notes and reading scans for foreign hospitals, overnight, to their standard
• 301Architecture and engineering drafting services for firms in the Gulf and Europe

All 25 ideas in this cluster