There are several revenue streams created by Open Source projects that don't require licensing, although the revenue stream itself is frequently protected with a license:
* Support - offering support/modifications/customization for a fee.
* Training - offering training and "How To" information for a fee.
* Customization/modification - although in the software world, modification has to fit within the license, it can still be done at a fee.
Also note that a significant revenue stream is consulting - especially for productization. Note that the rights holder of a copyright and/or patent can offer their IP under multiple licenses - a free "Open Source" license, as well as a "commercial supported" license.
After discovering that the real-time scheduler was not in the Angstrom distribution shipped with the Beaglebone, I've decided to pursue the statistical method of determining position. There are several other reasons for this:
+ It allows for better portability between platforms.
+ Removes the need for a fast processor.
Note that I'm still planing on using the tri-lateralization method of determining exact position (versus the triangulation method frequently mentioned in this project), but the various legs will be measured using statistical methods instead of direct time-of-flight.
The downside(s):
* Coding time will be longer for the anchor points.
* Testing time will be longer.
* It will take a lot of additional testing to establish reasonable baselines for statistical measurements.
* It will require more "samples", which will probably adversely impact battery life on the remote sensors (ear tags).
The http://farmhack.org/forums/tool-wiki-template link above results in a "Page not found" error.
Feel free to delete this comment when/if the above is fixed!
Evidently, the bag never left Boston! The prototype unit is now in my possession. I'm not sure if it works yet or not, but will find out in a few days.
Comments
Open Source revenue streams w/o licensing
Nov 2012 status
It still works
Link gets Page not found
Bag was found!