Is the Blynk App open source?

Hello,

Im’ searching a full open source solution to make IoT projects with community governance.

I’m very interesting by Blynk, because the server is open source and the use of the app is very easy :slight_smile:

However I didn’t found informations about the licence of the Blynk app. Is it open source ? If yes, what is the licence ? (ie : AGPL, GPL…).

Thanks for your reply

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No. It is not.

Thanks for your reply Dimitry.

Could you be interested to :

  • release it under an opensource licence if the community make a crowdfunding in order to do this ?
    or
  • create an other new app, similar to the Blynk app, but opensource, and all of this development and release will be funding by the community, and the governance of the project will be made by the community ?

The idea is to have a full open source kiss IoT, and that the guys that work on it will be paid for it…

Please read this topic: Introducing Blynk Energy - first paid services
I think the community has all the answers for you :wink:

These guys work very hard to give us a fabulous product, but no one would pay if it’s completely open source. I think it’s a good thing there is a lot community involved in developing Blynk, but the guys need to eat too. If it’s free, no one will pay, I wouldn’t to that, why would I ?

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Friend of mine is owner of one of the most popular open source projects in the world - Leaflet - used by google, facebook, apple, etc. Guess how much money did he make on it? Zero. Open-source is fine and cool when you don’t want to make money. However when you create company you have to pay salaries, servers, etc. And with open-source you can’t pay bills.

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I fully agree with you.
I am long open source supporter but it is very obvious that open source must be combined with: Open Food, Open Car, Open Home, Open Bills etc etc… Nothing wrong with your expectation to earn money from your job…
Keep the nice work and we ( or at least me ) are with you…!

Best Regards,
Mike Kranidis

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Thanks for your replies.

  • I’m totally agree with you that most of the guys will not pay when it’s open source and that the job has be done, and that the guys that work have to be paid.
  • we can note that some companies however have found a way to have a economic model with full open source (Arduino, Josef Prusa…), but it seems that there isn’t a lot of similar case, or it’s very difficult, and the example of Leaflet is one of them.

How to change this ?

  • a good way to make much more easier to live for the companies that work with open source seems to be that the community drive the projects, the community first crowndfund the project, and when have the necessary money, pay the workers to do it. It’s better for the community, because all is open source, and better for the workers/companies, because they have less risk that traditionals economics models (marketing, presale, description of the needs have already be done). What do you think ?

This is bad example as they sell hardware. And price for OSS included in hardware. That’s why arduino clones 10x times cheaper - they don’t have to pay for software development.

I still do not understand who and why will pay for that?

You’re right, it’s much more easier with hardware. H5P.org is a better example. 2 years ago, this open source solution for making elearning content didn’t exist. If I’m right, they have released a very nice first version, and after, all the improvement seems to be funded by the customers. No money, no improvement. But as there is a lot of company that want improvement, or the companies improve it themselve, or they didn’t know how to develop, or they want that be done very quickly and they give money to the core team to make the improvements :

Adoption of H5P is increasing at an incredible pace and community engagement is higher than ever. We are seeing great initiative taken by the community both in spreading the word and actively contributing in the development of H5P. This positive reaction has allowed the core team to almost double in size to match the aspirations of the community and bring H5P to the next level. October 2016 status update | H5P

Moodle HQ, Acquia (Drupal) is also good examples that have found a nice economic model with open source. But there is also a lot of case where the economic model with open source has crashed.

But we can also say that it’s not good example, because they sell to companies and not to final user as you do.

I’m absolutely not telling you to change it for free to open source, but i was asking, if communities of user comes with money, and ask you how much it will cost for making the blynk app open source, or create a new app that will be open source, will you be interested ? If you say no, I understand it perfectly, from scrath using this economic model is easier, but when you have already took a lot of risks, worked hard, and that now you can earn money, it’s maybe not a good idea to earn more money, and maybe the way of starting a new project is safer.

An other way is to sell the open source app. Gcompris is following this model : http://gcompris.net/buy-en.html All versions are open source. It’s free for Linux User and user that use f-droid.org, and you have to pay if you use Windows or Apple, or the google playstore.

When I have discovered Blynk 2 days ago, I thought you were following this model, the app is open source, and if we want to add energy that provide other open source components, you have to pay, and i thought that was a very good idea for open source economic model.

who : the finals users, the hardware companies to make their products usable with Blynk.
why : to have new improvement (we can do that if the community will pay X€$) and services. services can be hosted server, help final user to sell the app for their IoT projects, training, consulting, customization, support of new hardware. Putting anounces in the app, could also be a nice economic open source way, making packs with openhardware & training can also be a nice way to earno money with an open source app ?

So, if we had an invention that involved using Blynk, is there someway we can pay royalties or a flat rate to have the right to market our item?

@Pyrosimus take a look at Blynk for Business http://www.blynk.io/

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