Jaspersoft has launched Self-Service Express, a new subscription service offered to open source community developers that want professional-grade BI documentation outside of the realms of a commercial contract.
The company says that in its 2011 annual survey, over 80 percent of the JasperForge community requested access to premium documentation, but without a commercial software license.
Substantiating the value of the above statistic, Jaspersoft told Dr. Dobb's Journal that over half of the 1200 JasperForge community survey respondents are developers/architects. The responses were ranked in terms of response — "developers in IT" being ranked first at 28%; and "developers in a software group" being ranked second at 20%.
Self-Service includes tips and tricks, code samples, and best practices. Developers focused on BI tool construction will be able to use Jaspersoft's enterprise search service to explore technical information including product documentation and knowledge base materials, as well as other resources found at Jaspersoft.com and JasperForge.org.
"The news for our developer community is that they now have a new service available to them for a monthly or annual subscription fee (starting at $99 per month or $399 per year for a single user) that provides them with lots of information that can help them be more productive on our open source projects/products," said Jaspersoft, in response to questions posed directly by Dr. Dobb's Journal.
The broader news for the open source developer is that this is the only service of its kind (so Jaspersoft claims) where a commercial vendor is providing a knowledge service to its open source community that does not require them to purchase or use commercially licensed/indemnified products.
"By catering more broadly to its community users, which include large enterprises and divisions that mostly support themselves, Jaspersoft may be able to tap new commercial opportunities from open source," said Jay Lyman, senior analyst with The 451 Group. "Open source users have indicated a demand and willingness to pay for these types of commercial offerings."
