Looking for new ways to get more clients, get a new design or overcome writer’s block?

There are probably more ways to implement creativity than you know. If you have read my previous post, you’ll know that there are two types of imagination – synthetic and creative. Creative imagination creates, totally from scratch (duh!). Synthetic imagination re-arranges. It remixes experience, education, other people’s ideas, sensory input, and stimuli into something fresh.

The previous post covered creative imagination. Here’s a few ways to get your synthetic faculties pumping. Use this during your brainstorming sessions, or in your every day life, in any situation where you would need some great new ideas.

In this article, we examine seven open source strategies that can give your company a competitive advantage:Â

   1. The Optimization Strategy
   2. The Dual License Strategy
   3. The Consulting Strategy
   4. The Subscription Strategy
   5. The Patronage Strategy
   6. The Hosted Strategy
   7. The Embedded Strategy

 Open source presents a large potential competitive advantage for hardware and software vendors, and vendors of complementary or substitute services. Linux has contributed greatly to the adoption and success of OSS. Companies such as IBM, HP, Red Hat, Oracle, and recently, Novell, have invested in, and legitimized the use of Linux for enterprise applications -- including datacenter operations.

Linux-related services deliver more than $1 billion in annual revenue to both IBM and HP. Oracle strongly promotes and likewise derives revenue from the Linux platform, with the so-called "unbreakable Linux" guarantee. In an attempt to catch the Linux wave, companies such as Computer Associates and Peoplesoft are porting their applications to Linux on ambitious timeframes.