According to this press release, the three winners of the Half Price Computer Books Fall 2004 Essay competition wrote about one thing: Open Source.

...Congratulations to Matthew Isison (Boxford, MA), Kimberley Liao (Sterling, VA) and David Suozzi (Albuquerque, NM). All three winners choose to discuss the viability of Open Source software as a business concept. Despite the paradoxical nature of profiting from free software, the winners insightfully identified various methods of revenue generation, such as charging for support, tiered licensing, product tie-ins, and advertising. The winning essays may be viewed at www.halfpricecomputerbooks.com/scholarship.php...

It is a topic that many people within the Free Software/Open Source community are trying to figure out. I wonder what these folks came up with?

The first place essay, by Matthew Isison (from Boxford, MA) is available here to be read - but it looks like an assumption is made in that the software is developed at not cost. That's not true, really...

Second place went to Kimberley Liao (from Sterling, VA) - and her essay also focuses on cost, but does a better job of hinting at the long term cost savings that may be available.

David Suozzi (from Albuquerque, NM) came in third with his essay - but THIS guy understands it. Here's a sample:

...In order to address the feasibility of open-source software as a business option, it is necessary to address its strengths as a concept, especially in relation to proprietary software. Open-source software’s greatest strength lies in the ability of the open-source community to modify the source-code, creating constant evolution from a group of programmers many times larger than those of proprietary software (The Profit Motive Behind Free Software). The result is a product that develops at a rapid pace with fewer bugs. Additionally, open-source software allows companies that require a great deal of reliability from their products to modify the source as they encounter bugs, than having to depend on software companies for support (Raymond)...

It's odd that all three winners wrote about the same thing, isn't it? Maybe there's something to this whole FOSS business that people are interested in...

I guess the judges weren't to FOSS literate... Don't worry, David, I think you came in first.