Hi Jeff,

> Not limiting yourself to your own work is one
> way to bring a cohesive offering to market
> fast.

That's a great point!

> There are many highly successful information
> product developers that have worked their way up
> through a) understanding how to add maximum value
> to their own product offering and b) working
> feaverishly on joint ventures to make it
> happen fast.

Yes, it's absolutely true....

Another way is to "complete" things which are already in the public domain....

There's a lot of cool software out there, for example, which programmers have created for fun or as a challenge, which afterwards they have explicitly placed in the public domain. In their current state, these products are "incomplete" - yet they are free for you to resell or modify as you like.

So, one thing you can do is to "complete" these software products - add some service and support, for example, and you may have to modify the software somewhat as well - and you're in business!

There is also a lot of useful public domain information and images out there.... What's needed is for these things to be taken and turned into a "complete" product for a specific target market. Figure out what the market expects (including the "intangible" parts of the product), and give it to them. Then you could have another product that people will find valuable. :)

- Dien