Ticketmaster is a very large business, but there is no existing software to do what they do. Moriarty said that access to a specific type of individual talent wsa one of the most important reasons for using open source at Ticketmaster. He cited two books as examples of individual intellectual achievement as resources to help understand Tickemaster's point of view:

• Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
• Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Ticketmaster is using the LAMP suite, where the P is Perl. They have hired Stas Bekman, Ask Bjorn Hansen, and Geoffrey Young and are sponsoring their work on various parts of perl, which are being contributed.

Basically what it comes down to is that Ticketmaster as a company is getting enough value from open source that they can see the benefit of giving back to the community by sponsoring folks. They feel that it's a better investment to support someone in open source versus hiring a recruiter and trying make the right hire. Sponsorship of individuals doesn't cost millions of dollars. Their sponsorship of open source (they also sponsored OSCON and provide the infrastructure for perl.org) also promotes the company name.

I was hoping that there might be more of a model for patronage here, but it basically comes down to the goodwill of companies that benefit. Perhaps this is an issue of education. Ticketmaster itself may be a type for companies who are benefitting from open source and who might find sponsoring open source developers to be a good investment.