Return of the homebrew coder

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 20:49:09 -0300
From: Claudio Gutierrez <cgutierrez () improvement cl>
Subject: Return of the homebrew coder
To: dave () farber net

Return of the homebrew coder
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=2476892 (subs req)

Most modern software is written by huge teams of programmers. But there
is still room for homebrew coders, at least in some unusual niches

BEFORE Henry Ford unleashed the practice of mass production on the
world, every little town had a few dozen artisans who made the lives of
citizens easier. A cobbler made the shoes, a tailor sewed suits and a
carpenter built furniture. Mass production sounded the death knell for
many specialist craft jobs, and the rise of computerised supply chains
finished off most of the rest. But now, a century later, the trend is
reversing itself. The new craftsmen do not stitch leather, cut cloth or
saw wood: instead, they write software.

This is because, as digital gizmos proliferate, consumers are running
into some niggling problems. How can you synchronise a Sony Ericsson
smartphone with a Macintosh computer running Microsoft's Entourage
software? How do you send instant messages from your PocketPC or Palm
handheld? How do you maintain a weblog quickly and easily? Such
difficulties are typically faced by just a few thousand people with
specific and unusual requirements—too few to merit the attention of the
big computer firms, but enough to provide opportunities for a growing
band of homebrew coders who set out to develop niche products.

In many cases these programmers are making a decent living in the
process, thanks to the availability of high-speed internet connections,
cheap web-hosting services and online-payment systems such as PayPal and
Kagi—all of which make it quick and easy to distribute software and
collect money from customers. The trend is also a response to the sorry
state of the technology industry, following the bursting of the dotcom
bubble. Where they could once command salaries of $100,000, programmers
now worry about their jobs disappearing to India. So instead of waiting
for things to improve, some have decided to strike out on their own.

<snip>

“Software developers are essentially cutting out the traditional
distribution channels, which are not efficient,” says Kee Nethery, the
founder of Kagi, who has noticed a growing number of independent
software developers collecting money using his firm's service.

--
 Claudio Gutierrez

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