Thursday, August 19, 2004

Bricklin: Writing Software

Many will argue with what Dan says in his essay, Software That Lasts 200 Years when he says:
Unlike much of the discussion about open source, serendipitous volunteer labor must not be a major required element. A very purposeful ecosystem of workers, doing their normal scheduled work, needs to be established to ensure quality, compatibility, modifications, testing, security, etc. Educational and other institutions may be employed with the appearance of volunteer labor as students and other interested parties are used, much as courts and other governmental agencies have used interns and volunteers for other activities. The health of the applications being performed by the software must not be dependent upon the hope that someone will be interested in it; like garbage collecting, sewer cleaning, and probate court judging, people must be paid.