I think open source threatens your stuff (testing tools), but ultimately I make more money doing open source than I made during the boom. I don't really care to get into any discussions about people's nationalities nor do I think that comment should be graced with an answer.
I was un-/under-employed before I started an open source project, I also didn't have near the experience I have now. I got involved in part to build my resume and keep my skills sharp. Sure enough, it did that. Every third word out of my mouth at interviews was "Apache" and sure enough -- that did it (over more experienced candidates). I also got involved with open source in hopes that the project I founded (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi) would make me valuable locally. I'd be the only local guy who could get you Java reporting to Excel on the cheap. I founded a small company on the basis of my work in open source (http://superlinksoftware.com) and never landed a single RTP customer. One of the first major jobs we did was for a company in South Africa. Since then we've done some work for companies in the US, but the bulk of the work is international. Also the bulk of the people who came on to the project and dedicated their time and became experts were international (Germany, Australia, India). In choosing who does the paid work, I don't discriminate on race, creed or color but on their skills and expertise and how much they've done for the project. In fact, I even pay on the same criteria. In fact, one of the jobs we did was for a company that I'm sure most of you are familiar with. A company in India who was doing work for an American client. They were using POI and needed a feature not present. We made them an offer and they tried to negotiate labor cost...I said no. A month later, they were back and we completed the work on my terms. A little over a year ago, I met Marc Fleury (http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=html&op=userdisplay&id=team) while arranging a TriJUG meeting (http://trijug.org/meetinginfo.jsp?date=2002-09-2, http://www.outerthought.net/~acoliver/) and told him a little about POI. I also mentioned my gripes with J2EE and all of the things I thought he was wrong on. IIRC, he called me an asshole and said I should work for him. One problem I had with SuperLink is that I'm the main sales guy, the accountant and so forth. Also, the guys doing the work are getting paid even if the clients don't pay. The Apache model is great for parsers and arguably even for things like POI but prohibition on ads and other things that would violate Apache's non-profit status make it difficult to establish a business. We did it, but not on the scale that I'd like mainly due to this issue. JBoss has real sales guys, real accountants, lawyers, and the works. The source is free, the service is certainly not (http://jboss.com). Thus far, anyone who has made themselves a real active and valuable presence has been hired and we make damn good money too. So I agree, giving services away for free is bad, that�s not what open source is about. Giving the source and the software away for free actually makes pretty good sense when you think about it. Do I think some proprietary companies are going to go out of business in the process: Absolutely! I even hope so. However, its not open source that has been picking the cheapest labor, its been large proprietary companies who have come to the conclusion that despite their ineffective techniques for managing software houses and high failure rate that it is the cost of labor that is holding them down. If anything, open source has protection from offshoring for the individual developer. Secondly, open source is difficult to do offshore due to infrastructural and cultural barriers. I personally hope to change that, but for now the fact that most people don't have and can't get high speed internet at home would make working for JBoss rather difficult in some countries. So no, I don't think open source is responsible for "offshoring". I think software licensing is a easier sacrificial lamb. Being a "commoditized" developer without differentiation of expertise working behind a faceless company and just being "head count" is a reason for being "offshored". -Andy > From: "Michael Silverstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: "Research Triangle Java User's Group mailing > list."<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 07:46:40 -0500 > To: "'Research Triangle Java User's Group mailing list.'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: RE: [Juglist] Why is volunteering for open source a bad thing? (was > TechEngage III) > > Henri Yandell wrote: >> I was going to make the same point. Why is volunteering for >> open source a bad thing? > > Here's a couple of politically incorrect things to think about: > > 1) Conrad D'Cruz made the comment that the value of tech professionals > has diminished recently. Could the fact that software developers are > giving their services away for free through open source projects have > anything to do with that? Could it be that software developers have > devalued themselves by giving away their two most precious assets: time > and ingenuity? > > 2) How many out of work tech professionals are providing free open > source tools and support to companies that would otherwise be paying > them. How many are providing tools and services to people in other > countries who are doing outsourced work? For an example, go to the JUnit > group ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and look at the nationalities of people > asking questions vs. that of the people answering them. > > I think open source has a lot of benefit at the corporate and > macroeconomic level but for individual participants there may be a few > downsides along with the benefits. I think these are two that might be > worth considering. > > ----------------------------- > Mike Silverstein > SilverMark, Inc. > The Object Testing Company > www.silvermark.com > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.576 / Virus Database: 365 - Release Date: 1/30/2004 > > > > _______________________________________________ > Juglist mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://trijug.org/mailman/listinfo/juglist_trijug.org _______________________________________________ Juglist mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://trijug.org/mailman/listinfo/juglist_trijug.org
