> 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? >
The vast majority of work for programmers in this country is custom inhouse' development for mid-large companies. These are the types of applications that don't exist in the open source world. Also the type of applications that companies use from open source tend to be operating systems (linux/bsd), office tools (open office) and the like. How many programmers could resonable be employed in these types of endeavors? 5,000 - 10,000? Thats a small percentage of the total number of programmers nationwide. I don't think that programmers providing thier work under an open source license has anything to do with the devaluation of programmers. I think that, generally, the availablity or people with good progaming skills for a tenth or less of what a programmer generally makes in the us is what is devaluing programmers. I hate to see this happen, but its inevitable. Globalization is a good thing in the long run, but short term it hurts specific industries. Right now the industry its hurting us' the us and european IT industry. Pointing to OSS as the source of the industries problems is a failure to look at the wider picture. > > 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. > Not very many I would say. I think that those who worked on OSS when the had a job continue to work on OSS when the don't. I don't think that a large percentage of people would migrate to OSS just becuase they were out of work. OSS is a polarizing issue, people are generally for it or against it. For programmers that means the programmers disposed to work on OSS projects will take advantage of the extra time while those that arn't wont. Of course, I am just guessing on this front. ** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and its attachments may contain confidential, proprietary, and/or privileged information which is legally protected from disclosure. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and appropriately delete the material from your computer. Thank you. _______________________________________________ Juglist mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://trijug.org/mailman/listinfo/juglist_trijug.org
