On 07/01/12 15:18, Andreas Maria Jacobs wrote: > > Where and how are software skills degraded from a professional craft > to a hobby 'free' time occupation?
There are two reasons why I suggest people on Netbehaviour learn to program using these resources. Neither is so they can get jobs as code monkeys. The first is so that they can get a feel for how code works. So they can gain an insight into how the software they use every day, and that affects their entire lives, works. This is important for thinking critically and realistically about software. The second is so that they can use code as a tool to achieve their own ends using software, less constrained by the fixed affordances of applications and web sites. Data visualisation, digital humanities techniques and web scripting are all useful ways of doing things with software. > What are the benefits from it when being outsourced and jobless? Software should not be an economic end in itself. It is a tool for achieving other ends. This is its benefit to artists and activists and academics, not that they might be able to make a living by writing code for multinationals. > The naivity - also expressed in this list - surrounding software > practices is astonishing We don't leave culture to the culture industry or sex to the sex industry. We shouldn't leave software to the software industry. - Rob. _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
