Re: software survival and progress (was Re: Sweeden & Germany to phase out nuclear power?)

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Mar 31 2002 - 00:12:48 MST


Dan Clemmensen wrote:

> Samantha said:
>
>>
>> Intentional programming is extremely interesting to me. In the
>> meantime a great deal could be done to reverse-engineer and refactor
>> existing code (providing much more useable information about the
>> codebase as a side-effect!) and to enable much higher levels of reuse
>> and use of design patterns. But creating a viable tools company was
>> very difficult before the meltdown. It is even more so now. So it
>> is likely these developments, if they happen, will come through
>> volunteer efforts as Open Source.
>>
>
>
> I think that open source is can tackle this, but you are perhaps too
> pessimistic about VC money for this. Right after a meltdown caused

Perhaps but traditionally tools built for other programmers have
relatively low ROI over the first few years even if the tools
prove wildly poplular. What I am after is a revolution in
software development. To get that it is important that these
kind of tools become fairly ubiquitous including in Open Source
projects. So the software itself needs to be Open Source. It
could be semi-open in that the latest production version is
proprietary for some time while the previous release becomes
Open Source. This makes it a bit more difficult to get VC funding.

> by all he VCs imitating each other and investing in 20 companies
> doing the same thing, they relearn the lesson that they should
> be looking for unique opportunities rather than like lemmings all
> jump over the same cliff. I got funded in late 1985, just after the
> last such silliness (it was hard disk drives that time.) If you have
> a viable business plan, a good team, and a unique idea, you may be
> able to find some smart money.
>

I could see a viable plan based principally off of consulting,
training and add-on services. I have a few good technical
people who would be interested once things got moving and a bit
of a step-wise plan in place. I am using some of my spare time
to get the first step prototyped.

 
> Note that not all open source is paid for by volunteers, either.
> A growing number of companies are maintaining open source code when
> it proves useful.
>

Yes and this hasn't escaped my attention. Eventually I will
check to see if some likely candidates would be interested in
funding some of the projects I have in mind. There are other
projects that have already proved themselves that I would also
like to get funded.

- samantha



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