Anyone may be able to learn to code, but they shouldn't have to. I could learn how to be a brain surgeon or a pig farmer too, but I'm not going to spend my time doing that.
And I don't believe that paying someone a bounty means that you're necessarily going to get what you pay for - you're paying someone to code something the community doesn't necessarily believe is needed (otherwise it would have been done for free). You have no idea if that person is the best person for the job, and the person is still going to see it as a hobby rather than as a real project.
The question is this: is something "needed" even though no one is willing to pay for it, or even believes that it is needed? Why would you think that all people are able to recognize or understand all their needs - people don't generally comprehend any of the environmental legislation in place, yet someone has determined that it's in the public's interest to have clean air and water by a certain standard.
To me, the Bazaar is too Wild West and uncontrolled, and thus too prone to egotism and bias. Even the term "bounty" makes it seem like you're hiring cowboys to do dirty work and rustle up some code. The problem is that there are no guarantees, and that the lack of organization and governance can prevent needed projects from being accomplished. Anarchy isn't a good model for structured programming.
On another note, I've been expecting a schism between "free" and "open" for a long time now, and I'm a bit surprised it took this long.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
Re: I think you just made a very good point
on 2006-01-27 07:03 pm (UTC)And I don't believe that paying someone a bounty means that you're necessarily going to get what you pay for - you're paying someone to code something the community doesn't necessarily believe is needed (otherwise it would have been done for free). You have no idea if that person is the best person for the job, and the person is still going to see it as a hobby rather than as a real project.
The question is this: is something "needed" even though no one is willing to pay for it, or even believes that it is needed? Why would you think that all people are able to recognize or understand all their needs - people don't generally comprehend any of the environmental legislation in place, yet someone has determined that it's in the public's interest to have clean air and water by a certain standard.
To me, the Bazaar is too Wild West and uncontrolled, and thus too prone to egotism and bias. Even the term "bounty" makes it seem like you're hiring cowboys to do dirty work and rustle up some code. The problem is that there are no guarantees, and that the lack of organization and governance can prevent needed projects from being accomplished. Anarchy isn't a good model for structured programming.
On another note, I've been expecting a schism between "free" and "open" for a long time now, and I'm a bit surprised it took this long.