Tech: A hostile environment for US Programmers?

On Dave Farber’s IP list, Jonathan Shapiro makes some insightful comments on software outsourcing, and the inevitability of the economic trends driving outsourcing. He says, “The right question isn’t ‘How do we keep programmers employed?’ The right question is: ‘How do we change the economics of software?'”

Shapiro ends up sounding many themes you’ve heard from me before — how open source and free software teach us that the value isn’t in the software anyway, and how as a result we need to move up the stack to new sources of value. (“Invest in the free software process, since that price cannot be undercut. Shift our business attention to other parts of the value chain.”) He also points out that if we want to keep our lead in innovation, we need to fix the software patent system. But that’s not all. He suggests rethinking the way we train programmers, with a focus on engineering discipline and programmer productivity.

He also suggests, counter-intutively, removing liability protection for software vendors. “No better way to employ programmers than to finally force us to rebuild everything correctly –and for that matter, to discover *how* to rebuild things correctly.” Eloquent and thoughtul. Very well worth a read.