Talk To an Astute IT Industry Observer

Dan Gillmor is about as high on the IT journalist and industry pundit "respect" totem pole as you can get. Slashdot has linked to hundreds of his articles. What do you ask this veteran observer of the Silicon Valley scene? Whatever you like, one question per post. We'll email 10 of the highest-moderated questions to Dan 24 - 36 hours after this post goes up, and run his answers shortly after he gets them back to us.

Re:How much longer will programming stay in the US

[Hanno]

Being a German software developer, I don't quite get your question. Software development was never a solely US-based industry.

Hidden corruption?

[PhotoGuy]

I've seen an awful lot of money spent during the .COM boom, in awfully questionable ways. Ways that were just completely beyond comprehension. I've often thought that a better explanation than sheer stupidity, might be that there were kickbacks and other shady dealings going on (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours).

With so much money having been tossed around, surely there was a lot of corrupt dealings; however, I haven't seen any press or other talk of such happenings.

Is it primarily because these companies weren't public and thus publicly accountable that any mini-Enron's were simply never discovered?

In some ways, corruption would be a little more comforting of an explanation than sheer stupidity.

I feel like I might be pretty naive in not realizing some of this is going on. What's your take on corrupt dealings, patronage, and such in the industry?

-me

Re:BS industry

[GT_Alias]

Wow...I can see why that has been moderated as "insightful" because boy was it.

Philosophy.

[The Cydonian]

You think there's a deeper meaning to the constant need to upgrade and upgrade even further? Do we really need more technology (specifically, IT products)?

Assumptions

[Dirk Pitt]

In your original question you implied that software development is mainly a US industry

No, he didn't. He was asking specifically about the health of the US software industry, of which Dan Gilmour is a pundit.

But how is this different than the situation of the workers...

It's not--and he never said it was. I'm sure many /. readers would agree that there are equally unfair working conditions for exported steel jobs, car jobs, and hardware manufacturing. But again, the topic stated in the article focuses on a journalist who covers the US software industry. No one's trying to be short-sighted about globalism.

This is like saying back in the 70s that "US car workers see themselves as professionals, yet those who do it in the cheap in Japan don't

This is totally wrong and irrelevant. Japanese line workers during the 70s and 80s enjoyed a very similar lifestyle to UAW members. Japan was not and is not a third-world country. Cheap cars != cheap employment. The poster's talking about Indian workers who are the IT industry's equivalent of sweat-shop workers. And no, no one's saying that ALL or MOST of India's IT people are on the cheap.

Publicity vs Reporting

[Lucas Membrane]

Why is so much of the 'reporting' on and even ratings of and published recommendations of tech products based on what the maker says the product will do (ie feature lists) and so little based on actual performance (ie quality)? After buying a few highly-rated products way too buggy to use, why would anyone want to pay any attention to the press anymore?

Will the DMCA be overturned or changed?

[ellisDtrails]

Will the DMCA be overturned or changed? Will the freedom-loving internet/technology community ever be able to coalesce and become an effective lobbying organization to effect politics in a real way (e.g. the NRA, the farm lobby, Microsoft)?

Typical "question"....

[pjrc]

The IT industry is so-and-so, and this-and-that are huge problems, and the internet bubble / economy downturn have caused such-and-such....

So what do you think?

Re:Desktop Operating Systems

[Reality Master 101]

For Apple to become anything else WOULD be to shoot themselves in the foot.

Exactly how has it hurt Microsoft to be a software-only company? Do you REALLY think Microsoft would be dominant today if they had come out with a proprietary "Windows PC" that was completely closed?

If Apple's the ones that are too stupid and arrogant, I guess that explains why Apple still continues to be profitable [apple.com],

Yeah, and my lemonade stand is "profitable" because I made a clear $5 profit. But so what? Are you really impressed that Apple is able to cut and chop expenses enough to bring home $32 million on sales of 1.43 BILLION?

The reason the clones "failed" is because Apple didn't fully commit to the strategy. And it didn't even fail! Total Macintosh market share was CLIMBING. It was Apple's marketshare that was falling. Apple panicked and decided they couldn't compete, and shut it down. Apple could have gone two ways: a) accept that hardware was going to be a break-even or low profit proposition and make money from software, and b) forget hardware entirely and make money from software. The bottom line here is software. That's where the money is, and that's why Microsoft is dominant and Apple -- isn't.