Hey Steven,

Hmm... I'm not really sure if what I will say agrees or disagrees with what you said above, but that's a good point about software innovation -- currently, most people view writing code/computer programming as a difficult activity, so there might be less investment in that skill if there is a view that one cannot gain much from it.

My suspicion though is that more and not less people will learn writing code and programming because all sorts of knowledge is becoming freely available (like in MIT's open courseware, as Harry noted). And if those who are skilled in it are able to have a means of widely sharing their goods (let's say anarchic distribution becomes the norm) and they are able to devise a way to make writing code/programming easier, then programming will move into a world of anarchic production. I suppose this theory is supported by the phenomenon of Wikipedia -- because it has become so easy to contribute, and because no one really owns the data we put up there, we're not scared or we don't hold back from sharing.

I think "sharing" (or more properly, the model of anarchic production) will really destroy certain industries and make certain industries that were profitable, become unprofitable. Wikipedia for example has probably destroyed the encyclopedia industry, both paper and online version. However, since there is more knowledge floating out there, there is greater demand for even more specific types of knowledge than what is available on Wikipedia. I guess we make money, as lawyers, that way. Even as the average person now knows a whole lot more about the law right now, their demand for legal services has not decreased.

Guess these thoughts are pretty raw. Good thing we're doing the same reading in the coming class.

-- AllanOng - 06 Oct 2009