FOSS - good for programmers

Open source skills have been in vogue for some time now. Developers with FLOSS skills are said to be making upto 40% more in compensation compared to other fellow developers on proprietary technologies. Matt Asay, VP Business Development at Alfresco also makes an interesting point about not just money but more on the satisfaction scale as well. But then how are companies talking to this really? If the code is free then why pay developers?

Steve Lake in his interesting post on 'How FOSS makes better programmers' deals with the subject at length. Of all the things that he has covered there are 2 areas which I felt simply highlights the need that Kenfuse is set to address.

1. FOSS as a testing ground for new programmers: It is a great way for developers to try their hand at new things, and for companies the have visibility into actual work that people have done at the time of recruiting and not just go by canned resume. For programmers themselves it means a big difference writing code that are reviewed by a handlful in a proprietary setup v/s potentially the whole world when in comes to FOSS. The difference is almost like singing in the bath v/s on stage in front of an audience. This is exactly the reason why Kenfuse encourages students to signup and pick/host projects so that they get the mentorship to get started quickly and go on to start contributing to FOSS. It also makes it possible for junior developers broaden their skill sets if they are caught in the wrong job - you know what I mean. Truely it breaks the myth that you need to work for a company to gain experience. FOSS provides an even better setting
2. Mentorship and Feedback: The other significant aspect is the feedback part built in. It is so easy to educate yourself with the kind of voluntary feedback system so prevalent in FOSS community. Make no mistake about flamed conversations at times, but they just highlight different schools of thought and for the willing a chance to learn competing view points. So why is this fast learning? Well, I see it as reading the first book on a ne topic where you try and soak up everything that is being said. By the time you reach your second or the third book on the same topic you start having a point of view. A few more on the same topic and you graduate to becomes an authority or critic. The challenge if any traditionally has been that very few get access to such pockets of authority or critical opinion. The open culture of FOSS just steam rolls the communication and location issues making it available for anyone tunned in

Companies today are undergoing a huge change in terms of the way they do business or think about strategy, to some extent precipitated by the down turn. As always happens as outcome of such testing times is emergence of new business models and developers today would do well to be prepared for such a change. To argue against such a possibility of change, one still gets to learn new technologies which itself is a big win by itself without waiting for a job to get you there.