Software Craftsmanship

It has been a while since I sat down to write something, but that is because I have been caught up in learning. In March I presented at ETE in Philadelphia, and during my stay there I met a programming hippy Corey Haines. Corey was just like all of us, writing code for his day job, and like some of us enjoyed it. In December he lost his job, and with some money in the bank and a lot of free time decided to invest in himself. He began what became to be an adventure in pair programming, He now spends his days travelling the country, pair programming with anyone that will give him a place to stay and some code to work on. His journey is inspiring.

Now, this isn't a story about Corey, it is about software. In particular it is about good software. Corey, like many of us cares about the quality of his code. In his case he cares so much that he decided to pair with perfect strangers in order to increase his knowledge. While many of us can't afford to travel the country like Corey, or just find staying with strangers frightening, we find other ways to increase our knowledge.

So this is a story about writing good software. It is about craftsmanship. In December a manifesto was drafted. It was drafted by professional programmers that felt the Agile Manifesto didn't go far enough. They stated that working software was good, but well crafted software was better. That responding to change, while a virtue, isn't as good as steadily adding value. Out of this congress came the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto. It is a declaration of professionalism and quality, and I have put my name to it, along with thousands of others.

So what? So some coders put together a web page, called it a manifesto, and a bunch of other coders bought into it. I think it is more than that. I think our craft is changing, for the better. The best I have seen it described is in a presentation by Uncle Bob Martin. I recommend that you take a look, it is well worth the 60 minutes spend watching the video.

References:
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/craftmanship-ethics
http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/03/software_craftsmanship
http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org/
http://www.phillyemergingtech.com/
http://agilemanifesto.org/
http://www.coreyhaines.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_programming

Increasing Internet speeds for innovation, education, and the economy

Please Vote: Change.gov has a new feature called Citizen's Briefing Book, where I posted this article. If you agree with what I have to say here, I ask you to please vote for Increasing Internet speeds for innovation, education, and the economy.


As a nation we suffer from relatively slow Internet connection speeds. By every account that I have heard, we are 15th world-wide and slipping fast. This fact is noted in a briefing from the Indiana Department of Education [1], showing the average connection speed in Japan is nearly 30 times the US average, where France enjoys more than seven times our average connection speed, and even our neighbor Canada has an average that is three times that in the US. This affects every citizen of the US in several ways.

First, it impacts our ability to innovate, and as our manufacturing moves overseas it is extremely important that we retain our innovation. Increased innovation results in increased exports of technology and also provides us with new products that will make our lives better.

Second, it affects our ability to teach our children. Every child should have fast access to the Internet to allow them to view resources far beyond the bounds of their public library. Instead of relying on microfiche newspapers like I did, I want my children to be able to see history happening in video form and read the accounts of those that actually lived through it.

Last, this affects how we view our media. With high speed Internet access we will see the rise of on-demand Television, allowing consumers to watch what they want when they want. This change in consumption technology will lower the cost of production, driving the arts and allowing niche content to be made available.

I humbly request that the Obama Whitehouse push for increased carrier competition, to fund investment in new communication technologies, and to help ensure that every American has fast connectivity to the Internet.

[1] http://change.gov/page/-/open%20government/yourseatatthetable/20081217_incon.pdf