The Next Software Generation

David Greenspan, Meteor

Stevenson Hall 1300
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

We are on the verge of a new explosion of software. We have all the technology we need to make software fast, reliable, beautiful, and exquisitely suited to the task at hand, yet every day we use clunky and idiosyncratic interfaces that were developed at great expense. This is an unstable state of affairs maintained by cultural, economic, and institutional forces. I explain three big realizations happening in the software ecosystem that will change everything, one that is already well underway and two that are coming. First, software is best produced with a small creative team of engineers rather than a large, traditionally managed hierarchy, though this is only possible with careful attention to process. Second, the much-lamented gap between academia and practice in programming languages, databases, and other building-block technologies is not so mysterious but exists for mundane reasons; "better" technologies can win the popularity contest and spread far and wide, but it requires specific effort, resources, and an understanding of why programmers choose the tools they do. Third, it is now so cheap to develop and distribute software (and even hardware) that economic forces will reshape software companies and careers. These shifts will empower and incentivize individual developers to make the software they want to see in the world.