The open source community has long enjoyed the benefits of its cooperative community in pushing innovation and rapid development. At DEMO 2006, several companies brought the lessons learned from open source into more structured tools that support development:
Programmers now focus on finding and assembling code, rather than building it from scratch. Krugle enables developers to enter search text based on the function that you are looking to accomplish (e.g., "internationalization"). You'll get not only a bunch of code snippets that deliver that function, but also a description of what that function is. If the user searches on a code string (e.g., "StringTemplateGroup"), then he or she will get back links to source code files that use that particular string. Clicking into any link will open up the source code, which can be searched in outline form or tagged. (Disclosure note: Omidyar Network is an investor in Krugle.)
Jitterbit Open Edition is an open source integration environment. Users can access the experience of a community when defining integration processes. Though the company stated that most users are business analysts rather than developers, the demo delved quickly into function tags. The idea is for non-developers to be able to accomplish many of the common tasks that they need, thereby driving the deployment of information applications.
IPswap is a marketplace for code. As the company says "even the ice cream machine is built on open source." The segmenting of user needs into I Buy, I Sell, I Want, and I Build is simple but brilliant. If you have a business idea, you can post it online in a search for developers to help you build it; alternatively, if you are looking to buy software you can put it onto the site as part of a community wish list of consumer requests. Developers can collaborate and take advantage of templated developer agreements. I loved the idea, and if the site hits critical mass it will become a real boon for entrepreneurs.
Tags: christine herron christine.net space jockeys demo 2006 jitterbit krugle ipswap technology open source
