Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

An artist who programs speaks up

Author:Patrick Connors
Posted:8/23/2000; 8:55:28 PM
Topic:Next survey: Are you an open source developer?
Msg #:20059 (In response to 19977)
Prev/Next:20058 / 20060

Patrick Connors here. I earn my living as a programmer, both independent and employed (at the moment in the insurance industry). I write both open source (Web tools - on my own nickel) and proprietary (on the job) software.

And I write music, which is also software, and open-source.

Fundamentally, you could call me an artist. Sometimes with code, sometimes with music and performance.

As a musician, actor and programmer (in no particular order), I've noticed something these all have in common: These are professions practiced by relatively few skilled people, whose products are used by many people, most of whom have no idea what goes into a given work, be it software, learning a performance, or any other art.

So the model that works best for me is based on presence and my time.

If you take any significant chunk of my time, you pay me for it. Whether for a show, software, or a performance, I set a price - not necessarily in money - and I get it. That pays for my creative time. I would that it were otherwise, but that's the way the economy works.

For me (and I suspect many of you), the joy is in the creative effort, so that's where the time is spent. Once that's done, the work is out there, and it does no good sitting in my closet. So I try to make it available. I don't always succeed.

If you play my music or run my code, you'll also get my name and contact information. Maybe I'll make some money, from direct royalties or from my share of a CD; maybe I won't. But my name is out there, and folks who want me can find me.

My favorite pay-for-software schemes I have seen are all based on subscriptions. You buy Frontier for a year; you get support. At the end of the year you still have the software. You've contributed to the creation of more software. After all, even old copies of Frontier still work. This model works other places, too: Jerry Pournelle uses it to support his Chaos Manor website, for example. And now Steven King is trying it with writing.

And y'know what: they'll succeed. History's on their side.

Any of you read Sherlock Holmes? That started out in magazines. The work survives, and Arthur Conan Doyle died well-known and well-off. Lots more examples out there.

So: Let's find the best ways to do the following: - Pay creative people living wages for the use of their talents. - Distribute their work far and wide - Make whatever we come up with palatable to the vast majority of non-creative people out there. (This is the hard part!)

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