As software development becomes more transparent and companies focus more on helping users to leverage and integrate multiple tools and platforms there is a growing divide in the community. This division is between those that understand how to contribute, compete, and make money off of their software development efforts and those who want to sit back and get paid to tinker around with protocols, formats, and watch others ship software based on those ideas to users. Many times, the technical and engineering contributions of those that are not trying to make money from their efforts far outweighs the contribution of those trying to leverage the ideas to make a profit. The proliferation of XML formats, Web services standards and other techniques for exchanging and leveraging data on the Web has driven a large community of developers to work together to improve the technology. Many people are getting paid for their work, but some contribute without getting paid. The question is this- who should take the blame when this happens?

When I see complaints from people that they’re not compensated for their efforts or that they haven’t been given enough credit there is always a common thread. That thread is that those complaining are not an active part of the chain of events, organizations and resources that deliver value to end users (the kind of value that people will pay for). This industry is littered with the names of people that made great contributions and never saw the benefits. But for all of those names, there is still a significant group of people that DID find a way to capitalize on their efforts.

If I’m a developer that comes up with original ideas for software that benefits users I have a few options to help me deliver this to the community. I can work on my ideas alone with the hopes of selling them to a company. I can also work on them as part of a company that recognizes my contribution and my value to that organization. Yet another option is to take my partially implemented ideas to the community and get their assistance and support in forming them. I can also go around and talk to people about how to use my ideas to help them be successful in their business endeavors. If I do that, do they “owe” me for those efforts? Should they pay me for evangelizing my ideas (that are not subject to IP protection)? Am I creating anything or simply providing feedback as part of a broader community?

There is a marketplace of ideas at work in the software development community. If I set up a “booth” in this market but fail to charge people for my services, that’s my problem. If you’re a software developer in this community contributing to formats, protocols, standards and applications that drive interest from end users, you have to figure out how to get paid for your efforts. How do you become a more integral part of delivering a user experience that people will pay for or that companies will pay you to help deliver. You have to figure this out- no one else will do it for you. If you work with groups of people or companies as part of these efforts, you need to come to an understanding very early in the process as to how you’ll be compensated.

I think it is a shame that so many creative people feel cheated because they contribute to a community in an a loosely structured way, don’t tie themselves into the “value chain”, and then (obviously) don’t get paid. They have no one to blame but themselves. There is lesson here for developers- don’t work on a handshake and don’t expect to be paid unless you can show your value and tie yourselves into the chain of activities that delivers value to end users. This is “Business 101″ for software developers.

UPDATE- I’ve been asked if this was a personal dig against Dave. The answer is no. But his post did spark the thoughts that led to this post. Admittedly this is a subtle distinction, but I think it is important to note.