Bonum Certa Men Certa

ES: El Auge y la Caída del Desarrollador Independiente

Por Craig Hockenberry

Original en: http://furbo.org/

(ODF | PDF)

Soy lo suficientemente viejo para recordar la vida antes de Internet. Yo sé lo que es el desarrollo de software con y sin una red en todo el mundo.



Poco ha cambiado con el proceso de desarrollo de software desde la década de 1980. Por supuesto que ha habido mejoras en nuestras herramientas y técnicas, pero el acto de básico de la creación de productos de software es muy similar. Lo qué ha cambiado dramáticamente en los últimos 30 años es la forma en que distribuimos nuestras creaciones.

En los días en que el software era distribuido en medios magnéticos, como los rollos de cintas, casetes o discos, costaba MUCHO dinero hacer llegar el producto a un cliente. Como resultado, las grandes empresas y fabricantes de software fueron los únicos con los recursos financieros para conseguir estas aplicaciones en un canal de distribución. Había muy pocos desarrolladores independientes de software, y los que sí existian tenían operaciones muy pequeñas.

Entonces llegó Internet y lo cambió todo. La distribución fue de repente barata.

Recuerdo una conversación con mi buen amigo Cabel Sasser [http://panic.com/] hace unos años. Él y yo estábamos recordando nuestra primera incursión en la distribución en línea y se sorprendieron de que hemos tenido la misma reacción inicial: "!Ay Carajo! !Podemos poner nuestro software en el Internet y la gente realmente va a comprarlo!"

Muchos otros desarrolladores tenido esta misma experiencia y comenzaron a salir de las grandes empresas para trabajar por su cuenta. Hacían una buena vida, mientras que contaban con la libertad de trabajar en su pasión fue una gran vida[http://daringfireball.net/2005/10/the_life].

Ahora va la corriente principal de distribución es con la App Store. Y ya está empezado a cambiar las vidas y los negocios de los desarrolladores de software independientes. En la superficie, todo se ve bien. Hay más clientes, mayores ingresos, y muchos grandes productos nuevos.

Sin embargo, esta mayor distribución también está poniendo en riesgo nuestro negocio: hay gente en este nuevo mercado que afirman el derecho a una parte de nuestro trabajo. Ya sea por una patente [http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/patent-lawsuits/texas-eastern-district-court/76009/lodsys-llc-v-combay-inc/summary/] o una infracción de los derechos de autor [http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/copyright-lawsuits/new-york-southern-district-court/69655/kevin-harper-v-iconfactory-inc/summary/], los desarrolladores están descubriendo que este nuevo costo de los litigios llega a ser oneroso.

Lo peor es que estas infracciones puede suceder con cualquier parte de nuestros productos o sitios web: cosas que usted nunca [http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=100387] se imaginaría [http://www.widgetpress.com/defense] ser una violación de la propiedad intelectual de otra persona. Se siente que la codificación es un campo minado.

Desde nuestra experiencia, es muy posible que TODOS los ingresos de un producto puede ser consumido por los gastos legales. Después de años de verter su corazón y alma en este producto, es devastador. Te hace preguntarte €¿por qué diablos estás en este negocio: cuando no pueden pagar los salarios con las ventas de tus productos, no tiene sentido su construcción en el primer lugar.

Por lo tanto, al igual que en los días de los medios magnéticos, el desarrollador independiente ahora se encuentra consigo mismo en un punto donde se vuelve a convertirse en muy caro para distribuir sus productos a un mercado masivo. Esta vez, el canal de distribución en sí es muy barato, pero los gastos accesorios, tanto económica como emocionalmente, son MUY altos.

Y, por supuesto, sólo las grandes empresas y los editores pueden correr con estos gastos. Mi temor es que es sólo cuestión de tiempo antes de que los desarrolladores encuentren los riesgos y gastos prohibitivos y van a refugiarse en la seguridad de una organización mayor. Vamos a comenzar de nuevo en el cuadrado uno.

Con los años muchas de las aplicaciones más vendidos han sido creados por desarrolladores independientes, a partir de Steve Demeter y Trism [http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-18/tech/iphone.game.developer_1_trism-iphone-app-store] en el lanzamiento de la App Store, y continuando hasta nuestros días con títulos como Tiny Wings (Alitas) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_wings] de Andreas Illiger.

La pérdida de ese tipo de talento e innovación a un sistema jurídico es un verdadero crimen.

Traducción hecha por Eduardo Landaveri, Administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

Please let's thank Craig Hockenberry & Gedeon Maheux of the IconFactory, for allowing us to translate & publish Craig's post ("The Rise and Fall of The Independent Developer")

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