The Cathedral and The Bazaar

This is a great analogy of how the programming life-cycle runs and works, or can run and work. Up until open-source and the internet began to evolve, it was practically impossible to create a program and work on a task in a bazaar-type atmosphere, or ... style... for lack of a better word. But once the internet became a more widely-used environment, it gave software and computing an edge that it had never been given before. The only ones that were able to band together a large amount of people to work on projects and programs that would, or could, be worth any money were those who already had enough money to find those experts, give them a workspace, and fund them. With the use of the internet, the workspace could be their parents basement, the expert could be a 12 year old kid who's been reading up on programming since they were 6, and the funding could be their parents paycheque which pays the internet bill. The possibilities of what could be are limitless now, if there are enough people who want to contribute. And...with this many people in the world, and with their inexpensiveness of computers in this day and age, there will always be someone.

No longer does the programming life-cycle have to be supremely organized or routine. No longer does the boss have to tell their programmer exactly what they want or does the client have to change their mind a million times to get something that somewhat resembles what they think they want. Now, with the source-code widely available for programs that are desirable to whoever the audience may be, the audience can change the code based on what they want and what they feel would be useful in that software. It may not be 100% organized and there may be bugs in the software, there may be a revision number 1.01390842109482, but it is every step of the way that helps the people working on the software to truly understand what is going on, it is those bugs that make people see what's wrong with the software and how it can be fixed, and it's that reparation that makes the software developers stronger, more knowledgable, and be able to further themselves, their work, their skills, and their software.

Although it may not be orderly, although when software gets published it may not be in perfect working order, and although there is very little consistency and routine in the life-cycle of open source, it is pure brilliance, my friends. Pure brilliance.