Ghost of Midnight

Clay Shirky and software development

I had the pleasure of chatting with Clay Shirky about Front Porch Forum after a talk he gave a couple months ago.  Now, I just watched the video of his presentation at Supernova 2007 and the following quote struck me…

Standing from today, looking towards the future, you will make more accurate predictions about software, and, in this web-driven world, about services, if you ask yourself not “what’s the business model?” but rather “do the people who like it take care of each other?”  That turns out to be the better predictor of longevity.

Now, he was talking mostly about open source software development, but I find encouragement for our efforts with Front Porch Forum too.  In fact, the people who like FPF do often take care of each other… as neighbors supporting neighbors.  In a way, this cuts to the core of our early success.