Guido at Google

[Robert Kern]

bearophileHUGS at lycos.com wrote:
> This is interesting. With more Python time in Guido's hands maybe Py
> 3.0 is a bit closer... :-)
> 
> I don't know if this is a silly idea:
> A small part of the wealth of a modern state is probably determined by
> the software it uses/produces, and a small part of this software is
> open source or free. This free sofware is used by a lot of people, and
> they probably use it to work too, etc.
> For a modern government, paying a salary to few (20?) very good open
> source programmers can make the whole society "earn" maybe 10 or more
> times that money... (The money given from EU to PyPy can be an example
> of this).

No, it's not a silly idea. Dean Baker, the Co-Director the Center for Economic
and Policy Research, has proposed for the U.S. government to establish a
Software Developer's Corps. For $2 billion per year, it could fund about 20,000
developers to make open source software. Much of that software would be directly
usable by local, state, and federal governments and thus pay back some, all, or
more of the investment (Dean estimates more). In addition, the general public
also benefits directly.

http://www.cepr.net/publications/windows_2005_10.pdf

-- 
Robert Kern
robert.kern at gmail.com

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
 Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
  -- Richard Harter