the prosumer developer

I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately around the likes of Coghead and other Do-It-Yourself (DIY) coding apps. To date most of it has been the developer community dismissing the idea that anyone outside the ivory tower could possibly have the mastery skill sets required to create a software application on their own. Well guess what guys, the party’s over.

So far this whole thing has been analyzed from the wrong angle. Developers are thinking that non-programmers are going to set-out and build the next generation killer app. Which, as has been pointed out is simply ridiculous. Even if the software could support it, the average Joe doesn’t understand architecture and design. But this doesn’t mean that we throw the baby out with the bath water.

Let’s step back and look at this from the consumer level-up vs. the developer level-down. Personally, I have been waiting for something that’s a notch above FrontPage but not as developer centric as say Visual Studio.

New technology creates new niches.The advent of affordable, super mega-pixel cameras created a niche for the ”prosumer photographer”. These cameras function right above point-and-shoot, but just below what would be required by a professional that wants to make money at his trade. I don’t recall seeing any headlines that mentioned any Professional Photographers loosing their jobs or their market shrinking due to the entry of the Prosumer. In fact, those that understood the market capitalized on it by offering tutorials, classes and equipment sales to this new class of users.

Another example of this prosumer market entry is Legal Zoom and other DYI law services. A great deal of attorneys view the services offered on that site as low lying fruit that they don’t want to deal with anyway. This frees them up to charge more for higher-end and specialized services.

So back to DIY Coding. Coghead claims 13,000 in their beta program. Certainly not Google-plex beta numbers, but nothing to scoff at either. What it tells me is that they have people’s interest and attention. If they execute this correctly, they could create an entirely new market here.

So, my message here is ”Mr. Developer, tear down this wall!”  Your jobs aren’t going anywhere. But, if I were in your shoes, here’s what I would do:

• Instead of emphasizing the rules and limitations to what can’t be done with DIY tools, evangelize what CAN be done that would make your day easier (all developers like their day to be easier). 
• Offer services and consulting around that. Prepackaged, vertical templates will be a hit. You only have to look to Salesforce.com appexchange to see that.

What Coghead essentially has done here is create the prosumer developer.