I’ve often thought that it would be interesting to see software teams do indie band style pictures along with their releases. I’d like to see the people who write my software. I know hundreds of people who release libraries and tools, apps, demos and games, drivers and converters and utilities–yet they never really show up.
Long after the death of the album as a physical medium, we still expect to see who made the sounds contained within the music. They are seated in a semi-circle, posed at different levels, wearing plaid; they have their backs to one another at the counter of a bar; they are lined up in a wheat field and captured with a hazed filter on the lens; they have neck beards or wear scarves; they want you to notice their glasses and have washed their hair and styled it in order to look like they haven’t; they do their best not to smile; they are arranged like the spokes of a wheel as the camera looks down from above on their laughing faces.
When I download version 1.3 of your software, I want an album cover. I want to feel like I’ve encountered something human, something created. I want to watch your style change over subsequent releases. I’d like to see some of what we know as ‘the band’ happen in software.
That’s what I’d do.
8 Comments
Fascinating idea. Lots of options. I have to add it to my list.
Are you saying there is going to be a mini photo shoot now every time something is released down at CDOT? Sounds awesome.
I think the guys in the 80’s got it:
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Business/images-4/bill-gates-young.jpg
http://www.decodedscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/steve-jobs.png
The idea is great, I’ll give it a try with my first release of my next project
While I agree with you (and Andrew), we have to confess that pop music is much more about everything else than simply music itself: it contains 10% self-expressionism, 10% egoism, 10% politics, 10% rebel, 10% business and so on, and last but not least 10% music. Now of course, the ratios differ from band to band, but anyone should admit that any of these aspects but the music involve the person as a creator (Dylan), a band which sometimes plays the main role in the zeitgeist (The Ramones, The Straglers, The Clash), a person, who is sexy enough to sell records (Elvis, Madonna), a band which is advertised as “these guys are just like you” (The Beatles). Or vice versa: there are performers who never put their face on the front cover (Pink Floyd, Joy Division), and even ones who play with this role, and hide themselves behind masks (The Residents). Itt all depends on the current viewpoint of the performer.
Now I can imagine some developers who are proud enough – maybe leading a which is just sold to Google or Apple –, or some “underground” coders who write their apps “for the community”, or even the heroes of the computer era – but we already know their faces (think of Gates, Torvalds, poor Jobs, Page, Zuckerberg, maybe even Knuth rings a bell for some old programmers). It’s OK, if the not-so-known group of coders show themselves on their page (like Pepperrell and his mates did it on Alfred App’s site), I really like this personal side of a company. But let’s be honest: in most of the cases coding is made for salary. Respect spreads in another way, and this way definitely differs from the one of the hippies and punks.
Next it’ll be limos and riders at conferences
. But yes tho. I always thought that’s what they were trying for here: http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/earlyapple/img/macdesignteam.jpg
@Royaljerry
“But let’s be honest: in most of the cases coding is made for salary” I think this is where you’re thinking of something different from me. I am in fact thinking of software that is necessarily made outside the economic models we tend to associate with “coder for hire.” That’s why I explicitly qualified bands as “indie bands.” Look at the examples you listed above, none of them are what I’d consider part of the group I was imagining. There are tons of band photos that have no one *anyone* knows in them, no one *sexy* enough to sell the record, etc.
I actually do know a lot of people, call them the ‘githubbers’ (thought it goes well beyond this), who are looking for street cred, who want to put something out there as a way to advance the “scene,” who are building on the work of their heroes, etc. I know they exist; I’m one of them.
Intriguing idea! I agree that there’s definitely a “feel ” similar to the indie music scene in the type of software projects epitomized by Github. It would be interesting to see people take your idea to heart.
A most excellent idea.
I’m imaging a sea of Popcorn and all the CDOT coders floating along in it.