One of the more fascinating trends of the internet is to reuse what other people have done. I remember taking an “Internet Programming” class and the remarkable thing was they encouraged use to use other people’s code (javascript). Previous programming classes I had were about writing your own code – but this one revealed the reality of the internet that we build on what others have written.
I don’t think I could do what I do today without google – the ability to search for what others have done, have learned, etc. Just now I realized I’m up to 15 active plug-ins in my wordpress blog. I haven’t written any of these – but they were written by many people over the years. The few websites I do for other people use tools like Gallery 2, phpBB3 – all open source community developed tools. All I’m providing is the labor to install, customize and support them – I didn’t right a single bit of code. It’s such a different but potentially revolutionary way of creating things – that again might not have been possible without the easy sharing of ideas on the internet.
