Should software developers fear Facebook, Apple?

It's hard to think of Apple and Facebook as obstructions to innovation and the free flow of information, but that's exactly what the companies could become one day, according to Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard law professor and a proponent of free speech on the Web.

Apple and Facebook have generated lots of consumer satisfaction by each creating environments where third-party developers can tailor software for the iPhone or Facebook's social network. Part of their success is due to the quality control the companies maintain over the applications running on their platforms, Zittrain said. But he also worries that Apple and Facebook--as well as other companies that might be tempted to follow their lead--will begin to exert more control over independent software development than ever before. He's skeptical this would be good for anyone.

In an interview with CNET News.com last week, Zittrain said his fears were stoked recently when Apple and Facebook each made news for booting software apps off their platforms.

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Serena launches free requirements-visualization tool for development

Serena Software Inc. unveiled a visualization tool aimed at lessening the long-standing requirements battles between business users and IT by offering simulations of how applications will work -- before developers even start writing any code.

The new Serena Prototype Composer, which is free, is a requirements-visualization tool that can allow business analysts to simulate design forms and workflows to show how applications will look and function. That allows end users to work with a prototype as if it were a delivered application to verify that it meets requirements, Serena said.

Kelly Shaw, a strategic analyst at Serena, noted that the tool is aimed at eliminating some of the frustration of developers related to interpreting business requirements and building applications to meet those needs. Shaw, who worked in application development for more than 20 years, noted that "the business could not ever figure out how to give us good requirements. They would come to us with really vague requirements."

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Newsmaker: Debating the morality behind software development

Newsmaker In the long history of software development--let's loosely mark the starting point around the time of the ENIAC--code writers have dealt with a myriad of technical and business challenges. It's fair to say they've also not had to confront questions of morality or ethics about how governments later deploy their finished work.

Until now.

Grady Booch, the inventor of the Unified Modeling Language, says those days of splendid isolation are--and should be--coming to an end.

Booch was the first chief scientist at Rational Software when it began in 1981. He kept the job after IBM bought the company in 2003 when he was also elevated to the rank of IBM fellow.

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Offshoring hits demand for UK software developers

The jobs market for software development in the UK is shrinking, according to research by IT staffing firm ReThink Recruitment.

It said that the proportion of new IT jobs created in software development had fallen to 28.5% from 34.3% a year ago.

And it said the proportion of new jobs being created in IT support roles had shrunk from 24% to 21.9% over the same period.

ReThink said the drop-off indicated that offshoring was affecting the IT market in the UK, since software development and IT support are both functions that are commonly offshored.

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