This weekend, I had the opportunity to moderate (which is a bit of a stretch) a panel discussion on Web 2.0 and the future of software development at Camp Hern. Camp Hern is an informal gathering of mid-career executives and seasoned business leaders that takes place in various locales every year. This year’s event took place from August 28-30 in Chicago, IL.

Our expert panelists for the discussion were Jason Fried, of 37 Signals (developer of BaseCamp), and Chris Baggott, of Compendium Blogware (and one of the founders of ExactTarget).  The discussion was highly interactive and felt a lot more like a casual conversation, rather than a typical panel discussion. We gathered around an outdoor fireplace, at our host’s home in downtown Chicago, and enjoyed a spirited dialog in the gorgeous late August weather. The conversation ranged from the impact of cloud computing on software development to emerging pricing models in the Software as a Service (SaaS) space – with countless interesting digressions thrown in for good measure.

Jason had some interesting and provocative thoughts on the notion of “free” as a viable business model. Essentially, his message was that nothing is free and even if the consumer is not paying for a product or service, somebody else is – namely advertisers. He went on to say that if advertisers are paying, then advertisers become the customer, not the end user. The flaw in this model, he shared, is that the experience that is delivered is tailored to the paying customer (the advertisers) not the end user (the person using the software). This scenario creates an environment where the users’ “needs” are often ignored or, at best, secondary to the “needs” of the advertiser — see our recent post on user needs for some corresponding thoughts.

Chris shared interesting insights on how few developers are required to create great software relative to the past. Specifically, he talked about how today his firm employs 4 full time developers (a fraction of his staff), whereas five years ago it would have required 40 full time developers, and 10 years ago it would have required many times more. The take away being, that today it is possible to build great software for a fraction of the cost of what would have been required in the past. This is hardly a secret, but hearing concrete examples of this phenomenon from someone that has done it both ways was really enlightening.

We are extremely grateful to Jason and Chris for taking the time out of their hectic schedules to spend the day with us in Chicago and share a bit of their knowledge and experience with the Camp Hern attendees. Additionally, I’d like to thank Gary McCullough, the President and CEO of Career Education Corp, for participating in the panel discussion “Driving Execution” and Bob Compton, the President and CEO of Vontoo, for being both a panelist and sharing his film 2 Million Minutes with the group.

Postscript:
I’ll be posting some notes from our keynote speaker, Harry Kraemer, the former CEO of Baxter International, in the coming days. He shared some really insightful thoughts on the four essential qualities of a leader.