Web development: fast, loose and cheap
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New tools make it cheaper and easier to get a business online. It's no longer about building a hand-crafted website from scratch to ensure it does everything your business needs. It's now about creating your business' presence in the various online services it needs, and making use of higher-level programming tools.
On Patch Monday this week we look at how web development has changed in response to different tools, ranging from content management systems like WordPress, community management tools like Ning and pre-built online stores for e-commerce, to the higher-level open-source software tools like Ruby on Rails, cloud storage and more.
Our guests are two web developers. Grant Newton is from Morgan Creative, a small digital agency in Sydney that specialises in agile development. And Lachlan Hardy is now the developer advocate for Australian cloud computing provider Ninefold.
Even finding the people you need is now easier and cheaper, thanks to online marketplaces for labour. One of the most successful is the Australian firm Freelancer.com, which recently posted its one millionth project — along the way earning $85 million. Founder and CEO Matt Barrie explains how the global arbitrage of labour will transform societies in the developing world and eventually result in us all having our own personal network of online freelancers assisting us.
There's also my usual look at some of last week's news headlines.
To leave an audio comment on the program, Skype to stilgherrian, or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.
Running time: 37 minutes, 47 seconds.