Prerequisites, effects and opportunities of Internet-distributed software development

Abstract

The rapid growth of the number of its users makes the Internet apromising opportunity as far as business-to-customer relations areconcerned. Commercial Internet use was started by information technologyrelated enterprises advertising their products. Nowadays, both productsand services are advertised. To date, a variety of businesses arepresent on the Internet. Corresponding examples for the service industryare travel agencies, consulting firms, insurance companies, and lawfirms. Beyond making use of the Internet for the sale of products andservices there is an opportunity of a completely different nature. Ifregarded as a means of production, the Internet could be used as adistributed development platform for software products. This paperoutlines a new form of software development and focuses on its economicimpacts. Furthermore, the results of an Internet questionnaire arepresented.