A new developereconomy.

There's nothing more inspiring than watching developers contribute their time and expertise to open-source software ("OSS"). As developers, we know OSS serves as the backbone of the modern internet while playing an important role in our daily routines.

But, we also have to recognize that industries change. In today's world, there are over 100M developers with millions of OSS projects to navigate and plenty of Artificial Intelligence tools to wrangle. And yet, it's still the wild west out there. Said otherwise, it's a beautiful mess.

As a developer, this means a primary part of your job is learning to navigate that ecosystem. Sure, the best projects rise to the top, but it's quite possible that the tools you invested in yesterday may not be around today and there are a dozen other things that could go wrong at any point in time. This is partially due to the rapid innovation cycle but it's also due to the lack of time and resources that OSS authors enjoy.

Generally speaking, this is why over 99% of developers consume OSS while less than 1% of developers contribute. Most developers don't have the time or resources since the expectation is that you'll work for free. And, if you do contribute to OSS, you're then burdened with bugs, issues, contributors, and updates in an exponential fashion. As a result, most OSS projects are built and paid for by major corporations as a form of lead-generation toward other services.

And then there's AI which is going to crawl your work, study it, repackage it, sell it as it's own, and funnel the proceeds back to major corporations. All while taking your job. From our perspective, this has created an untenable situation. Why are developers giving away their IP so freely for corporate gain? And why isn't your time being respected the same as any other industry?

At Playbooks, we believe this dynamic has created a massive inefficiency in the software industry. Creators aren't being paid for their time. And consumers are suffering because of it. Sure, a rising tide lifts all boats and we're generally optimistic. But, the software industry needs an alternative to open (and closed) source software that's rooted in supply / demand economics while offering the same great experience we're all used to.

This is Playbooks. A digital marketplace where anyone can buy, sell, and exchange code. Our platform offers an alternative to open (and closed) source software where developers can monetize their time and expertise in a collaborative and protected environment. We call it Hybrid Source Software and we think it's the starting point for a new developer economy.

Eric Hubbell

CEO / Founder