When Your Freedom Depends on an App

This type of situation is the strongest case I've seen for a software-engineering certification on the level of the ones for civil-engineering.

The trouble with software is that a lot of it is really unimportant, and some of it starts out as unimportant and becomes really important over time, and there's an entire continuous spectrum between the extremes. Whereas the distinction between projects that do and don't need to be regulated is much more clear-cut when it comes to physical engineering, mostly because of cost barriers.

But we need something. I'm sure that half the people on HN could easily make an app like this that wasn't shoddy and bug-ridden. Heck, it's possible the original developers could have if they'd put forth their full effort. But as long as these contracts are going to the lowest bidder, and as long as there's no meaningful bar to placing a bid in the first place, digital bridges will keep collapsing.