I thought the idea sounded vaguely familiar then I realised where from.
It's the starting point of something that could look a lot like the medieval guild system (something that I've often thought might work pretty well for programmers).
It's the starting point of something that could look a lot like the medieval guild system (something that I've often thought might work pretty well for programmers).
A number of its users and associated "shops" have worked very hard to outline, start, and work on a suite of enabling software for this idea.
OP et al, if you are interested in pursuing this, I humbly suggest you reach out to those people.
Drupal's roots are in __social__ software, because it has long been unique in its multi-user capabilities; thus it drew people who were apt to work together.
[0] http://aaronwinborn.com/blogs/aaron/bylaws-open-drupal-guild... [1] https://groups.drupal.org/guilds
I'm not a big Drupal fan (as a product I find it had a lot of downsides though I've read that 7 and 8 have fixed many of those).
As long as it's voluntary of course.
I doubt that many programmers would agree to 7 years of service under a master either ;).
One of the reasons why calling it a Guild rather than a Union is that Union has a lot of negative connotations in a lot of countries (here in the UK for example the Unions have a bad reputation for been difficult to work with and older people remember their role in the late 70's).
Also Union has connotations of "Union Shop" which is definitely something that a lot of people regard as negative.
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I'm thinking more of an organisation that exists to protect programmers, represent our interests publicly, has internal standards and recommendations as par for the course, I doubt the old master/apprentice relationship would translate or for that matter the journeymen systems.
Here in the UK we have the British Computer Society which (theoretically) does something similar but in practice I'm not really sure that they actually do (and as an aside the two people I did know who had paid to join I wouldn't have employed to sweep up).
I'm not sure how well it would work out though since it strikes me as something with a high degree of cat herding built in :).
Of course, that depends on your political persuasion: a lot of us have sympathy for the union workers who were brutally crushed by Thatcher's government in the 80's. Speaking as a programmer who has been a union member in a previous job, I would be supportive of a programmer's union.
I personally think that Union's on the whole are probably a good thing (something has to exist to balance the power of capital) but that the UK model was fundamentally broken (I actually like the German model.
Is this a cultural thing? Because for me (west coast of Canada, in my 30's), the only connotation that comes with the term "Guild" is a historical protectionist organization that ensures only those in the Guild are allowed to practice that craft, membership is non-voluntary. It carries a connotation of extreme corruption as well.
Am I just not exposed to the modern usage of the term?
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnons_du_Tour_de_France