There are some special things about music bands that would be wonderful to capture in software development. Musicians get together to develop ideas and create new things because it's what they enjoy doing. They're typically not in it for the money, and no music group ever needs VC funding. Their songs bring joy to people's lives, and they build up a fan base. Sometimes, they adopt public personas and nicknames that are removed from reality.
To my knowledge, no one does software this way. But why not? You could easily replace "developer" for "musician" in the sentences above, and they would still make sense.
Here's my proposal: I want to create a software band. Instead of a drummer, we'll have a graphics developer. Instead of bass guitar, we'll have AI. We'd come up with innovative entertainment applications (I'm not saying "games" specifically because I think that's too limiting... for example, flying toasters are (were?) cool, but they're not a game).
Sure, there's Rockstar Games, which selected that appellation because they saw themselves as rock stars of the software world. But in reality, they're a company of hard-core game developers who could likely work into the wee hours of the night. To my knowledge, none of them has a public-facing persona or a fan club. And Rockstar Games releases titles that are more akin to major motion pictures than albums.
I'm imaging something much more... indie. More low-key - I don't believe in programming without sleep, I believe in doing amazingly awesome things that are actually within the realm of reasonable work. And, sure, let's have a fan club! Or at least a MySpace page.
A music album typically contains anywhere from 10 to 18 tracks. We could release software albums that contain 5 to 6 apps. Many musicians make their MP3s available on their webpage; we could have app downloads.
It seems to me that most album art doesn't actually contain musical instruments on the cover. More often, it's pictures of the band, or some picture or design. Likewise, I wouldn't expect us to be so geeky as to put computer material on our album cover. The day has finally come when programming isn't necessarily geeky - it's something that people realize brings enjoyment to their lives.
It would also be wonderful to collaborate with aspiring musicians and artists. We can provide another means of distribution for their work: background music, or graphics in an app. Likewise, through their established relationships, they can serve as a means of distribution for our stuff. We'd be kindred spirits, those other aspiring artists and ourselves, and we'd share openly and without needing to pay for rights to use each other's stuff.
If this sounds like a neat concept to you, let me know. I have a couple of software ideas that might work for this, and I'm sure you will, too. Let's see if we can get some top-of-class developers together and have some fun entertaining people!