Free business idea:

1. Get hold of a South by Southwest Interactive schedule.  (All you really need is the schedule, although I recommend actually attending the conference, for a variety of reasons that have little to do with technology).

2. Glance through the panel listings until you notice that one programming language is repeated more than a few times.  (You should see it listed with an ironic title, like “Technology X: 5 Reasons it will Get You Laid More In 2010″ or with a technical title that is designed to scare away marketing people: “Technology X; Database Architectures for a Semantic Environment”)

3. Note the technology that gets mentioned the most.  Then, build a landing page that positions you as an expert in the field.  (It helps to mish-mash popular programming terms on this landing page. Try “Technology X On Rails” or “Standards-based Technology X.)

4. Get your first project from an unsuspecting customer.  (it helps if said customer is from a large corporation and is looking for this technology because he also attended the “Get Laid More Often…” panel mentioned above)

5. Post a Craigslist, eLance, and/or oDesk ad for Technology X.  If you’re in India, hire people who claim to know this technology.

6. Screw your client over, when it’s revealed just a week before launch, that the developer you hired also attended a panel at SXSW, and believed that his attendance at said panel qualified him for your project. (unfortunately, it wasn’t even the technical one)

7. Go to SXSW next year and repeat.

This is stupid.

Yet, this is essentially what many development shops do.  We wait for projects that require new technology, instead of investing in them early.   We hope, unreasonably, that a client will approach us with the perfect project: one that is simple enough to learn as we go, but still challenging enough that our team emerges with new-found expertise.

This is a mistake, and every year, it’s killing your potential to increase revenue.

In 2010, Technology X is HTML 5.  There was serious buzz about it at SXSW, and from what we’ve been seeing and reading (sorry Flash-Or-Bust people), the buzz is justified.

In between industry-sponsored happy hours at SXSW (free booze+great conversation being one of the many reasons I recommend you attend), we met with the CEO of a medium-sized Indian development shop.  Among other things, he was complaining about the high price of iPhone developers in India (CEOs of Indian development shops have two countries to complain about).

And, he’s right.   A few of our best iPhone developers do indeed command salaries comparable to those of their US counterparts.  Which makes sense: even frickin’ Amway has an expensive iPhone app.

So, the reason to work with an Indian iPhone developer is not cost.  It’s to address the general scarcity of iPhone developers worldwide, which still generally makes sense business-wise.

However, if iPhone development still makes sense, think about the advantages if you invest early.

Offshore investment in new, upcoming technologies has BOTH scarcity and cost advantages. (not to mention being great for morale: young recruits are eager to dive into something new and exciting; seasoned developers are bored and would love the opportunity to lead a cutting-edge initiative).

Yet, over and over again, we see Indian companies wait until their clients are ready for new technologies before they begin to invest in them, which is too late, if you are interested in serious cost advantages.

Invest early, and you might even have a little less to complain about next year.

Tags: HTML 5