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The first story, "CodePlex: Microsoft's Latest Entry into Code Sharing," describes Microsoft's new environment for developers to create, host, and manage projects throughout the development cycle. The second story, "New Funding for Open Source Development," looks at the Open Source Development Labs' program for awarding fellowships to open source developers.

Reinventing the wheel is usually considered a waste of time and resources, and in the software development community, reusing code that's already been built and tested can be golden. Rikki Kirzner, research director of application development and deployment at technology analyst firm IDC, says there's always been an attempt to create code so that it's reusable. With resources tight in today's economy, a renewed interest in making the most of legacy code is spurring various attempts to recycle software assets. Kirzner notes the development of aspect-oriented programming and points to the desire to reuse software components. A consortium of software development and component management tool companies, including IBM Rational, Flashline, Logic Library, Borland, and Componentsource, have banded together to hammer out an outline of common conventions for packaging software assets that makes it easier to manage and reuse A major benefit of asset reuse is saving money. Kirzner says that most studies of companies that have implemented a reusability mandate have actually found a massive savings in the second and third iteration.