Yesterday's buzz around Sprout, reminded me of a pattern I've been noticing.

It seems there's potentially a totally new population of "conceptual programmers" that could be created from a more widely accessible tool-set that operates above the raw code type of engineering. Historically, the craft of software engineering has been confined solely to those who could speak the language. But increasingly, new applications are being made available that open the door for more people to innovate without knowing a scrap of code.

Tools like Sprout, Yahoo Pipes, and Popfly allow people to combine ideas to create their own functionality. Now, hypothetically, I could create an application that combined my friends from Facebook, pictures from Flickr, maps from Google and feeds I've created in Yahoo Pipes. These apps are still too geeky for the masses but they signal significant change.

I love the idea behind this and hope that more and more applications are made available that make it even easier for folks to experiment with combining code-free concepts. The more people who can gain access to tools that help them realize their ideas, the better it is for all of us. That's not to say everyone would do a good job, they wouldn't. I mean, Microsoft Word is available to everyone, it doesn't mean that the stuff that winds up in it is worth anything.

Reminds me a bit of when books were finally not the property of the rich or the church.