Gather round. This is the true story of a unique piece of software, a music-making tool called Nudel. The contribution rules are simple: Anyone can change Nudel’s code in any way they want. All changes are instantly deployed. There are no rules except the code of conduct. Anything can happen, and everything will go wrong.

This unusual approach to collaboration led to one of the strangest pieces of software known to humanity. Discover the play-by-play of how Nudel’s undo button was removed, or how pasting was outlawed. Find out what Nudel’s infamous “MSN Messenger mode” is, and learn about how Nudel became the first computer program in the world with its own weather system.

As an experiment, Nudel is now finished. It was ceremoniously destroyed by some of its creators as part of a performance this year.

But what can we learn from its different frame of thinking?

What can we bring into our own practices as developers?

And what practices should we absolutely not adopt?

What parts of Nudel should remain unresurrected?

"Jam-oriented programming" is the joke name of a new style of software development that is no joke at all. It adopts the practices and mentalities of an informal jam session to an extreme extent.

In a typical jam, there is no one in charge and anyone can make any sound they want at any time they choose. In jam-oriented programming, it's the same. Anyone can add, edit or delete code without any permission. Everyone is admin, nothing is certain and anything can happen. It sounds like chaos and it is. But it's also surprisingly successful, with entire music-making tools appearing overnight out of the multi-headed process and even a published academic paper to accompany it all.

How and why is this even possible? And what does it tell us about the way we collaborate as developers?

"Jam-oriented programming" is the joke name of a new style of software development that is no joke at all. It adopts the practices and mentalities of an informal jam session to an extreme extent.

In a typical jam, there is no one in charge and anyone can make any sound they want at any time they choose. In jam-oriented programming, it's the same. Anyone can add, edit or delete code without any permission. Everyone is admin, nothing is certain and anything can happen. It sounds like chaos and it is. But it's also surprisingly successful, with entire music-making tools appearing overnight out of the multi-headed process and even a published academic paper to accompany it all.

How and why is this even possible? And what does it tell us about the way we collaborate as developers?

"Jam-oriented programming" is the joke name of a new style of software development that is no joke at all. It adopts the practices and mentalities of an informal jam session to an extreme extent.

In a typical jam, there is no one in charge and anyone can make any sound they want at any time they choose. In jam-oriented programming, it's the same. Anyone can add, edit or delete code without any permission. Everyone is admin, nothing is certain and anything can happen. It sounds like chaos and it is. But it's also surprisingly successful, with entire music-making tools appearing overnight out of the multi-headed process and even a published academic paper to accompany it all.

How and why is this even possible? And what does it tell us about the way we collaborate as developers?