Why, the Christian Science Monitor asks, did Google recently open a research lab in Krakow? Answer: So Microsoft and Intel don't grab all the good programmers. The same thinking has brought other big companies to Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and other Eastern European cities in search of programming talent.

Eastern Europe is definitely attracting attention as a software development hot spot. In fact, for sheer intensity of attention to software development, Eastern Europe outshines the and Western Europe. "The software industry in Eastern Europe," says Bulgaria-based Ivanka Panayotova of MindFusion Ltd., "as a portion of the entire business sector, is larger than in most other countries worldwide...definitely bigger than one would find in a developed country."

But it would be a mistake to see Eastern Europe as simply the next outsourcing target, or as the next . What's happening now in software development in Eastern Europe is unique and important—and complex.
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