Re: slightly off-topic: support open source for publically-funded research

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "GR" == glen e p ropella <address@hidden> writes:

GR> We want to get to the point where we can say we're using the
GR> "Tektronix XYZ", instead of having to say, RTFSC; because it is at
GR> that point where software is providing leverage instead of
GR> obstruction to the research.

I have never bought into the whole [Cathedral and] Bazaar thing that
so many in the open source community advocate.  Designing and
debugging is often hard work, and there are few projects where
hundreds or thousands of loosely-affiliated unskilled people cooperate
to accomplish technical tasks.  There are some people that you can
tell to RTFSC, but most people won't try.  For example, there are
handful of people that can investigate and debug GCC problems.  The
skills required take time to build, and it isn't enough to just have a
lot of people "looking".  So, I too am skeptical of the idea that just
forcing people to publish source code for their models and instruments
will accomplish much. 

I'd even go so far as to say that a researcher that invests a lot of
time in tool development, is entitled to exploit those tools to avoid
others coming along and parasitically scooping them.  Later, if such a
researcher fails to publish an adequate description of their tools (to
the extent they are novel), then they are risking their academic
credibility anyway (cold fusion).  If a researcher doing ABM makes a
big tangle of code that does "interesting" things, but refuses to
share the code or describe in detail the mechanism, they fully deserve
a good beating by their peers.  At least if they were forced to
publish the code, the big tangle could be seen for what it was..



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