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Is there a bright future for open software projects?

GerritM gmuller at worldonline.nl
Sun Dec 1 14:59:39 EST 2002 
"Courageous" <jkraska at san.rr.com> schreef in bericht
news:mulkuusqf2v2hol33kig1q6vui1r8f69oh at 4ax.com...
>
> >I have wondered why open-source software is not more common in
> >academia. The BSD and MIT licenses (just to name two) demonstrate that
> >universities are indeed common producers of open-source software, but
> >I am surprised that the academic world does not insist on
> >open-sourcing all software produced therein.
>
> Conflict of interests. The problem is that many universities are at least
> partly funded by private dollars, and now have vested interests in
> intellectual property. This is why you now see so many patents coming
> out of universities. It's really a travesty, a complete corruption of
> the open, sharing of knowledge that makes science work.
>
> C//
>
Open source is a tremendous opportunity from didactic point of view. Most
educational programs address only "toy" problems, small projects with few
people for a short time (months). Real world problems involve 100+ manyears
of software, which introduces many other concerns than the "toy" problems.
By realizing functionality in an open source environment you can confront
students with this 100+ manyear world. Results which are "good enough" could
flow back to the open source environment.

regards Gerrit

www.extra.research.philips.com/natlab/sysarch/
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