Community commentary: Encouraging open code in public procurement policies
Ben Beeson
beesond001 at hawaii.rr.com
Mon Feb 11 21:45:04 PST 2002
Aloha,
I can't resist this one. My $0.02 follows.
When it comes to research, the key thing is the ability to verify the
results. Any research paper worth the trouble to write (and read for
that matter) ought to outline pretty explicitly how the researcher(s)
arrived at their result. In fact, if after reading that paper, you do
not feel that you could replicate that study given sufficient resources,
then the research has failed to express the discovery of new knowledge.
This is because new knowledge isn't considered knowledge until it is
either independently verified or explained so well that others accept it
at face value. Usually problems with explaining the instrument and
method are vetted out during peer review, but not always. Those problems
not fixed during peer review are likely to be revisited later in 'the
public eye' unless the papers are revised to explain the process better.
I agree wholeheartedly that public science should be very open. That is
the only way to really expose the findings of research to the kind of
scrutiny it ultimately needs to succeed. One recent good example of the
type of scrutiny I refer to here is the selection process for the new
American Encryption Standard. Some may argue that not enough time was
offered for public scrutiny of this important tool, but the point is that
many learned scholars had and still have the opportunity to examine and
test the proposed algorithms, something that will ultimately lead to
increased public trust of the result of the selection process.
More and more, I believe that public things must be "public." The tax
payers should have the opportunity to see what they have bought. I don't
know if we can ever get there from here, but I think that all public
institutions should open their sources also.
Respectfully,
Ben
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
On 2/10/02, 10:54:48 AM, "Rod Gammon" <AEG-Inc at hawaii.rr.com> wrote
regarding [luau] Re: Community commentary: Encouraging open code in public
procurement policies:
> Aloha-
> My take, in reply to the comment at newsforge on requiring open source
> (subsequent to Warren's posted article):
> I am convinced that public science must be open source, this is the
basic,
> modern principle of accountability or verifiable results. How convinced?
My
> own scientific software is GPL (nlp stuff for Mandarin, try it you'll
like
> it.) So at the least NSF and universities should require open source from
> their researchers. As researchers (those of us here) we should demand our
> colleagues use open systems, just as we demand that they declare all
their
> other parameters in a study. In the case of universities that don't
require
> open and help patent such software- I urge each of you to join me in
> demanding a rebate check on our share of tax dollars enjoyed by those
> institutions. Why pay someone to develop something they will charge us
for
> later? Any free market capitalists in the house tonight? Now this is
> actually sort of in place already. Having worked on educational software
> under federal grant, many projects are granted to design an open
framework
> (e.g., testing apparatus) and then various units (particular tests) can
be
> later developed proprietary. It seems a standard model- open
infrastructure,
> proprietary content. But it is not widespread, to my knowledge. Ideas on
how
> to make it widespread?
> -rg
> ---
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