Comments on: True Nature of Open Source Debate: Open Source is not a business model, it is a platform

By: Open Source, Adoption And Whatever

Open Source, Adoption And Whatever — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:26:08 +0000

[...] seeing Open Source as a business model or a developmental model. Actually, Open Source is more of a philosophical platform than a monetizing strategy or development strategy. It offers the freedom to the users of the [...]

By: Making Money In Open Source: Does It Matter? | CloudAve

Making Money In Open Source: Does It Matter? | CloudAve — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:37:25 +0000

[...] response to a debate between various pundits on the true nature of Open Source, I had argued that Open Source is not a business model but a philosophical platform on top of which various business models play the game. In that blog post, I had compared Open [...]

By: Cloud Computing Is Not Killing Open Source Anywhere - A Response To Gartner | CloudAve

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:24:58 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Why do we still keep trying to justify open source? : business|bytes|genes|molecules

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:00:53 +0000

[...] keep trying to think of open source as a business model, when it should be better thought of as part of a platform strategy, and going forward just part of the fabric of the web.Related [...]

By: » Infrastructures are only one part of knowledge sharing » business|bytes|genes|molecules

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:12:01 +0000

[...] think businesses can be built on top of this are wrong. My friend Krish has written about Open Source being a platform, not a business model. In much the same way, the cyberinfrastructure in John’s article is a platform. The business [...]

By: mndoci

mndoci — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:20:29 +0000

Malformed sentence alert. Should have written the following

Yes, variability is an important concern, but tracking and being able to develop statistical models around the variation is more important than conditions themselves

By: Krish

Krish — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:43:18 +0000

Thanks Deepak. Shefaly, feel free to share your opinions. You can also check out Deepak’s blog at http://www.mndoci.com. He writes about Bioinformatics stuff, in case you are interested in that area.

By: mndoci

mndoci — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:13:44 +0000

The distributed model works quite well in the biological sciences. Collaborative research is pretty much part and parcel of the field including drug development. Yes variability is an important concern, but tracking it is more important than conditions themselves and being able to develop statistical models around the variation.

And if you just focus on software, the entire human genome project is an excellent example of a distributed project, as are many other projects on Whole Genome Association etc, where contributions come from everywhere.

And speaking about conditions. There is a reason there is such a clamor for open data these days. Being aware of small changes and conditions are very important and keeping those hidden only serves to muddy science.

Bit of a hurried reply. More later

By: Krish

Krish — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:47:10 +0000

Change of lab conditions and slight differences in reagents etc can yield totally different results.

I don’t see this technical limitation in this regard. It is easy to simulate the necessary conditions in the current day scenario. With all the advances we have, it is not a problem at all. In fact, I don’t see any technological limitations. I only see economic limitations here. If you have any specific scenario, which you think as a limiting factor, feel free to add. Any knowledge is useful in shaping our ideas. I will also ping my friend, who is a Ph.D. in biological sciences and who is now in the marketing side in a bioinformatics company. Let us see what he thinks about this issue.

By: Shefaly

Shefaly — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:07:56 +0000

Krish: My inquiry and curiosity is more about technical feasibility in these domains, not just the economic feasibility/ possibility.

Unlike, say, astrophysics, in biological sciences, it is not just data that is shared. Change of lab conditions and slight differences in reagents etc can yield totally different results.

Without something being technically feasible, economic feasibility is an academic discussion, no?