My article got published on Newsforge!

[wilburpan]

I wrote an article comparing the relationship between open source software and IT companies to the relationship between academic biomedical research and pharmaceutical companies, and Newsforge was kind enough to publish it! If you're interested, you can read it here on their website.
_________________
I'm only hanging out in OTW until I get rid of this stupid l33t ranking.....Crap. That didn't work.

[Malakai]

That is an excellent article my friend, well written and informative, as well as convincing.


Two thumbs up.



PS: You're the man irl Research is an honorable calling, one I myself am pursuing (albeit physics and not medical).

[placeholder]

Good article although you have some retarded critics at the bottom. And although I think that all testing should be done on willing humans, I'm not going to get into that because it's not the topic and we're in the Gentoo chat forum.

Overall, I think the article is well-written and has a very good point.

[placeholder]

Well I was going to post a reply to the article on Newsforge as well, but since I'm at my school whose server goes down for stupid reasons like viruses (yeah, they run a Windows server ) it also decided to be retarded and firewall something stupid so that the form had an error. I saved it though and will post it from home.

[semiSfear]

Very interesting reading, so I guess a "good on ya" is at it's order.

Good on Ya!
_________________
DnB is my religion, Jungle is my church.

[SubAtomic]

Excellent article.

I especially liked this comment ...

[Malakai]

I would like to add that I think one of the most compelling and attractive aspects of working in the academic is the nearly universal free flow of information between people, groups, and other entities.

[Isaiah]

Excellent article indeed - just look at all the astroturf

[krdp]

Good article!!! way to go

[spb]

Good article, shame about the people replying to it.

[aethyr]

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but keep in mind that many of the full articles found through pubmed are only "open" to those who have their access paid through institutions (universities or companies or whatnot).

As an individual there's no way I could afford to read all the stuff I find on pubmed :/

In regards to the article, the research groups I'm close with use a mixture of open and closed source software.

[placeholder]

I was able to post my reply. I hope that helps fight off the dickheads trying to criticize your work.

[wilburpan]

Thanks for the nice comments!

As far as access to full articles via pubmed: all you really have to do if yo want to read the full article is go to a medical school library. In any case, I think the point still stands, as the barrier to accessing information in biomedical research journals is very low compared to, say, a nondisclosure agreement that, say, Oracle would impose if you were to look at the source code for Oracle Database 10g. Also, once you overcome that barrier, whcih can be done by travelling to a medical school library, you are able to do what you want with the information you've read.
_________________
I'm only hanging out in OTW until I get rid of this stupid l33t ranking.....Crap. That didn't work.

[placeholder]

Some people's minds are too closed up by capitalism to see how it works I suppose. Either that, or they smoke way too much crack.

[KiTaSuMbA]

Well done wilbur! Oh, and never mind those few braindead ppl saying something in the lines of "you are an academic, what do you know about business?" As anyone even remotely related to academic research can tell you, it's definatelly closely attached to business. For money make it all happen...
I'm in the neurosciences field, so I know the model you describe from personal experience. And it's not just the biomedical field... It's the entire scientific world that works this way. Sure, the biomedical research and products feel "closer" and more tangible to most people than say superstring theories in theoretical physics or an archeology expedition, but the principles are exactly the same. Let's take the last example: a private sector company finances a team of archeologists to go some hundred miles in the desert and start digging, funneling even millions of dollars down their way for technology and living expenses. Of course, what they find will not remain a secret but it gets rather actively publicized at more costs for the financer. Why would they ever lose money on something like that? They don't own the site or the findings and cannot sell or hire them. What they _hope_ to own or at least manage from an advantaged point is the entire tourism and/or entertainment business that is going to be built around their findings like a hotel resort or a percentage of rights for a hollywood movie whose producers will ask for some expertise.
In a very similar manner, IBM will finance and give happily away all the linux development it can get done, because they are looking for an advantage point in a closely-linked business of their own: hardware and services. Now, if they can get enterprise clients on linux desktops what's better for a server than a 100% linux-compliant IBM big iron? And CEOs will probably take the high price tag with some ease since they saved so much money on the desktop machines.

_________________
Need to flame people LIVE on IRC? Join #gentoo-otw on freenode!

[LeTene]

A nicely written piece willburpan, a good read.

To take up on a quoter mentioned by SubAtomic:

[wilburpan]

[ed0n]

It sounds that I found a good article to read before I go to bed .

[IvanHoe]

Good article wilburpan. However, I find the issue of software patents much more distressing than the open vs. closed source argument.

[UncleRage]

A very comfortable article to read with some damn fine points made.

Aces to you, wilburpan.
_________________
Rage

The difficulty of a system is comparable only to the ignorance of the end user.

[codergeek42]

Good article. Quite well-written. Nice jorb.
_________________
~~ Peter: Programmer, Mathematician, STEM & Free Software Advocate, Enlightened Agent, Transhumanist, Fedora contributor
Who am I? :: EFF & FSF

[chris78]

Really nice article. Also the comments have introduced some interesting aspects.
I posted my comment on the article here.
Did you publish other articles before or do you want to publish more?

Chris
_________________
GNUnet