About

This file hosts ideas around free and open-source software, especially as it relates to research data.

Examples

Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Development of Software Tools and Methods for Biomedical Big Data in Targeted Areas of High Need (U01)
- "A software dissemination plan, with appropriate timelines, is expected to be included in the application. There is no prescribed single license for software produced through grants responding to this announcement. However, NIH does have goals for software dissemination, and reviewers will be instructed to evaluate the dissemination plan relative to these goals:

The software should be freely available to biomedical researchers and educators in the non-profit sector, such as institutions of education, research institutions, and government laboratories.
The terms of software availability should permit the dissemination and commercialization of enhanced or customized versions of the software, or incorporation of the software or pieces of it into other software packages.
To preserve utility to the community, the software should be transferable such that another individual or team can continue development in the event that the original investigators are unwilling or unable to do so.
The terms of software availability should include the ability of researchers to modify the source code and to share modifications with other colleagues. An applicant should take responsibility for creating the original and subsequent official versions of a piece of software.
To further enhance the potential impact of their software, applicants may consider proposing a plan to manage and disseminate the improvements or customizations of their tools and resources by others.

Any software dissemination plans by the institution (and its subcontractors as applicable) represent a commitment to support and abide by the plan."

Worth thinking about MathWorks' computer programming contest, which used an allowed contestants to borrow each others' code, as described here and here.
- Some quotes:
  - "What if there were a contest that more accurately modeled the way ideas really move through the world? Suppose, once an idea had been put forward by one person, it could then be freely adopted and modified by anyone else even as the contest is still running? "
  - "Our contests resemble a wiki in the sense that anyone can modify any of the code on display. As with wikis, the result is a fertile meeting of the minds, and a model for successful collaborative design. "
Code Jams, e.g. at Google