"free software" entries
Inside GitHub’s role in community-building and other open source advances
An interview with Matthew McCullough
In this video interview, Matthew McCullough of GitHub discusses what they’ve learned over time as they grow and watch projects develop there.
Democratizing data, and other notes from the Open Source convention
Health care track draws a small and passionate core
There has been enormous talk over the past few years of open data and what it can do for society, but proponents have largely come to admit: data is not democratizing in itself. This topic is hotly debated, and a nice summary of the viewpoints is available in this PDF containing articles by noted experts. At the Open Source convention last week, I thought a lot about the democratizing potential of data and how it could be realized.
Social networks are not communities, and other discussions from the Community Leadership Summit
A report from last weekend's unconference
The Community Leadership Summit this past weekend roused thoughts in me about the predictions and analyses I’ve heard over the past few years about social networking and to contrast them with what we were saying about community. I realized that I appreciate social networks but feel much more passionate about communities, and spontaneously called for a session to talk about the differences. This article describes our discussion and summarizes the insights I got this year from the summit.
Attendees at CLS put a lot of effort into taking detailed notes,which you can check out at the CLS Wiki. So I won’t go into great detail here about particular sessions I attended.
Clinician, researcher, and patients working together: progress aired at Indivo conference
Open-source SMART platform and Indivo PHR are increasingly integrated
SMART and Indivo offer a far-reaching platform for giving patients access to data and working seemlessly with other cooperating institutions.
Lucene conference touches many areas of growth in search
With a modern search engine and smart planning, web sites can provide visitors with a better search experience than Google. Why turn-out for the new "big data" track was lower than I expected, and other news from this week's conference about using Lucene big and small.
Recombinant Research: Breaking open rewards and incentives
Can open data dominate biological science as open source has in software?
To move from a hothouse environment of experimentation to the mainstream of one of the world's most lucrative and tradition-bound industries, Sage Bionetworks must aim for its nucleus: rewards and incentives. Comparisons to open source software and a summary of tasks for Sage Congress.
Recombinant Research: Sage Congress plans for patient engagement
The Vioxx problem is just one instance of the wider malaise afflicting the drug industry. Managers from major pharma companies expressed confidence that they could expand public or "pre-competitive" research in the direction Sage Congress proposed. The sector left to engage is the one that's central to all this work–the public.
Recombinant Research: Sage Congress promotes data sharing in genetics
Report from a movement that believes in open source and open data in science
Through two days of demos, keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions, Sage Congress brought its vision to a high-level cohort of 230 attendees from universities, pharmaceutical companies, government health agencies, and others who can make change in the field.
Sage Congress: The synthesis of open source with genetics
Complex health problems are too big for a single team.
A conversation with Sage Bionetworks founder Stephen Friend about how open source can support a business model in drug development, the progress of current data sharing projects, and more.
MySQL in 2012: Report from Percona Live
Checking in on the state of MySQL.
Contrasting deployments at craigslit and Pinterest, trends, commercial offerings, and more