Comment In defense of university research attitude (Score 1) 307
While the salon article was informative, it is helplessly single-dimensional. University CS research groups release many of their code, and many are easily available online:
http://iceberg.cs.berkeley.edu/
http://tinyos.millennium.berkeley.edu/
http://nms.lcs.mit.edu/
and many more.
The thing is that it's not an insignificant effort to put software into an acceptably releasable state, and perhaps the key is to find a way to motivate developers to spend more time doing this.
I even know firsthand that many research groups even go as far as giving free tutorials and support for the software that they develop. And this is done by faculty members and students who are hopelessly overwhelmed by tenure requirements, doctorate qualifying exams, passing classes, writing papers, solving research problems, and trying to graduate.
So before you diss this group of people, don't forget to TALK TO THEM first. Many students and profs are more than happy to share their work. At least it makes us feel a little less useless.
http://iceberg.cs.berkeley.edu/
http://tinyos.millennium.berkeley.edu/
http://nms.lcs.mit.edu/
and many more.
The thing is that it's not an insignificant effort to put software into an acceptably releasable state, and perhaps the key is to find a way to motivate developers to spend more time doing this.
I even know firsthand that many research groups even go as far as giving free tutorials and support for the software that they develop. And this is done by faculty members and students who are hopelessly overwhelmed by tenure requirements, doctorate qualifying exams, passing classes, writing papers, solving research problems, and trying to graduate.
So before you diss this group of people, don't forget to TALK TO THEM first. Many students and profs are more than happy to share their work. At least it makes us feel a little less useless.
