Open-Source Software Debate Reaches Ivory Towers

Subject: ICTD News for 17 September 2003
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 09:05:01 -0400
From: ICTD Newsmaster <ictdnews@undp.org>
Reply-To: nitobserver@sdnp.undp.org
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http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22281.html

Open-Source Software Debate Reaches Ivory Towers

By Mike Martin
NewsFactor Network
September 12, 2003
http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22281.html

"The culture of open-source development is fundamentally
similar to peer review in academia," says Stanford
University researcher Sanatan Rai. "The work is reviewed by
other experts and is available for open scrutiny. Hence
mistakes are found, and errors corrected."

The near-absolute democracy of open-source software is
tantamount to academic peer review, the process by which
important research passes the scrutiny of expert critics to
get published in major journals, argues a Stanford
University researcher.

"I have equated the open-source system to the system of peer
review in academia," writes Sanatan Rai, of Stanford's
management science and engineering department. "The
advantages of the latter are clear to all, and the same
advantages can be found in the case of open-source software
development."

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http://www.newsfactor.com/about/reprints.shtml. Generation Y
Be Free

To a young generation weaned on e-mail, instant messages,
hyperkinetic computer games, and open-source software, the
democracies of computer science have laid low information
barriers everywhere. Music is free, movies should be, and
typed Google searches have replaced thumbing through the
colorfully indexed pages of the US$5,000 Encyclopedia
Britannica.

To a young generation of scientists coming of age during the
information revolution, peer review -- a notoriously
divisive and undemocratic process -- may seem as familiar as
the open-source free-for-alls that have created Linux,
LaTEX, and a host of other openly-available software
products, Rai suggests.

"The culture of open-source development is fundamentally
similar to peer review in academia," Rai told NewsFactor.
"The work is reviewed by other experts and is available for
open scrutiny. Hence mistakes are found, and errors
corrected."

Inherent differences between the two forums do exist,
however.

"Academic peer review is linked to journal publications,"
Rai noted. "The aim in case of research papers is the
validity of scientific conclusions."

Reviewing open-source software, however, is primarily a hunt
for bugs. With open-source software, Rai explained, "bugs
are more likely to be detected and eliminated," in contrast
to the closed-source alternative -- a system that too often
leads to "poor design and implementation."

A Peer Reviews

Comparing open-source software to academic peer review may
be a "naive" reading of both processes by computer
scientists who "idealize peer review," says George Mason
University computational neuroscience researcher James Olds.

"A competitive aspect is present in peer review that can
represent a direct conflict of interest," Olds told
NewsFactor. "Such potential conflicts of interest are not
present in the open-source process -- that I can see."

Scientists may receive papers to review that compete with or
are similar to their own work, explained Olds, who also
directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. With major
funding decisions largely based on publication in top
journals, "peer review has an inherent conflict of
interest," Olds maintains.

Case Closed?

Peer review, in fact, may resemble closed-source software
review more closely, Olds remarked.

"Peer review has its own set of problems that a fair number
of long-term scientists believe discourages high-risk,
high-reward research," he said.

Along those lines, "there has been a major push by some of
the bigger companies, based on the closed-source model, to
stifle testing and review," Rai points out in his paper.
"Not surprisingly, the first victims were researchers who
pointed out major flaws in the design."

Regardless of their similarities and differences, though,
peer and open-source review strive for the same goal, Rai
explained.

"The purpose of peer review is to ensure the quality of
published papers," he said. Likewise, open source is part of
"the mechanism that makes for good software."

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