Kikinis: /* NIH Open Source Standards */

2008-09-04T16:29:10Z

NIH Open Source Standards

Will: New page: == NIH Open Source Standards == ''(This work is originally presented by Luis Ibanez.)'' We are wondering if the NIH has a defined criterion on what is to be considered "Open Source" for t...

2007-11-17T14:18:29Z

New page: == NIH Open Source Standards == ''(This work is originally presented by Luis Ibanez.)'' We are wondering if the NIH has a defined criterion on what is to be considered "Open Source" for t...

New page

== NIH Open Source Standards ==
''(This work is originally presented by Luis Ibanez.)''

We are wondering if the NIH has a defined criterion on what is
to be considered "Open Source" for the purpose of their funding
announcements.

We see with excitement that more NIH FOA/RFP require or at least
encourage "Open Source" software. However, at the same time we
see with concern that some groups use their own definitions of
"Open Source" in order to deliver software that in our opinion
doesn't satisfy the community accepted criteria of the OSI:

http://www.opensource.org/

That is, these groups deliver software under licenses that could
hardly be approved by OSI, due to restrictive terms inserted in
the license, such as:

* "for use only by non-for-profit organizations"
* "not to be used in commercially funder research"
* "to be used in a single computer".

or even worst, they claim the software to be open source, but not
even publish their source code.

Our concern is that such practice will undermine the credibility
of "Open Source" at large, because at the same time that we are
publicizing the freedoms and benefits of Open Source, others are
taking advantage of the goodwill but not delivering on the promises
to the recipients of the software.

Our suggestion is that NIH ( and in general federal agencies ) should
adopt the definition of "Open Source" provided by the Open Source
Initiative (OSI), as the organism representing the open source
communities at large.

Without a clear definition of what "Open Source" means, it is left to
any organization to arbitrarily claim their software to be open source
regardless of whether it satisfies the community accepted criteria or
not.

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 * "for use only by non-for-profit organizations"
-* "not to be used in commercially funder research"
+* "not to be used in commercially funded research"
 * "to be used in a single computer".

NAMIC Wiki:OpenSourceStandards - Revision history

Kikinis: /* NIH Open Source Standards */

Will: New page: == NIH Open Source Standards == ''(This work is originally presented by Luis Ibanez.)'' We are wondering if the NIH has a defined criterion on what is to be considered "Open Source" for t...