COMPUTATIONAL RESEARCH in BOSTON and BEYOND (CRIBB)
| Date | Feb. 1, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Palle Pedersen (CTO of RealCME and Advisor to and Former CTO of Black Duck Software) and Valerie Fraysse (Chief Scientist - Kvasar Technology) |
| Topic | A Brief History of Open Source and A Sneak Preview of its Future |
| Abstract: |
How and why do engineers use open source? Why care about what is in your code? How can you detect the history of code? Knowing the code's history can help shape its future! Like the hereditary traits found within a sequence of DNA, a string of open source code is full of genetic information. As source code continues to evolve and grow increasingly complex, it becomes more important to trace the code's ancestry. With the Open Source Genome, companies can understand the origin and history of code, helping to avoid the legal ramifications of the improper use and management of open source code and licenses. Certain licenses apply to code and when part of that code is taken out and merged with other code, new licenses apply. This philosophy can ultimately help companies identify components that can be reused, accelerating software development and the time to market of a product. |
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Acknowledgements
We thank the generous support of MIT IS&T, CSAIL, and the Department of Mathematics for their support of this series.