A Brief History of BioPerl
Abstract
Large-scale open-source projects face a litany of pitfalls and difficulties. Problems
of contribution quality, credit for contributions, project coordination, funding,
and mission-creep are ever-present. Of these, long-term funding and project coordination
can interact to form a particularly difficult problem for open-source projects in
an academic environment. BioPerl was chosen as an example of a successful academic
open-source project. Several of the roadblocks and hurdles encountered and overcome
in the development of BioPerl are examined through the telling of the history of the
project. Along the way, key points of open-source law are explained, such as license
choice and copyright. The BioPerl project current status is then analyzed, and four
different strategies typically employed by traditional open-source projects at this
stage are analyzed as future directions. Strategies such as soliciting donations,
securing grants, providing dual-licenses to enhance commercial interest, and the paid
provision of support have all been employed in various traditional open-source projects
with success, but each has drawbacks when applied to the academy. Finally, the construction
of a successful long-term strategy for BioPerl, and other academic open-source projects,
is proposed so that such projects can navigate the difficulties.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11699Citation
Crossman, Colin; & Rai, Arti K. (2016). A Brief History of BioPerl. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11699.Collections
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Arti K. Rai
Elvin R. Latty Distinguished Professor of Law
Arti Rai, Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law and Faculty Director, The Center for Innovation
Policy at Duke Law, is an internationally recognized expert in intellectual property
(IP) law, innovation policy, administrative law, and health law.
Rai's extensive research on these subjects has been funded by NIH, NSF, Arnold Ventures,
the Kauffman Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center.
Her numero
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