Ask HN: Site for volunteers to write software for academic/research

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4443196

by daven11 • 14 years ago

6 5 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Would any one know of a site that academics can ask for volunteers to write software for research purposes?

I was thinking that there's a lot of science grads writing business software (like myself) who'd like to write technical software in their spare time.

Likewise there's a lot of academics/researchers who need some software written, and struggling to find someone to do it.

A web site could get the two together, anyone know of such a site? if not I was thinking of putting one together, but thought I'd ask here. Wasn't thinking of profit, just doing something technical that wasn't another orm/language etc.

a_bonobo3• 14 years ago

You could monitor sites like seqanswers.com or biostars.org and offer coding-help when someone seems to be stuck.

I can't see the value in a site like you propose - a lot of data we analyse here (bioinformatics) is proprietary, just to touch it I had to sign two NDAs. In these circumstances it's impossible to invite strangers from the Internet to help work, the maximum we can do is hire local interns.

daven112• 14 years ago

Thanks, I had wondered about that, not all work would be like that though? Much would be open and government funded wouldn't it? or am I out of touch, when I was last in academia there was quite a bit that was still public. Probably should mention I'm in australia - things might be different here.

The other thought I had was would researchers want to use a random internetter even if not under NDA for the fear that their research would end up somewhere else? Not something I have experience with.

I do offer my 2c worth on coding sites, I will have a look at the sites you mentioned, thanks, I was thinking about larger parts of work though, small project size

a_bonobo3• 14 years ago

I work in Australia, too :)

We are partially Government funded and partially private funded, the Government funds don't force us to openly do anything. Open Access is on the rise but that's just about your publication, and your end-results - no-one forces you to open up your preliminary data. In the long run our sequenced genomes will be public, but only after we've published them, of course.

You're right about the stolen research-fears of scientists, I hear that often, even though I don't know of a single case of stolen research in recent years. Mostly it's the fear of a rival research-group publishing their results before you can publish yours - if you share, they might get the upper hand in the race.

If you're into small projects and live near a university: Most research departments (ours too) give out small research projects to underpaid interns for a couple of hours a week, because the interns are usually students they come in for a couple of hours every morning before lectures and then leave for the day, doing the rest from home. We had one intern who worked 99% from home.

Google around a bit, I'm fairly sure a bioinformatics-dept. would take you on.

Ask HN: Site for volunteers to write software for academic/research

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