Re: Nanotechnology "X Prize"

From: Russell Wallace (wallacethinmintr_at_eircom.net)
Date: 10/27/04

  • Next message: John Larkin: "Re: Nanotechnology "X Prize"" 
    Date: 27 Oct 2004 16:34:43 GMT

    On 27 Oct 2004 02:03:07 GMT, jsn@panix.com (John S. Novak, III) wrote:

    >I hate to always be throwing cold water on things that I'd really like
    >to see happen, but open source, in this situation, runs up against the
    >problem of expertise: Specifically, the vast majority of people with
    >sufficient cross-disciplinary expertise to write meaningful software
    >in this area are going to find more lucrative expressions of their
    >talent than giving away free software.

    That's a good point... I was sort of vaguely hoping the part that
    requires specialized knowledge could be confined to a relatively small
    core (at least some of which might be obtainable from
    already-published academic work), but I haven't looked closely enough
    at the issue to know whether that's actually the case.

    >We've actually seen that here, as various people have tried to start
    >open source projects-- they never pan out.

    Okay.

    >But I can't convince myself there's a good way to speed up the
    >software situation *at this time*. The software tools will, I think,
    >follow the initial small design market, and help transform it into a
    >second-stage large design market. I do think, though, that once the
    >small design market is there, that will be the right time to stimulate
    >the industry. (I think it will tend to happen on its own, but more
    >direct stimulation certainly wouldn't hurt.)

    Fair enough. 

    -- 
"Always look on the bright side of life."
To reply by email, remove the small snack from address.
  • Next message: John Larkin: "Re: Nanotechnology "X Prize""
    • Quantcast