Theory as code-base?
Over at
O'reilly Network Timo Hannay
asks:
So my question is this: What lessons have been learned within open source software development that might be directly applicable to scientific peer review in the online world?
His article is a nice little analogy where he frames what used to be called "natural philosophy" (science) as if it were software development. I tried a hand at trying to use analogies to bridge two fields-evolution and software-a few years back on
Slashdot. My contention was that open-source software has some resemblance to evolution via natural selection and genetic drift, while closed-source ("commercial") software is more like intelligent design.
Slashdot being what it is-I got thrashed thoroughly, with most of the respondents telling me I needed to learn a lot about both software and evolution. Ah, the joys of being ignorant....