iPhylo is now available on Google Code. As Rod Page explains on his blog, inspired by Pedro, the goal is to use Google Code as a project management system, i.e. a place to store more than just code but docs and data as well (why not, you have good version control).
In essence this expands on the issue that I have been raising lately; that academics should use code repositories like Google Code, Sourceforge or Github. That not only moves some of the issues with code maintenance infrastructure and utilities out onto the cloud, it also brings in the ability of a bigger user base, ability to access mode more easily, etc.
Will this be a broader trend? There are already a number of packages available on Sourceforge, but still too few and many are just thrown out there.
Don’t know about all of you, but I find moves like these significant, especially if this becomes a trend
Update: As pointed out below in the comments, this discussion has taken on a life of it’s own on FriendFeed
. Disqus and/or FF really need to figure out a way to integrate those conversations
Technorati Tags: iPhylo, Roderic Page, Google Code
5 Comments
That reminds me that I still did not make time to push on that open project … hopefully when I get one project done in the new lab I will have an easier time convincing the boss that this is OK.
Some good comments over on FF: http://friendfeed.com/e/c610ba12-801e-0082-165c...
Matt
Thanks for posting the link. Can't wait for Disqus/FF to integrate those back into the blog. It's inevitable and Danial Ha mentioned they were working on that
It's amazing how the little differences in the interfaces between say, Google Code and Sourceforge seem to make participation easier. They essentially have similar features, and yet one always feels a whole lot more usable than the other. There are a lot of dead (or still-born) projects on Sourceforge, and I'm sure part of the reason is the messy setup for comments/bug tracking/documentation etc. It just doesn't seem as slick and easy to get an overview of what is going on in a Sourceforge project compared with one in Google Code (or Trac). I think we will see more tech-savvy (and hopefully the not-so-savvy) scientists realizing how nicely some projects can be managed this way and jumping on board in the future.
Ever since Neil wrote about setting up Trac + SVN to manage bioinformatics projects, I've been managing a few internal projects this way and it works great. Some of these will probably move to Google Code when I've cleaned them up for pubic consumption, but I really should get into the habit of just starting these out 'in the cloud' to begin with.
It's amazing how the little differences in the interfaces between say, Google Code and Sourceforge seem to make participation easier. They essentially have similar features, and yet one always feels a whole lot more usable than the other. There are a lot of dead (or still-born) projects on Sourceforge, and I'm sure part of the reason is the messy setup for comments/bug tracking/documentation etc. It just doesn't seem as slick and easy to get an overview of what is going on in a Sourceforge project compared with one in Google Code (or Trac). I think we will see more tech-savvy (and hopefully the not-so-savvy) scientists realizing how nicely some projects can be managed this way and jumping on board in the future.
Ever since Neil wrote about setting up Trac + SVN to manage bioinformatics projects, I've been managing a few internal projects this way and it works great. Some of these will probably move to Google Code when I've cleaned them up for pubic consumption, but I really should get into the habit of just starting these out 'in the cloud' to begin with.
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[...] bbgm suggests: In essence this expands on the issue that I have been raising lately; that academics should use code repositories like Google Code, Sourceforge or Github. That not only moves some of the issues with code maintenance infrastructure and utilities out onto the cloud, it also brings in the ability of a bigger user base, ability to access mode more easily, etc. [...]
[...] Google Code as a science repository : business|bytes|genes|molecules [...]