here - Biomedical Computation Review

editorÕsEditorÕsPickspicksBY DAVID PAIK, PhD, EXECUTIVE EDITORDo you have a few favorite books that you recommend to anyone with aninterest in biomedical computing? Are there software products or web sites thatyou love to evangelize? We’d like to open this forum up to the community formini-reviews of biomedical computation—books/papers/Web sites that havecaught your interest. Email us at editor@biomedicalcomputationreview.org.Open-Source SoftwareESR’S CATHEDRAL OR BAZAARThe paper’s cryptic title, The Cathedral and theBazaar, dares the reader to delve in and readfurther. Eric S. Raymond (a.k.a. ESR) is a longtimeadvocate for open source software and theauthor of this classic essay. At its most literal level,it documents the history of email software, but thisis only the framework for the true topic: a firsthandexperiment with the open-source developmentprocess that has made Linux so successful.Raymond describes the traditional closedsourcedevelopment process as a cathedral, witha centralized, selective, authoritative hierarchythat releases ordained versions of software onlywhen ready. On the other hand, he describesopen-source development as a bazaar, with taskspromiscuously delegated among developers withdifferent agendas and approaches.He expands on the topic by enumerating 19 lessonslearned from his experience with fetchmail,about half of which can be generalized beyond programmingand software design. Most interesting areRaymond’s insights intoDETAILSEric S. RaymondThe Cathedral andthe Bazaarhttp://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/the culture of the opensourcemovement. He describeshow motivation, teamwork andcommunication differ from thatseen in the “cathedral” setting.Since open-source developmentis a growing trend in biomedicalcomputing, many ofthese observations and lessonsapply directly. But there areother ways in which this essay may also be fitting. Theopen-source movement shares numerous similaritieswith the culture of big science projects, many of whichinvolve biomedical computing in one form or another.Research teams of the future, as outlined in the NIHRoadmap, stress interdisciplinary and collaborativeeffort that echoes many characteristics of the bazaarmodel. Many of the 19 lessons could apply to big scienceprojects as well.One of Raymond’s 19 lessons explains why opensource software improves so rapidly. Dubbed “Linus’slaw” (after Linus Torvalds, who launched the Linuxmovement), the lesson states: “Given enough eyeballs,all bugs are shallow.” In essence, given enough co-developersand beta-testers, a problem (or “bug”) will be characterizedand fixed by someone. It’s an embodiment ofthe Delphi effect, which states that averaged expertopinion is more reliable than a single individual. If thesame lesson proves true for the biomedical computationinfrastructure currently under development, that will begood news for the field as a whole.“If you push mass andvelocity high enough youget surprises like nuclearexplosions or Linux.”—Eric S. Raymond22 BIOMEDICAL COMPUTATION REVIEW Fall 2005 www.biomedicalcomputationreview.org