Tag: software

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Open Source and Software Strategy

Curt Monash at Monash Research pointed out some ongoing open source GPL issues for WordPress and the Thesis issue (Also see http://ma.tt/2009/04/oracle-and-open-source/ and  http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/switching-things-around/).

As a user of both going upwards of 2 years- I believe open source and GPL license enforcement are general parts of software strategy of most software companies nowadays. Some thoughts on  open source and software strategy-Thesis remains a very very popular theme and has earned upwards of 100,000 $ for its creator (estimate based on 20k plus installs and 60$ avg price)

  • Little guys like to give away code to get some satisfaction/ recognition, big guys give away free code only when its necessary or when they are not making money in that product segment anyway.
  • As Ethan Hunt said, ” Every Hero needs a Villian”. Every software (market share) war between players needs One Big Company Holding more market share and Open Source Strategy between other player who is not able to create in house code, so effectively out sources by creating open source project. But same open source propent rarely gives away the secret to its own money making project.
    • Examples- Google creates open source Android, but wont reveal its secret algorithm for search which drives its main profits,
    • Google again puts a paper for MapReduce but it’s Yahoo that champions Hadoop,
    • Apple creates open source projects (http://www.apple.com/opensource/) but wont give away its Operating Source codes (why?) which help people buys its more expensive hardware,
    • IBM who helped kickstart the whole proprietary code thing (remember MS DOS) is the new champion of open source (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/) and
    • Microsoft continues to spark open source debate but read http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2010/07/02/a-perspective-on-openness.aspx and  also http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/
    • SAS gives away a lot of open source code (Read Jim Davis , CMO SAS here , but will stick to Base SAS code (even though it seems to be making more money by verticals focus and data mining).
    • SPSS was the first big analytics company that helps supports R (open source stats software) but will cling to its own code on its softwares.
    • WordPress.org gives away its software (and I like Akismet just as well as blogging) for open source, but hey as anyone who is on WordPress.com knows how locked in you can get by its (pricy) platform.
    • Vendor Lock-in (wink wink price escalation) is the elephant in the room for Big Software Proprietary Companies.
    • SLA Quality, Maintenance and IP safety is the uh-oh for going in for open source software mostly.
  • Lack of IP protection for revenue models for open source code is the big bottleneck  for a lot of companies- as very few software users know what to do with source code if you give it to them anyways.
    • If companies were confident that they would still be earning same revenue and there would be less leakage or theft, they would gladly give away the source code.
    • Derivative softwares or extensions help popularize the original softwares.
      • Half Way Steps like Facebook Applications  the original big company to create a platform for third party creators),
      • IPhone Apps and Android Applications show success of creating APIs to help protect IP and software control while still giving some freedom to developers or alternate
      • User Interfaces to R in both SAS/IML and JMP is a similar example
  • Basically open source is mostly done by under dog while top dog mostly rakes in money ( and envy)
  • There is yet to a big commercial success in open source software, though they are very good open source softwares. Just as Google’s success helped establish advertising as an alternate ( and now dominant) revenue source for online companies , Open Source needs a big example of a company that made billions while giving source code away and still retaining control and direction of software strategy.
  • Open source people love to hate proprietary packages, yet there are more shades of grey (than black and white) and hypocrisy (read lies) within  the open source software movement than the regulated world of big software. People will be still people. Software is just a piece of code.  😉

(Art citation-http://gapingvoid.com/about/ and http://gapingvoidgallery.com/

Towards better Statistical Interfaces

I was just walking about the U Tenn campus thinking about my next month departure from the school back to India when I ran into Bob Muenchen , head of the Stats consulting centre and more famously the author of ” R for SAS and SPSS users” . Bob mentioned that the edition for R for Stata should be ready for next month. It was also his idea for the article on Red R.

In fact what perplexes users of statistical software like me is why complex softwares like R or SAS choose interfaces that are clearly not as well designed in simplicity as they are in statistical rigor. I think SPSS to some extent and JMP to a much greater extent represent well designed user interfaces. While Rattle , R Commander , R Analytical Flow and Red R are examples for R interfaces SAS also invested in the Enterprise class interfaces.

On all these I belive there is a much greater need for say a Pro UI designer and clean it up. I was reading Prof Maeda’s laws of simplicity ( see http://lawsofsimplicity.com ) and just comparing and contrasting that with some of the softwares I end up using.

The Principles of Reduce ( Shrink, Hide , Embody ) and Organize ( Sort , Label , Integrate and Priortize ) need to be looked into by the Chief Software Interface designers for analytics and BI. While attempts to create more and more robust and faster algorithms and prettier dashboards are important is it not important to simplify the process and procedures to do so . The software which is easier to learn and pick up will tend to have an edge over less visually designed softwares. Keeping it simple helped Apple in the retail electronics and software , it needs to be seen who or which enterprise BI or BA software will make attempts to do the same. An ideal stats or BI interface should be simple and powerful enough to be used by decision makers directly on occasion rather rely on the middleware of analysts and consultants solely.

A Software Called Rattle

One of my favorite software GUI’s- here is a paper talking of it, it was published in R Journal and describes Dr Graham William’s work in it. If you are software user or creator it is worth a dekko in terms of adding analytical extensions for your platform of business.

New Year Resolution Presentation

Here is a short clip I made using two softwares-

1) Prezi Desktop

This is an innovative single slide way of creating macromedia presentations. Recommended for offbeat new look presentations.

2) Xvidcap screencapture- For capturing and creating a video based on screen capture. This is the Linux Version of Camtasia- there is only one drawback the default rate is a bit fast- so audio and frame capture settings in a multi frame need to be tweaked.

3) I Phone- For Photography- It’s still the handiest camera around.

(Note- The Collage and Presentation are works of fiction)

WHAT I DID IN 2009 THAT I DONT WANT TO DO IN 2010

and here is a more offbeat version

What softwares do you plan to use/learn in the next one year?

The results for the question-

Which software do you plan to use/learn in the next one year  ?

Christmas Carol: The Best Software (BI-Stats-Analytics)

There is no best software- they are just optimized for various constraints and tangible as well as intangible needs as defined for users.

  1. There is no best software- they are just optimized for various constraints and tangible as well as intangible needs as defined for users.  ( Image below Citation- support.sas.com )
  2. Price in products is defined as Demand divided by Supply. Sometimes this is Expected Demand over Expected Supply ( see Oil Prices) Everyone grumbles over prices but we pay what we think is fair. ( citation http://bm2.genes.nig.ac.jp/RGM2/index.php?ctv=Survival
  3. Prices in services are defined by value creation as well- Value= Benefit Divided by Cost  Benefits are tangible as in how much money it saves in fraud as well as intangible – how easy it is to start using JMP versus R Commander  Costs are Tangible- How much do we have to pay using our cheque book for this annual license or perpetual license or one time license or maintain contract or application support.Intangible costs are how long I have to hold the phone while talking to customer support and how much time it takes me to find the best solution using the website on my own without a sales person bothering me with frequent calls. (citation- http://academic.udayton.edu/gregelvers/psy216/spss/graphs.htm#tukey
  4. All sales people ( especially in the software industry) spam you with frequent calls, email reminders and how their company is the best company ever with the best software in the history of mankind. That is their job and they are pushed by sales quotas and pulled by their own enthusiasm to sell more to same customer. If you ever bought three licences and found out you just needed two at the end of the year- forgive the salesman. As Arthur Miller said’ All Salesmen are Dreamers  (Citation of STATA graph below http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/Stata/library/GraphExamples/code/grbartall.htm)
  5. Technology moves faster than you can say Jackie Robinson. and it is getting faster. Research and Development ( R and D) will always move slower than the speed at which Marketing thinks they can move. See http://www.dilbert.com for more insights on this. You either build a Billion Dollar in house lab ( like Palo Alto – remember) or you go for total outsourcing (like semi conductors and open source do). Or you go for a mix and match. ( Citation- http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~burkardt/html/matlab_graphics/matlab_graphics.html )

Based on the above parameters the best statistical software for 2009 continues to be the software that uses a mixture of Genetic Algorithms, Time Series Based Regression and Sampling – it is the software that runs in the head of the statistical /mathematical / customer BRAIN

Thats the best Software ever.

(Citation – Hugh of http://gapingvoid.com/ )

Happy Hols