[Nottingham] Are we prescient?

[Jason Irwin]

Last night we seemed to reach agreement that software used for
government contracts etc should be Free/Open as it was public money that
had paid for it.  In a similar way that science data+methods are
Free/Open if paid for by the government (n theory at any rate; Transport
Research Laboratory...I'm looking at you).

Anyway, this story from El Reg seems rather apt:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/08/government_open_standards_open_source/

And I was asked to post this after I'd made a flippant comment:
	Software lacks the empirical 'death database'* that underpins other
disciplines such as hard engineering.

Those who were there will know what this is about, those who
weren't...well...you missed out, didn't you? :)

*I think I prefer 'dataset of death'.

-- 
Jason 'Raging Hypocrite' Irwin