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Open Source... Mining?
farrellj writes "In mining, geophysical data is the "source code" of the industry, and is usually guarded as closely as Microsoft guards their source code for their programs, sometimes even more so. But one Canadian mining company opened up their data, and reaped the rewards of Open Source in higher profits. Read all about it at: FastCompany. NOTE: Originally seen on Linux Today."
If a mine has exclusive rights to mine in the area it has surveyed, what is the incentive to hide the geological data? After all, any additional information that outsiders provide based on the data will either help the mine or at worst help a neighboring mine. In neither scenario will the first mine be hurt if anyone else sees their data. So I don't see how the culture of secrecy became so ingrained.
Come, open source as usually perceived and promoted is that by "contributing to the public software" and "scratching an itch", much good comes to all as you everyone can then use this freely.
The valuable use of this data is pretty much restricted to the property owners of the gold mine. This was just a fancy version of a contest (not a random-lottery style one), whereby skilled competitors vie for the prize, but one without an entry fee, and no signup form. The data is inherently useless (in terms of mineral rights) to anyone that is not the property owner, or interested in control over what happends to the property (hostile takeover threat).
If Microsoft had been the property owner, this story would have been on Slashdot, decrying the shameless use of skilled dupes working for Microsoft and getting a small return on their investment of time & talent. The mine owners were clever enough to capitalize on the positive name association with "Open Source" more than anything. A smart business that take a gamble (hostile takeover threat, etc.) that paid off well.
For either deep sea or deep space based search, mine and recovery?
These are the folks that came up with the 3D mine map - so it looks like it was a good investment for them.
And so it looks like the Open source model has been proven valid in areas outside of computing.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
From the story I've just read, I get the feeling that the "opening up of the data" does not sounds like "open source".
Rather, I get the feeling that it sounds more like BOUNTY HUNTING.
Like bounty hunters, there is a target. All you need to do is to get the target and you get your bounty. That's just what the company does.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
That's their cost for pulling an oz out of the ground. It has gone down as they've gotten bigger and better at getting the gold out due to economies of scale, etc.. The price they can actually sell metal for is another thing, altogether (thankfully...).
JMR
My opinions != those of any employer.
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
Open source comparison is a sham
No, it isn't a sham, but it is a poor choice of wording.
Free Software, Free Media, and Open Source are subsets of a much more fundamental, and important, concept, namely freedom of information, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression, which together might be termed simply freedom were it not that that particular word has been so abused by pundits over the last century as to have lost much of its meaning. These freedoms are antithetical to secrecy at their most basic levels, and in their consiquences, whether that is secrecy of information, secrecy of methodology, or secrecy of design (to name just three).
So, while mapping the benefits of open and free information to those of open and free software is a bit of a misnomer, clearly the underlying theme that free information is, unsurprisingly, bringing the same benefits to this particular mining company that free source code does to software companies is a valid parallel to draw, in that these benefits are a consiquence of freedom of knowledge and freedom of information, in other words, of the freedoms being granted, of which free software and free geological data are but two small examples.
It is a shame that our intellectual property laws are such that these freedoms must be granted rather than assumed by default, making them (and their obvious benefits) so much rarer in our society than they need to be.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Yeah, because we all know societies that do this (e.g., China, Cuba, etc.) are vastly more productive places for ideas than the United States.....err yeah. Show me a time in history or a place in the world that has been as productive or spends as much money on research and development (proportionately speaking). The United States is extremely successful in this reguard because of our strong IP, not inspite of it. It may cost you, say, 100 dollars to purchase that textbook and that may be something of a negative, and of itself, but then you're taking for granted its creation and that its secondary benefits (i.e., your education from it, ideas you may have taken from it, etc) are generally free AFTER that point. For all the complaints of information being locked away, it simply does not stand up by and large. There is a TONS of information out there for anyone that wants it, it may cost a little something and take a little time, but the vast majority of information nonetheless available (and productive) to an extent that it's NOT anywhere else in the world (because it largely does not exist in those other places). EOF
Hmmmm, personally I would have thought the sandworms a dead give away!
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
One of the problems faced by small software development houses in the scientific field is acquiring enough sample data that allows for meaningful testing of algorithms. Since most geophisical data is considered intellectual property of exploration companies it is closely guarded and hard to obtain unless you're already established in the market and have good reputation. Artificially generated data just doesn't have the same qualities real life samples have. I have seen the same algorithms work perfect on artificial SEG-Y data that crumbled when exposed to some real life heavily faulted seismic.
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.