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Gates Pushes Open-Source Approach to HIV Research
dan the person writes that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation "has donated $287m to 16 different research groups around the world to work on developing an HIV vaccine. The catch? They have to share their work even if the groups were previously competing against each other. Sounds like a familiar development model to me, I wonder where I have seen it before?" Besides the BBC's coverage, the Seattle Times has a good story about the grant, with a few more details about how the money will be spent.
Either way, I'm never going to be able to see the research or dump the data in to Weka and try to find correlations by mixing and matching data mining algorithms on lab data.
Also, I think it's stupid that the story implied irony that Gates doesn't use the open source model in software: I don't know where you got that quote because I can't find it in either of the linked articles. People's lives depend on a cure/vaccine/treatment for HIV/AIDS. People's lives do not depend on the development of software--especially Microsoft software, thank god. They are two very different development efforts with very different ethical connotations.
My work here is dung.
company does anything it can to stop this kind of progress in the IT field, even though their previous boss apparently knows very well what the consequence of that is....
Until the consequence of lack of innovation in the IT field is millions of deaths I think you trivializing HIV/AIDS to try to make a point.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Making jokes about a devastating mass illness that ruined the lives of many, many people from all over the world. That's ... tasteful.
the goal of microsoft is to make money.
the goal of bill gates' charity is to help people.
why should it be surprising if gates uses different methods to accomplish different goals?
Microsoft's job is not to expand the boundries of IT for all, it's to make money. While OpenSource and GPL software has shown that it can be profitable, that's not where the real money has ever been for individual companies. Therefore, they stick with privatized licensed software models. Since HIV research isn't a matter of profit for him, he'll go with what's the most efficient method for across-the-board advances. Makes perfect sense to me.
Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
Tell me how it is that you can create an economy in a country where over 1/3 of the adult population is already infected with HIV.
Could you help me a little with that one? Oh and if you can figure out how sick and dying people can be good workers and entrepreneurs without medication. Bill Gates already has the money (whether he got it fairly or not). Would you rather he keep it?
Bill Gates reminds me of William Bulger: Brilliant, cunning, a great person to have on your side and a devastating enemy to have against you. Glad those guns are pointed towards HIV and TB.
Maybe it's time to separate the BG of MS and the BG of the Gates Foundation. It's seems he has.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
I guess whoever rated it as flamebait missed the irony - the history of Microsoft calling Open Source a virus ...
-- Now, what is the first thing that's going to come to mind when you hear "Do you want fries with that?"
Except in cases of rape, people can easily avoid getting infected with HIV/AIDS. Abstinence or safe sex cost nothing, and they have the additional benefit of reducing population growth.
This is true for adults, but not for the children of people infected with HIV/AIDS. I'm all in favor of personal responsibility and the obvious solution the spread of AIDS does seem to be "stop having sex outside of marriage", but it would still be a fairly massive world-wide problem just in terms of those who already have the disease - especially those who have the disease through no fault of their own.
What's frustrating is the way it seems as though this has to be an either-or. Either we ask people to keep their sexual drives under control OR we try to save those who catch the disease. Pity we can't do both.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
the obvious solution the spread of AIDS does seem to be "stop having sex outside of marriage"
No, the obvious solution is to use condoms, but the idiot Catholic church said condom use is Evil(tm), and the desperate people listening to the church followed. The result is that HIV is spreading like wildfire all over Africa and some parts of Asia.
Its amazing to me that we'll have people use disease to back up thier so-called morals, nevermind the fact that most disease spreads other ways besides through sexual contact.
So all we can say is:
Thanks Church, for showing once again that you understand how the real world works.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F