Even big companies that can do everything sometimes
withdraw and allow third parties to take the lead. Google has announced it is withdrawing from
Open Code for most purposes, suddenly announcing there would be no new
projects; then making the project
read-only in August and closing in March of 2016. Google says that GitHub and
Bitbucket now provide better platforms and encourages remaining users to
migrate with tools. It says most
legitimate open code users have done this already, leaving them with abusers. Google’s announcement is here. There has been some anger on Twitter
(particularly from people attending SXSW
in Austin right now), but the reactions don’t seem well justified.
Google has pulled the plug on other services, like
iGoogle in November 2013, but with considerable notice. In more recent times,
Google seems to making notices more abruptly, like with the Blogger porn issue
(Feb. 26) which it largely deferred.
Even very large companies find it is better not to
tackle everything, Apple extends its
iMovie with FinalCutPro, which is a staple in the film industry. But it does not do this with iTunes, for
example; it is perfectly content to let
Avid keep hold of making music composition software work well in both Mac and
PC environments.
AOL had a precursor of blogging software, called
Hometown AOL, which it had opened in 1996, and I was an early user. AOL withdrew from offering it to accounts in
2007, allowing users to export to Blogger.
I often wonder how the business models for these
companies really can work. I don’t do a
lot of stull to generate income for anyone, and I am minimally receptive to ads
(although I have my favorites, like a Walt Disney World water ride commercial,
or a particular Audi short film). Could
“free service” platforms like Blogger suddenly pull the plug, or be much more
restrictive on the quality of visits (as from analytics)? I wonder.
I still think it would be a good idea for Google to offer hosting
contracts (beyond Picasa photos), or be much more public about third-party
companies that it works with on hosting contracts, in order to provide more
structured support for content developers.
This seems clear enough with Wordpress and some companies that
specialize in hosting it, like BlueHost.
Open Code and Open Source should is not the same as Open Access. I’m seeing more about this latter problem in
Jack Andraka’s book “Breakthrough” which I will review soon.
By the way. Julia Belluz has a piece on peer review
and science journals to pass along on Vox, here.
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