[Edu-sig] the SageMath saga: at the front lines in open source

[kirby urner]

I'm finally tuning in the saga of SageMath, with William Stein at the
center:

https://youtu.be/6eIoYMB_0Xc

The cited Youtube isn't the most recent of his Youtube presentations, but
provides a fascinating glimpse into the economic forces swirling around
open source in this next iteration / generation.

SageMath is GPL but without a company behind it, a business structure, what
will become of it?

Fast forward and said company exists, along with a grant from the EU.  Then
what?

On the Continuum Analytics side:  Jupyter Notebooks, likewise super-worthy
and deserving of committed developers who don't feel pressured to move on.
Mostly foundation funded.

One might think colleges and universities would see it in their common
interest to develop a liberal commons around such open source toolery.
What better way to attract top notch faculty?

One might also see a company like Google using the "half time" model and
paying employees, in some cases already versed in SageMath internals from
grad school, to code in support of these projects from which we all benefit.

That's a way of earning Good Will, in older economics texts an actual line
item the board members paid attention to.  It's a way of branding.

As Stein sees it, universities systematically undervalue mathematicians who
contribute to the commons in the form of software.

Taking a page from Jared Diamond ('How Civilizations Fail'), this is how we
shoot ourselves in the foot, by clinging to habits and stereotypes.  Or do
we break through to a next level?

Kirby

PS:  I consider SageMath part of the Python ecosystem so no worries
discussing it here (we have already).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SageMath
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