Centres of Research Excellence Fund

2006 Expressions of Interest

Centre for Open Software Innovation

Director:    Prof. Ian H. Witten
Host:          The University of Waikato

Partners:     The University of Auckland

Abstract:

The vision of the Centre for Open Software Innovation is
to accelerate high-quality software innovation by open dissemination.
Scientific advances will strengthen innovation and lead to economic benefits for NZ.

We will apply scientific principles of open dissemination and peer review to the design and production of quality software. Systematic advance in computing requires a more open atmosphere than presently prevails. Experiments go unreplicated because insufficient information is published to permit accurate reconstruction. Research falls short of the time-honoured standard of science: critical appraisal of results via detailed replication by peers. As a consequence, computing lacks a strong sense of cumulative scientific progress.

We will foster a distinctiveness already emerging in NZ: cooperative production of software and supporting artefacts—formal models, test beds, defect data, security audits, performance results, usability evaluations. Openness is an international trend that will characterize this Century and which we aim to lead. Publishing design models, source code and test data is the only realistic way of fully disclosing details and allowing colleagues in diverse subdisciplines to evaluate and build directly on the cumulative outcome of past work. Zealous application of the scientific method to computing will ignite a revolution that accelerates the advancement of the state of the art.

Openness accelerates innovation because one can now build directly on the cumulative outcome of past work. The Centre will expedite the transfer of results from computer science research into concrete implementations and through to widespread adoption nationally and internationally. Open software is a public good, built by people who contribute code, ideas and documentation in a cooperative and collaborative fashion. Open environments permit people to learn from failure—unlike today’s costly software development catastrophes. Open innovation will generate commercial products and services for New Zealand’s Knowledge Economy.

This is the world’s first research centre for Open Software Innovation.