On Sun, 22 Jul 2001, Julio Bonis Sanz wrote:
...
> There�s other not so bad software at least (Netscape Navigator?), and
> there�s soft that we can consider just a "baby" (I dont feel a gur� to
> put here an example).
> Could be a good idea to do a time-line and put the different Open Source
softwares on it.
Hi Julio,
Welcome to the list!
I agree with you 100% that it is a good idea to put every project on a
developmental timeline so that we can better understand the state of the
field and plan collaborations. That is one of the reasons for hosting an
open content projects/user review database at the OIO Library
(http://www.TxOutcome.Org).
Rather than offending anyone else's project by putting them in the
"baby" category, I will begin with the OIO project.
The OIO project should be considered a "baby" on the developmental
timeline. Although it has recently learned to stand up, since we have
successfully used it to track over 2000 patients, there are still major
areas of functionality that have not been implemented. For example, it is
only now beginning to babble and learning to talk since I started working
with Alex from TkFP and Jeff from FreeMed to exchange metadata and data.
With the release of 0.9.8 later today, it will have local_text (for
internationalization), multi-level drill-down analysis, and simple stats
(contingency table with chi-square test). Definitely getting ready to take
the first baby steps but still quite limited in the area of online report
generation and complex workflow modeling.
The OIO project first released code under GPL around Sept 1, 2000. I
consider public release the birthday of any software project. So, the OIO
project is now almost 1 year-old. (Before public release, a project is
more like in-utero. The mother(s) can feel it moving, but no one else can
see or interact with the baby.)
I believe the OIO system would not have progressed and improved so much
without the critical review and input from many members of this list. I
had fun sharing the developmental process and firmly believe that it takes
a village to raise a child. :-)
I am sure if any software can survive 10-years, it would be a pretty
useful software. Of course, the software has to be pretty functional
for most of the 10-years in order for it to survive that long. This is
also known as the "selection bias".
Cheers,
Andrew
---
Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes
www.TxOutcome.Org (hosting OIO Library #1)
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Psychiatry
University of California, Los Angeles
