cctalk Digest, Vol 128, Issue 18

Message: 17 Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 09:35:06 -0700 From: Lyle Bickley <lbickley at bickleywest.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: NASA "Open Source".... Message-ID: <20140415093506.69d27cf5 at asrock.bcwi.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII After posting NASA's "open source" program to this list, I decided to download some of the "open source" software listed. To obtain the software I had to fill out a long form: "SOFTWARE USAGE AGREEMENT (SUA)" - which included an affirmation by me that I was a US Citizen, etc., etc. After filling out the form and submitting it, a few days later I got a terse reply: "Sorry it is for government release only". I wrote the author of the email and said that NASA had said on their website that it was "open source". The response was: "Thank you for your inquiry, However, STRS is labeled specifically as Government Purpose Only software. At this time it is only available for a Federal Government purpose use by civil servants or contractors with a contract number. In the future, if you have need for the software on a government contract, please feel free to contact our office again for the software." The author also included the following NASA Software Catalog (link below). As you'll see, very little of the software posted on NASA's "open source" site is actually "open source" as we know it! Most of it is "US Government Purpose Release". There is a small subset of software that are identified as "General Public" or "Open Source": http://technology.nasa.gov/NASA_Software_Catalog_2014.pdf He also included a link to this site with truly open source NASA software: http://code.nasa.gov/project/ While I was disappointed with NASA's response regarding their "open source" program, at least they pointed me to the NASA software catalog and a site with actual open source software. End of cctalk Digest, Vol 128, Issue 18 ***************************************