Could you please share a link to the NY Times article? Is it about OSS
in general or specific to R?

Thanks

Michael

Michael Bibo wrote:
> Daniel Viar <dan.viar <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>   
>> I currently use R at work "under the radar", but there's a chance I
>> could loose that access.  I'd like to get our company to feel
>> comfortable with open source and R in particular.  Does anyone have
>> any experience with their company's IT department and management that
>> they would be willing to share?  How does one get an all Microsoft
>> shop on board with allowing users to user R?  I know about the recent
>> NY Times article and recent news.  I'm afraid I may need some case
>> studies or examples of what other companies have done.
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Dan Viar
>> Chesapeake, VA
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help <at> r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>>
>>     
> Just my opinions from my own experience...
>
> Don't talk to just anyone in your IT department, but try to identify someone 
> who a) has some authority/decision-making power; and b) is likely to be 
> somewhat OSS knowledgable/tolerant/keen.
>
> Go through proper procedures.  In my organisation, there is a specific process 
> for approval of software.  I filled in appropriate forms and provided 
> supporting documentation such as:
>
> http://www.r-project.org/doc/R-FDA.pdf
> copy of the GPL and references such as http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?
> story=2008081313212422
> R installation and administration manual
> NY Times article
>
> I also made futher points about the extensive use of R in peer-reviewed 
> journals such as JSS, and the superiority of the email help list and archives 
> over the support offered for most proprietary products (with specific 
> examples).
>
> Most of this is to make it abundantly clear that you are talking about a 
> quality, open-source product, not some small piece of freeware developed by an 
> individual.
>
> I have found two main types of IT concerns.  Firstly, they are appropriately 
> concerned about licensing issues.  You need to reinforce that, though free, it 
> is licensed - under the GPL.  Secondly, they may have concerns simply because 
> it is not the existing/approved/supported norm in your organisation.  I have 
> found that it is important here to make it clear that you will not be 
> expecting them to 'support' the software in the sense of helping you learn to 
> use it (which is often the case for office-type software and its users in 
> organisations).
>
> And if all else fails, and your organisation's policies refer to 'installing' 
> software, you can always run it portably, even from an external drive (at 
> least in a Windows environment).
>
> Ultimately, though, I think the thing that helped most to convince our IT 
> department to let me try R was when they themselves had the nightmare of 
> dealing with the licensing and accounts division of a certain well-known 
> statistical package proprietor.
>
> Michael Bibo
> Queensland Health
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>   


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]


