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July 22nd, 2006

Bill Gates demands open source

Posted by Dana Blankenhorn @ 9:08 am

Categories: Applications, General

Tags:

I had to read this one a few times to believe it.

Bill Gates is demanding that AIDS researchers share or open source their results if they’re to get some of the $287 million the Gates Foundation is putting into the search for AIDS vaccines.

The Foundation has recognized that one of the forces slowing medical progress is greed — commercial rivalries, bureaucratic rivalries, personal rivalries.

The gift, which is the largest Foundation gift yet in the fight against AIDS, is aimed at turning that around.

"We have to change the way we work," is the way Nick Hellman, the interim director of HIV projects at the Foundation, put it.

If you can change the way things work in AIDS vaccines, how about the world’s other pressing challenges? And if Bill Gates can learn the value of sharing, isn’t that the final proof open source works?

I think it is.  

Dana BlankenhornDana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

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  • Talkback
  • Most Recent of 34 Talkback(s)
Agree but...
Knowledge should not be treated as property. One may have exclusive rights to the application of that knowledge for a while (pattent laws) but Math, Science, Literature and other worthy disciplines wo... (Read the rest)
Posted by: rarsa Posted on: 05/12/09 You are currently: a Guest | | Terms of Use
Gawd your attempts are pathetic.  No_Ax_to_Grind | 07/22/06
See a Doctor  D-T-Schmitz | 07/22/06
Gawd your attempts are pathetic.  Mr. Roboto | 07/22/06
Open source - the new Communism  TonyMcS | 07/23/06
Agree but...  rarsa | 05/12/09
got a chuckle out of it  zdnet reader | 07/22/06
Boilerplate  jplatt39 | 07/23/06
A chuckle indeed  D-T-Schmitz | 07/23/06
So do you  X41 | 07/23/06
Re: Gawd your attempts are pathetic.  none none | 07/23/06
Oh the irony  Richard Flude | 07/24/06
The Page You Requested Is Available Only to Subscribers  jplatt39 | 07/22/06
Oh, stop bein' a lazy crybaby...and you're missing the point entirely  yogeee | 07/22/06
I missed the point?  jplatt39 | 07/22/06
Well, if you'll simply believe what I tell you, I can assure you of this:..  yogeee | 07/22/06
Blogging faux pas  tic swayback | 07/24/06
Balakov  Tolbuchin | 07/23/06
Bill Gates Foundation -- Contacts  D-T-Schmitz | 07/23/06
You are unbelievable  TonyMcS | 07/23/06
Re: You are unbelievable  none none | 07/23/06
Open Source claim everything good is invented by them, inreality nothingis  zzz1234567890 | 07/23/06
You always write the biggest  barsteward | 07/24/06
I guess you are saying OSS is a parasite. How about standing on one's own  zzz1234567890 | 07/24/06
i knew you wouldn't understand  barsteward | 07/24/06
And here is another one for you barsteward  Scrat | 07/25/06
infantile  yogeee | 07/25/06
how apt.  zzz1234567890 | 07/25/06
So you're saying that Isaac Newton didn't innovate either???  Zogg | 07/26/06
economics happens  jcg_z | 07/24/06
your what I call a sucker I now I was there  michaela.wandersee | 07/26/06
Not untypical for Bill Gates ...  George Mitchell | 07/24/06
IMO, patents create weath but stifle development  Castanet | 07/24/06
very good  michaela.wandersee | 07/26/06
I think it is too!  xstep | 07/24/06

What do you think?

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