NASA Launches Open Source Portal

sproketboy writes "NASA has launched code.nasa.gov, which will become a portal for NASA's open source software development activities. In its current form, it hosts a directory of the organization's open source software projects and provides documentation about NASA's open source software processes."

Disappointed

[JustAnotherIdiot]

I thought NASA created a worm hole of sorts and was going to open source that.
This news is much less exciting ):

Re:Wait...

[g0bshiTe]

My functions are already out of this world.

why isn't it public domain?

[Trepidity]

I would've thought that NASA-written code (not licensed from contractors) would be in the public domain as a U.S. federal government work, just like NASA photographs are. Is there a reason that isn't the case?

Re:

[Tsingi]

I would've thought that NASA-written code (not licensed from contractors) would be in the public domain as a U.S. federal government work, just like NASA photographs are. Is there a reason that isn't the case?

I poked around briefly and did not find any mention of the license they will be using.

Re:

[Trepidity]

They have their own custom license, the NASA Open Source Agreement [nasa.gov].

Re:

[rwv]

I dug very briefly into the Vision Workbench tool and found code labeled (paraphrasing) "Property of US Government via NASA: All Right Reserved". They should do a basic sanity check for this before publishing something and claiming it's Open.

Re:

[Sarten-X]

As Microsoft will be quick to tell you, there are many different forms of "open", and only a few of them exempt you from getting screwed.

Funded by NASA = public domain?

[ivi]

Or, now that I have no length limit to my line:

Funded by NASA => owned by US Gov't AND also public domain

So, what's the problem... It never said NOT Public Domain. :-)

Re:

[ch-chuck]

Would be much more GNU like if they came up with something like 'Nasa Available Source Agreement', NASA, but NOSA?
Guess we should be happy they didn't use 'Nasa Open Source Entitlement'.

Re:

[gmhowell]

Would be much more GNU like if they came up with something like 'Nasa Available Source Agreement', NASA, but NOSA?
Guess we should be happy they didn't use 'Nasa Open Source Entitlement'.

They tried, but found that N.O.S.E. was wholly incompatible with Stallman's.... aura.

Re:

[rwv]

I'm not sure how much NASA does in-house. I assume a whole bunch of the interesting bits are done by contractors and are ITAR restricted.

Re:

[Bomazi]

Why do you believe it isn't the case ? Anything NASA writes in-house is in the public domain, by law. Any copyright notice or restriction you might see has been added by an over-zealous employee and can be safely ignored.

Re:

[rahvin112]

I still remember when NASA employees had written most of the Ethernet drivers in Linux.

This is the license they use

[Anonymous Coward]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Open_Source_Agreement [wikipedia.org]

Oh... and their projects are hosted at GitHub https://github.com/nasa/ [github.com]. That website in the summary is just the Homepage of those NASA projects hosted at GitHub.

Open Source Doors?

[kiehlster]

I thought doors were in public domain since the angels rolled away the stone in front of Jesus' tome.

Re:

[Anomalyst]

Jesus' tome.

I didnt think J had written or owned a book of note, the writings of him are purported to be those of his disciples.

Re:

[kiehlster]

Alas! I've let out the secret in err! Fouled again by dyslexia!

Schematics

[TeXMaster]

Damn, and here I was, hoping that NASA had had the Portal technology for some time and that they were finally releasing the schematics for the Portal gun ...

Re:

[TheRealMindChild]

Well, for it to be effective, you need millions of pounds of moon rocks, unless of course you hope to throw the other end of the portal on the moon. However, I can't imagine Wheatly would be so appreciative.

Re:

[stms]

My first thought was the same. My second thought was "the post is a lie!!!".

Cave Johnson must be furious

[pezpunk]

first Black Mesa steals all his contracts, now NASA open-sources his IP.

N.A.S.A

[Tyrannosaur]

National Aperture Science Administration

Re:

[kdemetter]

Still Alive, Still Alive ...

Modern VCS

[l0b0]

GitHub repos? Looks like somebody over there has a clue.

Re:

[narf314]

I've been pushing for Git at NASA since I started working (recent college grad) so I'm glad to see that it is starting to get traction in some areas. This is going in my bag of reasons why my group should switch as well!

This is neat

[cshark]

I'm taking apart the level of difficulty calculator now. This is USEFUL!