On Sep 7, 2004, at 7:33 AM, Alfonso wrote:
First it allows people to do the tailoring of the program to their
specific needs, provided that some suitable training in Stata
programing has been undertaken. This Stata "feature" encorange in turn
people in the scientific community to exchange problems, ideas, and
potential solutions via this list and the sharing of their
user-written code. I would not be surprised to hear that at least one
interesting collaboration project started by a posting to this list or
by the exchange of Stata code between two otherwise non-related
authors. Hence, the of �openness� of Stata ado files creates a sort of
positive spillover that encourages research and facilitates the
formation of research networks.
Second, since advanced users are producing tailored code for their
specific applications, this implies that Stata is permanently
developing beyond the main development efforts and business strategy
of StataCorp. This feature is capable of attracting people that
otherwise would not consider Stata as their preferred package � so,
there are some �network effects here�. It also provides, I believe, a
sort of feedback to StataCorp that is valuable to evaluate the needs
of its users and plan its future development. So there is here another
positive feedback that the �open ado� feature creates.
To finish just let me say that I think that the existence of this
�open ado� feature and the existence of this Statalist is one of the
major Stata competitive advantages of Stata over other commercial
statistics packages. I would be willing to say it is the reason I
chose Stata over other potential competitors.
I couldn't agree more. Just don't call it "Open Source" (TM), or you
will attract those who will denigrate these advantages because the
entire platform is not open to all. The stance of StataCorp toward the
user community is highly laudable and would be emulated by other
software companies if they were smart enough to do so.
Kit
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