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> Instead, we see a thriving software industry that largely ignores research, and a research community that writes papers rather than software. I have actively
by diffserv 8y ago
> Instead, we see a thriving software industry that largely ignores research, and a research community that writes papers rather than software.
I have actively followed the NSDI and SIGCOMM community, and this is, for the most part, true: Research venues have become a hiring billboard for big companies (Microsoft specifically?), and that's all that is left of research.
Most papers published from these companies (and academia) are flawed at the core and primarily story driven (at least in the two conferences that I mentioned). Companies publish with data that is inaccessible to anybody but them---MSR, specifically, takes this to an extreme. The scientific contribution of most papers is close to nil. Writing and storytelling dominate the field. Experiments are cherrypicked, are rarely reproducible, and the software is seldom useable.
People rarely are willing to think outside the box and spend more than a year on a paper. Most people pick an idea from an outside field, apply it, and publish a paper. That's the end of it. Most people that I have talked with publish to get their name out, and rarely care about any scientific agenda.
Imagine, in a system's research community, a large portion of academic advisors cannot develop proper software---they can, however, pitch stories and write text for days.
The problem is not that people are evil... it's that the system/community has decided to take this path. And for one, I cannot fathom why. It is not even rewarding to publish a paper in these conferences anymore ... except to enjoy the trip and the dinners.
You hear stories on how people try to optimize their chances of getting in, e.g, I have heard and seen from good researchers that you should not register your paper early because you will get a two-digit paper number, indicating that this is a resubmission, and lowering your chances of getting in, etc. There are many such hidden gems there.