4 ms·

It's calculated. Reception would be distinctly negative if something as crucial as health research were closed source—here, the utility is in the transparency a

by duaneb 12y ago

It's calculated. Reception would be distinctly negative if something as crucial as health research were closed source—here, the utility is in the transparency as well as apple's traditional offers of usability and reliability.

mbreese 12y ago
Plus, these are all academic partners - that code usually needs to be open source to publish.
- streptomycin 12y ago
  It's not "usually". More like "rarely". Papers without code are very common.
Osmium 12y ago
> Reception would be distinctly negative if something as crucial as health research were closed source I don't know about that. HealthKit is essentially closed and no one seems to mind, and it's all about the data ultimately anyway. Maybe it's a regulatory thing? Regardless, it's nice to see.
- duaneb 12y ago
  HealthKit is a glorified database. Would definitely like to see it open sourced, though.
  - antris 12y ago
    Can you name an app that is not "a glorified database"? Seems to apply for almost anything. Hacker News, Facebook, Twitter and so on... It's all about putting in and getting data from a database
    - duaneb 12y ago
      > Can you name an app that is not "a glorified database"? Apps, sure. Tools? Hell no. File processors, browsers, libraries.... But HealthKit adds virtually no value aside from the schema of health data. There's not much to be gained from opening it. Honestly, I'd argue the same about hacker news and reddit: it's great that reddit is open source, but it's hardly necessary for me to perform research on it because the semantics of loading/storing/existing are so well defined.
    - __david__ 12y ago
      HealthKit is not an app.
a_c_s 12y ago
What's the point about speculating about motivation? Whether motivated by altruism or calculated strategy, who cares? These kinds of discussions tend to devolve into platform bickering rather than substantive commentary.
- duaneb 12y ago
  > These kinds of discussions tend to devolve into platform bickering rather than substantive commentary. True. However, occasionally (I at least) learn something new from these conversations.
dataker 12y ago
Related paper: http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewpaper.php?id=502415&cf=47 http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewpaper.php?id=502415&cf=...

by duaneb 12y ago

mbreese 12y ago

Plus, these are all academic partners - that code usually needs to be open source to publish.

streptomycin 12y ago
It's not "usually". More like "rarely". Papers without code are very common.

Osmium 12y ago

> Reception would be distinctly negative if something as crucial as health research were closed source I don't know about that. HealthKit is essentially closed and no one seems to mind, and it's all about the data ultimately anyway. Maybe it's a regulatory thing? Regardless, it's nice to see.

duaneb 12y ago
HealthKit is a glorified database. Would definitely like to see it open sourced, though.
- antris 12y ago
  Can you name an app that is not "a glorified database"? Seems to apply for almost anything. Hacker News, Facebook, Twitter and so on... It's all about putting in and getting data from a database
  - duaneb 12y ago
    > Can you name an app that is not "a glorified database"? Apps, sure. Tools? Hell no. File processors, browsers, libraries.... But HealthKit adds virtually no value aside from the schema of health data. There's not much to be gained from opening it. Honestly, I'd argue the same about hacker news and reddit: it's great that reddit is open source, but it's hardly necessary for me to perform research on it because the semantics of loading/storing/existing are so well defined.
  - __david__ 12y ago
    HealthKit is not an app.

a_c_s 12y ago

What's the point about speculating about motivation? Whether motivated by altruism or calculated strategy, who cares? These kinds of discussions tend to devolve into platform bickering rather than substantive commentary.

duaneb 12y ago
> These kinds of discussions tend to devolve into platform bickering rather than substantive commentary. True. However, occasionally (I at least) learn something new from these conversations.

dataker 12y ago

Related paper: http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewpaper.php?id=502415&cf=47 http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewpaper.php?id=502415&cf=...