We’re open, Mendeley

Let’s show our community power and inundate Twitter, Facebook (I created a group on Facebook), Friendfeed and all social network sites with requests for making Mendeley Open Source!

Imagine the scenario where hundreds of clever people will be buried in Mendeley’s code trying to tweak it and make it better, faster and more reliable. These are very clever people and they work usually for nothing, maybe a like on Friendfeed or an invitation to the next Science Online meeting (let’s make it in some resort location). Mendeley will also have the opportunity to show their corporate clients that they have the community behind them and the community will go wherever Mendeley will go. It’s a win-win, there’s nothing to lose. And all I’m reading and feeding from my sources suggest that’s the differential in Mendeley’s history. They have the opportunity to put their app where their mouths are.

What side of History are you on, Mendeley?

Also, it does not make a sense for a company that in every level of management is publicly advocating for Open Science, Open Data, etc to keep their code closed. By opening their code, which for once I commend Mendeley’s team for deciding to do that, they will benefit from the same system they are now feeding from and will lead by example in this new Scientific movement. After all, what side of History are they on?

I think the API, even handicapped and quickly put together with so many problem, was the initial step towards a full open source adventure for them. I think it’s a bold move, but again, for the first time Mendeley’s team made a perfect decision, that will put the company shoulder-to-shoulder to other scientific and software innovators. When they will announce this – I don’t know, but I’m guessing in a couple of months – it will be a major breakthrough to the Open-movement, and the leadership-by-example will create an unstoppable momentum for all the open-sciencers.

You don’t read here often, but I applaud Mendeley for their boldness, openness and will to lead the New Science, from the right side of History.

And that little application becomes a bloody nuisance. The latest version wants to install a shady add-bar to your Explore/Firefox, maybe wants you to update it every hour. That little application has some many features now that the task it was suited for in the beginning, is just an afterthought now.

One example that comes to mind are the anti-virus applications. Free like AVG, paid as McAfee, they grew and grew and some of them cannot be uninstalled without a four-page long guide, or install so many add-ons that your computer looks like a mirror of Download.com (another example of bloated app/site).

I don’t know, again, if this is just a personal perspective, don’t know blog posts about it. But in the end, whenever something grows without control, or mismanaged control, be an application, site or company, there will be some type of evil component in whatever they provide. Of course, there are exceptions, but that’s what every rule asks for.

No, the web’s future (or The Future of the Web) is much larger than Facebook. The future of the web is an application that allows you to play in the financial market, find conferences and even plot a map with them, can analyse the stars, check browser histories, do science and screw the life of your worst enemies with a complex syntax and obscure data typing. I might have forgotten that this application saved lives in Haiti, intends to bring peace to the Middle East (via a very elaborate graph) and even solve the Tea Party issue in US (via a very elaborate graph). The future of the web (or the web’s future) is the one and only R. R can do everything and a little bit more.

But what R cannot do is find you a girlfriend. Or at least I haven’t read about. Until then, I’m a skeptic.

More Pepsi, please.

- Sad that Italy had to leave, even though they played poorly, it’s better to watch them play than the Slovaks.

- So much for the revival of “soccer” in US, it went out with a bad bang. Even worse is reading the American media talking about the most resilient team in the world, ready for prime time, the chances to win it all now, yes we can. It can be summarized by saying that the American media is composed by a bunch of idiots that only watch US games every four years. Thanks God the Canadians didn’t jump on their bandwagon.

- Brazil has a chance of wining it all, even though I detest that bunch of millionaire whiner. The level of competition is so low that the less bad will win. But watch out for Uruguay and Argentina, two major rivals that know how to make the whiners cringe.

- Sad the South Africa left in the first phase. There was no help from FIFA like South Korea in 2002. FIFA is one the most corrupt international bodies and I guess the South Africans were already happy to be hosting the games.

Three lessons on how to become the highly adorable MSFT. You have a long way to go Apple, but you will get there.

Now, if only Mendeley would help!