Daniel Viar <dan.viar <at> gmail.com> writes: > > I currently use R at work "under the radar", but there's a chance I > could loose that access. I'd like to get our company to feel > comfortable with open source and R in particular. Does anyone have > any experience with their company's IT department and management that > they would be willing to share? How does one get an all Microsoft > shop on board with allowing users to user R? I know about the recent > NY Times article and recent news. I'm afraid I may need some case > studies or examples of what other companies have done. > > Any help would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks > Dan Viar > Chesapeake, VA > > ______________________________________________ > R-help <at> r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > Just my opinions from my own experience...
Don't talk to just anyone in your IT department, but try to identify someone who a) has some authority/decision-making power; and b) is likely to be somewhat OSS knowledgable/tolerant/keen. Go through proper procedures. In my organisation, there is a specific process for approval of software. I filled in appropriate forms and provided supporting documentation such as: http://www.r-project.org/doc/R-FDA.pdf copy of the GPL and references such as http://www.groklaw.net/article.php? story=2008081313212422 R installation and administration manual NY Times article I also made futher points about the extensive use of R in peer-reviewed journals such as JSS, and the superiority of the email help list and archives over the support offered for most proprietary products (with specific examples). Most of this is to make it abundantly clear that you are talking about a quality, open-source product, not some small piece of freeware developed by an individual. I have found two main types of IT concerns. Firstly, they are appropriately concerned about licensing issues. You need to reinforce that, though free, it is licensed - under the GPL. Secondly, they may have concerns simply because it is not the existing/approved/supported norm in your organisation. I have found that it is important here to make it clear that you will not be expecting them to 'support' the software in the sense of helping you learn to use it (which is often the case for office-type software and its users in organisations). And if all else fails, and your organisation's policies refer to 'installing' software, you can always run it portably, even from an external drive (at least in a Windows environment). Ultimately, though, I think the thing that helped most to convince our IT department to let me try R was when they themselves had the nightmare of dealing with the licensing and accounts division of a certain well-known statistical package proprietor. Michael Bibo Queensland Health ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
