MATLAB Central Newsreader - why do you contribute to File Exchange?

why do you contribute to File Exchange?

sylva Wong — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:09:16 -0400

I am amazed to see so many valuable matlab codes on this
community.Sure I will recommend this website to my
classmates. Just curiously ask a question as my post title.

The self-satisfaction?
The motivation for self-improvement?
There seems no any other practical benefit like
bonus,rewards,software permission,etc., are paid to the
contributor by Mathworks.

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

David — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:22:58 -0400

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

sylva Wong — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:35:11 -0400

"David " <dave@bigcompany.com> wrote in message <ffpqq2$gk0
$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> "sylva Wong" <sylva2004@sina.com> wrote in message
> <ffpq0c$85h$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> > I am amazed to see so many valuable matlab codes on
this
> > community.Sure I will recommend this website to my
> > classmates. Just curiously ask a question as my post
> title.
> >
> > The self-satisfaction?
> > The motivation for self-improvement?
> > There seems no any other practical benefit like
> > bonus,rewards,software permission,etc., are paid to the
> > contributor by Mathworks.
> >
> >
> >
>
> because some of us hate to see anyone have to re-invent
> the wheel.
>
thanks.that really counts

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

John D'Errico — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:36:16 -0400

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

Duane Hanselman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:17:01 -0400

"sylva Wong" <sylva2004@sina.com> wrote in message
<ffpq0c$85h$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> I am amazed to see so many valuable matlab codes on this
> community.Sure I will recommend this website to my
> classmates. Just curiously ask a question as my post title.
>
> The self-satisfaction?
> The motivation for self-improvement?
> There seems no any other practical benefit like
> bonus,rewards,software permission,etc., are paid to the
> contributor by Mathworks.

For me it is totally and absolutely a self-centered ego
need. I crave the adoration of the world. I have come to
accept that I will never be the dictator of a country that
commands attention of the free world, so I figure this is
the next best thing.

Not.

In reality, I get a lot of grief from my employer and peers
for doing things like write books (10 so far) and contribute
to the FEX. So maybe I have a need to be chastised?

"Mastering MATLAB 7" by the account of one reviewer on
Amazon.com is simply the stealing of material from the
MATLAB documentation.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Yes. I agree with what John D. says in this thread. Give
back to the world without strings attached. You will sleep
better at night.

Duane

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

Idin Motedayen-Aval — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:52:43 -0400

sylva Wong wrote:
> I am amazed to see so many valuable matlab codes on this
> community.Sure I will recommend this website to my
> classmates. Just curiously ask a question as my post title.
>
> The self-satisfaction?
> The motivation for self-improvement?
> There seems no any other practical benefit like
> bonus,rewards,software permission,etc., are paid to the
> contributor by Mathworks.
>
>
>

I suppose for the same reason that people write elaborate articles for
Wikipedia. I once heard someone say it's one of those things that only
works in practice, and not in theory. :)

Idin

--
Idin Motedayen-Aval
The MathWorks, Inc.
zq=[4 2 5 -15 -1 -3 24 -57 45 -12 19 -12 15 -8 3 -7 8 -69 53 12 -2];
char(filter(1,[1,-1],[105 zq])), clear zq

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

dpb — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:16:08 -0400

sylva Wong wrote:
> I am amazed ...

To add to the others' comments...

Does the Red Cross likewise amaze you?

--

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

sylva Wong — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:10:59 -0400

dpb <none@non.net> wrote in message <ffq54v$998
$1@aioe.org>...
> sylva Wong wrote:
> > I am amazed ...
>
> To add to the others' comments...
>
> Does the Red Cross likewise amaze you?
>
> --

I am always amazed to see the good things in the world.

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

Bjorn Gustavsson — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:37:27 -0400

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

Tim Davis — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:10:44 -0400

"Bjorn Gustavsson" <bjonr@irf.se> wrote in message ...

A very good question. There are many reasons. Some are
very selfless, while others give me indirect benefit, and
some give me direct benefit.

I'm an academic. Like all academics, I get paid to create
new knowledge (research) and then pass that knowledge onto
others (teaching students, publishing papers, etc). No one
actually looks to see how many codes I post at the file
exchange and then correlates that back into, say, my
performance evaluation, but part of my annual performance
evaluation is related to how much impact my work is having
on the field as a whole. So there is an intangible reward
for me to post codes.

Writing a sparse matrix code is not for the faint-at-heart;
unlike some areas of research, I can't just publish the
pseudo-code in a journal article and expect others to
implement the code themselves (~50k lines of code just to do
sparse LU is a bit daunting). So to "pass that knowledge"
on to others, I write the code myself and it becomes part of
my "publication" list. Most of my File Exchange codes also
appear as published algorithms of the ACM, for which I do
get a direct benefit from via my annual performance
evaluation (more impact, more papers, more research = higher
raises, promotions, etc). So you can already get my code
from the ACM - it's a simple matter to also make the code
available at the File Exchange.

My salary comes from taxes paid in Florida, and from federal
taxes (via grant funds). So it seems reasonable to pass the
fruits of my labor back to the people who paid for it.

Re: why do you contribute to File Exchange?

Tim Davis — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:36:15 -0400

There is another benefit I forgot to mention.

Suppose I write a code that I intend just to use for myself.
It would take too much to turn it into a commercial
product. I may be an academic, or in industry, either one.

If I keep the code to myself, only I benefit from it. Also,
however, I'm the only one who can improve it.

If I post it as open source then others can benefit, but I
can benefit too. I get others to use the code who find it
useful, and then they contribute to the code. In the end,
for sharing my code, I get a better code that I can use myself.