Recommendations to clarify NASA open source requirements

Abstract

The software community has specific definitions for terms such as "open source software," "free software," and "permissive license," but scientists proposing software development efforts to NASA are not always knowledgeable about these definitions. Misunderstandings about the meaning of these terms can result in problems of fairness with solicitations, because scientists who interpret the terms differently than NASA intends may either needlessly limit the scope of their proposed work, or unwittingly propose work that does not comply with software licensing requirements. It is therefore recommended that NASA adopt definitions of the above terms that are in line with software community usage, that these definitions be communicated as part of solicitations to ensure a common understanding, and that proposals be required to identify what software licenses the proposers expect to use.

Space physicists need to up their software development game

“…Policymakers should take care to ensure that software licensing policy is consistent with the terminology and practices of the FOSS community; policies that are vague or inconsistent with community usage may perpetuate misconceptions about software licensing. Maintaining consistency here will lower friction between the scientific and FOSS communities and maximize the ability of others to utilize software created by the scientific community [15].…”