Reading about Google keeping their long tradition of discontinuing products/services, often after just a few years[1]. On the other hand, the minimal "bus factor"[2] of my open source offerings is one of the stated reasons for people to not use them, even though the vast majority of the 200+ https://thi.ng/ libraries & tools has been actively maintained for much longer than many Google projects (99% by this single person)... Even many of my older projects which are defunkt by now have had an active period which outlasted many Google services, and — crucially — they're are stable, still available and can still be used now (e.g. my Java library collection developed between 2005-2013 still has regular users)...

Maybe internal politics, re-orgs and layoffs in BigTech are an equal/bigger risk factor for users (aside from other differences in design philosophy and resulting coupling and tech debt, e.g. massive all-in frameworks vs. lightweight composable pick-n-mix toolkits)?

[1] https://killedbygoogle.com/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor

Please share with your colleagues:
Asking all US-based scientists:
Are there repositories of #OpenAccess papers etc. pp. that need mirrored?
(I'm proud #GuerillaOpenAccess, but not currently trying to do an Aaron Swartz #RIP )

You've got research to safeguard?
Consider uploading to https://zenodo.org (run by CERN, well established, trustworthy, you can private your uploads)

To organize: https://matrix.to/#/#safeguarding-research:matrix.org
(Everyone welcome! #BusFactor)

@academicchatter @academicsunite

People who use GitHub: have you designated an account successor in case something happens to you?

A successor cannot log into your account, but can manage your public repositories after presenting proof of your death.

Probably something we should all do sooner rather than later, especially if we're responsible for projects that other people rely on …

https://docs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/setting-up-and-managing-your-personal-account-on-github/managing-access-to-your-personal-repositories/maintaining-ownership-continuity-of-your-personal-accounts-repositories
#GitHub #BusFactor