Speaker
Description
Often, software developed within a research group to solve specific problems
evolves into an integral tool, sometimes not only for the original group, but
also for other groups and institutions where it may be adapted. A well-known
problem, however, is to guarantee long-term stability and maintenance, as well
as the further development of the software. A lack of (permanent) funding as
well as high personnel fluctuation, among others, pose challenges
In this talk, we will present how maintenance and development of such a research
software, namely our open-source data-management toolkit LinkAhead (formerly
known as CaosDB), could be solved by founding IndiScale, a company that provides
services around this software. We will explain which considerations lead to the
decision to found and why LinkAhead was well-suited for founding a supporting
Start-up company.
We will also give an overview the problems to be faced, as well as the different
requirements to project management and day-to-day work compared to the life as
researchers and research software engineers in academia.
