Default to Open: The Scientific Method

As developers, we are not satisfied with "the program runs in my computer," nor the lazy "it works for me"explanation. We demand that the program must be tested in different computers, by different people. We expect the code to include tests, and the tests to have been run by many different people. Only then do we trust the code.

It is essential, therefore, for the proper functioning of the scientific method to have a system of dissemination of information by which researchers can share with others the full description of their hypothesis, and the precise recipe used to perform their experiments. Armed with that precise recipe, other researchers are expected to repeat the experiments, and in turn report on the outcome of such experiments. Sometimes the outcomes will match, sometimes they will not, and then all the researchers involved are supposed to look at the details of the process to figure out the causes behind the differences...