On 2014-05-02 10:38 PM, Matthew Sundquist wrote:
> Sorry for being slow! This went into the wrong folder.
>
> Thanks for writing back and checking it out. The library is quite new so
> it's super helpful to hear feedback.
>
> Plotly in this case is meant to be a sharing, collaboration, and
> visualization layer. Like what GitHub is for sharing and collaborating
> on code, we'd love to do for sharing and collaborating on data and plots.
This is helpful but I am still not clear on where various pieces of data
and code are *stored*.
Github is unusual in (so far) maintaining its existence and
independence; the track record of similar collaboration services is not
good. They typically have a lifetime of less than five years, after
which they go out of business entirely, are purchased and shut down, or
reinvent themselves as something which does not serve their original
function. As such, in a scientific context I am only okay with using
them for secondary functions -- not the core function of preserving my
data and results long-term.
What this means for your project is: I'm only interested in using it if
*all of my data* and *all of the essential code to produce the plots*
can be stored on a server that I (or some entity that I trust to remain
in existence long-term) control. Essential code means code that, if it
went away, the plots would disappear or lose basic interactivity. It is
okay if the sharing-and-remixing part depends on an external service,
because that is a secondary function -- in principle someone could just
grab the raw data, do what they want with it, and put it up on their own
host. (It would be *better* if the sharing-and-remixing didn't depend
on an external service, but I recognize that that's a tall order in
today's Web.)
zw