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OSS Index Contributor Asks: Where ‘R’ You?

Editor’s Note: Many people contribute their time and talents to open source projects. It’s always interesting to discover the diversity of expertise and perspective.

Many developers are introduced to Sonatype by way of Nexus Repository OSS, DepShield, or through other free developer tools. Others discover us through OSS Index, our free catalog of open source components and scanning tools. Still others find us the “old fashioned” way: shared passions and community contribution.

To learn more, I chatted with Dr. Colin Gillespie of Jumping Rivers data science training and consultancy with a strong focus on R and Python. Colin is co-author of the book, Efficient R Programming, among other accolades. He is also a recent contributor to OSS Index.

How did you get involved with open source software?

During my PhD (1999-2002), the department made the switch from S+ to the newly released programming language R v.1.0. I used R (as well as Fortran 77) to simulate epidemic type processes. After my PhD, I moved to Newcastle University as a Statistics lecturer. As an academic, I was able to combine interests (computing) with my research. One of the nice things is that all this could be open-source.

How did you hear about Sonatype?

Jeffry [of Sonatype] emailed one of the R mailing lists about an issue that came up in the newly created oysteR package. The description of the package piqued my interest.

What prompted you to get involved with oysteR?

One of the services that Jumping Rivers offers is monitoring R and python related infrastructure. For example, it’s straightforward to create a Shiny or Flask dashboard, but it’s difficult to monitor it for vulnerabilities. When I came across oysteR, it seemed like the natural tool to fit into our toolchain.

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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Sonatype Blog authored by Katie McCaskey. Read the original post at: https://blog.sonatype.com/oss-index-contributor-asks-where-r-you