I have recently started a new job at an NHS hospital in Scotland. Since
I took up this post 6 months ago I have had an ongoing dispute with the
IT secutiry dept. who refuse to install R on my computer. I previously
worked in another branch of the NHS where R was widely used and yet
there is nothing I can say which will persuade the IT dept here to even
visit the website! With some help from our head of department, they
have now agreed to install R but only if they receive an email from 'R'
ensuring that it is licensed for commercial use, is compaitable with
Windows XP and will not affect the networked computer system here. My
only other option for data anlaysis is Excel, we have no money for
S-plus or any other stats programme. Can anyone suggest anything or
send me a suitable email?
Many thanks,
Georgina
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The information contained in this message may be confide...{{dropped:12}}
I think there is something else going on here, since no "security" organization would accept an email from a nonexistent organization as justification for adding software that they are suspicious of to their system. On the other hand, if you can't figure out what is really going on, and you can loosen up some funds, you can probably get Revolutions R to provider you with commercial support. "McAllister, Gina" <gina.mcallister at luht.scot.nhs.uk> wrote:>I have recently started a new job at an NHS hospital in Scotland. Since >I took up this post 6 months ago I have had an ongoing dispute with the >IT secutiry dept. who refuse to install R on my computer. I previously >worked in another branch of the NHS where R was widely used and yet >there is nothing I can say which will persuade the IT dept here to even >visit the website! With some help from our head of department, they >have now agreed to install R but only if they receive an email from 'R' >ensuring that it is licensed for commercial use, is compaitable with >Windows XP and will not affect the networked computer system here. My >only other option for data anlaysis is Excel, we have no money for >S-plus or any other stats programme. Can anyone suggest anything or >send me a suitable email? > >Many thanks, >Georgina > >***************************************************************** >The information contained in this message may be confide...{{dropped:12}} > >______________________________________________ >R-help at r-project.org mailing list >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Newmiller The ..... ..... Go Live... DCN:<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us> Basics: ##.#. ##.#. Live Go... Live: OO#.. Dead: OO#.. Playing Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries O.O#. #.O#. with /Software/Embedded Controllers) .OO#. .OO#. rocks...1k --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
On Jun 17, 2010, at 4:28 AM, McAllister, Gina wrote:> I have recently started a new job at an NHS hospital in Scotland. Since > I took up this post 6 months ago I have had an ongoing dispute with the > IT secutiry dept. who refuse to install R on my computer. I previously > worked in another branch of the NHS where R was widely used and yet > there is nothing I can say which will persuade the IT dept here to even > visit the website! With some help from our head of department, they > have now agreed to install R but only if they receive an email from 'R' > ensuring that it is licensed for commercial use, is compaitable with > Windows XP and will not affect the networked computer system here. My > only other option for data anlaysis is Excel, we have no money for > S-plus or any other stats programme. Can anyone suggest anything or > send me a suitable email? > > Many thanks, > GeorginaI don't know that you will get any official pronouncement from the R Foundation that R will not affect your computer network. It is certainly not designed to interfere with normal network operations. However, there are too many factors to consider and R does require network/internet access to perform certain functions, such as downloading CRAN packages and depending upon what you will be doing with R, accessing remote dataset files, remote database servers and the like. They are essentially asking someone with no knowledge of your particular environment or intended use to legally certify that the application will not, in some undefined fashion, affect network operation. That's like asking a physician to prescribe a drug for a patient that they have not seen and guarantee that the drug will not have any side effects. With respect to commercial use: http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#Can-I-use-R-for-commercial-purposes_003f R is licensed under the GPL, much like Linux. The GPL is specifically designed to preclude usage restrictions: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#NoMilitary If they are using Linux based servers anywhere (eg. RHEL), they should be familiar with the GPL concept. The GPL does not restrict commercial use and only really comes into play when the issue of the distribution of software is relevant. FWIW, I have been using R in a "commercial" setting for almost 9 years. You might also want to point them to the e-mail domains of some of the folks who post on the list, who work for various large government agencies and for-profit commercial companies around the world. R is not just for academic use, although it's etiology is academic and the majority of the R Core developers are located at international academic institutions. With respect to Windows XP, I would point them to the Windows FAQ: http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/rw-FAQ.html and perhaps the current Windows README file: http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/windows/base/README.R-2.11.1 R is compatible with Windows 2000 forward (XP, Vista and 7). On a more general level, since you are in a healthcare setting, you might also want to point them to: http://www.r-project.org/doc/R-FDA.pdf which might provide additional comfort that R is being used for regulated clinical trial activities. HTH, Marc Schwartz
Pardon my english but you're working for idiots. I'd look elsewhere if there are other options. IT departments should be here to help get things done, not to help prevent good work from being done. Frank On 06/17/2010 04:28 AM, McAllister, Gina wrote:> I have recently started a new job at an NHS hospital in Scotland. Since > I took up this post 6 months ago I have had an ongoing dispute with the > IT secutiry dept. who refuse to install R on my computer. I previously > worked in another branch of the NHS where R was widely used and yet > there is nothing I can say which will persuade the IT dept here to even > visit the website! With some help from our head of department, they > have now agreed to install R but only if they receive an email from 'R' > ensuring that it is licensed for commercial use, is compaitable with > Windows XP and will not affect the networked computer system here. My > only other option for data anlaysis is Excel, we have no money for > S-plus or any other stats programme. Can anyone suggest anything or > send me a suitable email? > > Many thanks, > Georgina > >-- Frank E Harrell Jr Professor and Chairman School of Medicine Department of Biostatistics Vanderbilt University
Worst case scenario you can install R as a user as well, you don't need administration rights. Regarding data analysis in Excel : http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~bdm25/excel2007.pdf : peer reviewed Other sources : http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/~nhunt/pottel.pdf http://www.forecastingprinciples.com/files/McCullough.pdf And this one might interest the IT departement too : http://www.cropdesign.com/jobs.php CropDesign (BASF) looking for a data analyst that knows R. If BASF is using it, quite sure it's safe... Good luck convincing them. Cheers Joris On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:28 AM, McAllister, Gina <gina.mcallister at luht.scot.nhs.uk> wrote:> I have recently started a new job at an NHS hospital in Scotland. ?Since > I took up this post 6 months ago I have had an ongoing dispute with the > IT secutiry dept. who refuse to install R on my computer. ?I previously > worked in another branch of the NHS where R was widely used and yet > there is nothing I can say which will persuade the IT dept here to even > visit the website! ?With some help from our head of department, they > have now agreed to install R but only if they receive an email from 'R' > ensuring that it is licensed for commercial use, is compaitable with > Windows XP and will not affect the networked computer system here. ?My > only other option for data anlaysis is Excel, we have no money for > S-plus or any other stats programme. ?Can anyone suggest anything or > send me a suitable email? > > Many thanks, > Georgina > > ***************************************************************** > The information contained in this message may be confi...{{dropped:25}}
Dear Gina On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 10:28 AM, McAllister, Gina <gina.mcallister at luht.scot.nhs.uk> wrote:> S-plus or any other stats programme. ?Can anyone suggest anything or > send me a suitable email? >This issue pops up regularly on r-help, so there are many ideas available in the ML archives. One of my favourite answers comes from Daniel Viar, who compiled a very informative e-mail [1] on why R could be accepted in a professional environment. Another informative resource, albeit similar, comes from a blog post "How to get IT to accept, and love, R" [2] by Revolution Analytics. Regards Liviu [1] http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help at r-project.org/msg45768.html [2] http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2009/02/how-to-get-it-to-accept-and-love-r.html
I think that Marc S. has provided some of the better refs. for R and its usage in commercial and organizational settings. However, the kinds of bloody-minded "We're going to insist you use inappropriate software because we are idiots" messages are not news to many of us. Duncan points out that R has "Absolutely no warranty", but unlike Excel, you are allowed to comment on it. It is very clear to some of us that the IT folk who like to use Microsoft software in a mindless way have never read the EULA or asked their legal advisors about its lack of warranty AND the fact you are not permitted to warn your friends in reviews or opinions, at least if you keep to the EULA.. Fortunately, there are people who do try to provide warnings. I recommend The European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group http://eusprig.org/ especially their horror stories -- were talking big money here. They've been going a while. I participated in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 conferences, but finally decided I'd have more success convincing people to use R than to use spreadsheets responsibly. Eric Neuwirth and Thomas Baier have some R-Excel interfaces that take a different approach that is interesting. As a tangential approach, are your IT folk willing to offer virtual machines? In our Telfer School setup, the orthodoxy is strongly Win-obsessed, but it turns out there were some applications powerful folk needed that use Linux etc. VMWare was the chosen solution, and it allowed me to have my own Ubuntu setup. I'm happy not to be bothered with all the virus checking and install controls of the central system, and the IT folk aren't worried I'll cause trouble for them either. My machine cannot send email outside the local domain (to control spam forwarding), but that is a pretty minor issue. JN