The idea of an 'open-source' replacement academia is compelling. Currently academia generally has partial transparency and a closed competitiveness between research groups, where replicating results is non-trivial (at least in the comp sci research field I am in where sharing source is not standard).<p>The analogy of a git-hub for experiments makes sense; research is about expanding knowledge freely. In contrast, the partial disclosure and under-sharing of tricks of the trade between research groups is about the entrenched interests of particular groups.<p>The article makes a strong case for a system that removes the inefficiencies of the status quo, that disrupts the current university system, because that institution is no longer serving its initial purpose as well as it could be.<p>However, what is less clear, is what financial system would provide incentives in the academia-github system? Would the traditional advisor/advisee relationship provided in PhD programs also be substituted for something else? Would more people be doing volunteer research instead of being paid for it?