One way to characterize scientific software communities is through their institutions. Three distinct categories of institutions that develop, use and support scientific software are corporations, research labs and universities. Each category tends to have distinct business models and sets of priorities. However, the broad scientific software ecosystem is inter-dependent and complementary, where products from one category are widely used in others. Even more interaction is possible if the scientific software community can come to understand commonalities and differences.
This year's theme is Software Design