In terms of software, “continuous development” of the software is the best quality assurance. Continuous development requires either the original developer to continue development, or the next generation of developers to take over the development. It has been noted that when the original developer has used “open source,” a development paradigm in which the source code is kept open to all, highly motivated and competent developers will participate in development. This makes it easier for a project to survive. However, at the same time, when the source code is opened to a broad audience a fork in the source code tends to occur. When this happens, those with a high level of competence and motivation abandon the development and go their separate ways. In such a situation, it is difficult for a project to survive. In the case of Denshin 8 go, a guardian for the source code was appointed, and the original developer and the guardians avoided this dilemma. Richard Stallman of the GNU project and Linus Torvalds of Linux project act as legitimate guardians to avoid fork.
ABAS is supported by Grant-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.