Reckon is a system to automatically update and distribute bioscience research software. This includes programs such as sequence analysis or phylogenetic inference. It has been developed by researchers at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. It provides a way to manage collaborative software development. The word “reckon” can mean estimation of the value of something, based on what is known about it, or an opinion or belief. With this in mind, Reckon is designed to address the issue of software being developed in silico, where the software is available for a community of researchers to use. However, it cannot be updated once it becomes obsolete. 

Why Reckon? 

• No need to write application code giving you time to docus on the programming part of your project. The rest is taken care of (i.e. updating, hosting and distributing your project). 
• It is more cost effective than setting up an in-house system to do this. 
• It is easy to use and there is no need for software developers. 
• You can easily collaborate with other scientists in the world and publish your software. 
• Reckon is a powerful collaborative research and development platform that helps you quickly build applications, manage updates and distribute them globally while enhancing collaboration, knowledge sharing, and integrity. 
• You can make your project available to a very wide audience, without having to worry about hosting it yourself. 
• You can build applications for use inside your business, but share the code with external scientists too.