>>
>> Your points are well taken. However, my point is that this has been
>> discussed on an open mailing list. Things weren't *as* open as they could
>> have been, perhaps, in terms of board selection. But, there was opportunity
>> for people to provide input.
>
> I am on the numpy, scipy, matplotlib, ipython and cython mailing
> lists. Jarrod and Fernando are friends of mine. I've been obviously
> concerned about numpy governance for some time. I didn't know about
> this mailing list, had only a vague idea that some sort of foundation
> was being proposed and I had no idea at all that you'd selected a
> board. Would you say that was closer to 'open' or closer to 'closed'?
I see it a different way. First, the Foundation is not a NumPy-governance
thing. Certainly it could grow in that direction over time, but it isn't
there now, nor is that its goal. Second, the Foundation is just getting
started. It's only come together over the past couple of weeks. The fact
that we are talking about it now, seems to me to indicate that it is quite
"open" --- certainly closer to 'open' then you seem to imply. Also, the
fact that there was a public mailing list for its discussion certainly sounds
"open" to me (poorly advertised I will grant you). I tried to include as
many people as I thought were interested by the responses to the initial emails
on the list. I reached out to people that contacted me expressing their
interest, and included them on the mailing list. I can accept that I made
mistakes. I can guarantee that I will make more. Your feedback is
appreciated and noted.
The fact is that the Foundation is really a service organization that will
require a lot of work to run and administer. It's effectiveness at
fulfilling its mission will depend on how well it serves the group on this
list, as well as the other groups that are working on Python for Science. I'm
all for getting as many volunteers as we can get for the Foundation. I've
just been trying to get things organized. Sometimes this works best by phone
calls and direct contact, rather than mailing lists.
For those interested. The Foundation mission is to:
* Promote Open Source Software for Science
* Fund Open Source Projects in Science (currently NumPy, SciPy,
IPython, and Matplotlib are first-tier with a whole host of second-tier
projects that could received funding)
* through grants
* through code bounties
* through graduate-student scholarships
* Sponsor sprints
* Sponsor conferences
* Sponsor student travel
* etc., etc.
Whether or not it can do any of those things depends on whether or not it can
raise money from people and organizations that benefit from the Scientific
Python Stack. All of this will be advertised more as the year progresses.
Best regards,
-Travis
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