Re: [matplotlib-devel] Matplotlib and Numfocus Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement (FSA)

[Nicolas P. R. <Nic...@in...>]

+1. Great news.

Nicolas.

> On 21 Jan 2015, at 20:22, Chris Barker <chr...@no...> wrote:
> 
> +1 -- sounds great!
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 7:48 AM, Michael Droettboom <md...@st...> wrote:
> Matplotlib
>           is a widely used, well regarded, and powerful visualization
>           library that has dominated the Python visualization stack for
>           over a decade. However, to maintain that position, matplotlib
>           must continue to evolve. Complementary or alternative
>           libraries are appearing at an increasing rate, including
>           browser-based plotting and GPU acceleration. To maintain its
>           leadership position for the next decade, Matplotlib must
>           interface with these alternatives while simultaneously
>           expanding its capabilities and becoming easier to use and
>           learn.
> 
> 
> Matplotlib’s
>           large existing user base (greater than 50,000) means that new
>           developments need to be carefully balanced with maintaining
>           existing interfaces.  With the large user and code base comes
>           a significant maintenance and user-support burden.  These
>           responsibilities currently account for a majority of the
>           core-developer time spent on matplotlib and has resulted in
>           both the code base and community being in a healthier state
>           than ever before. Even 6 years ago there was no automated
>           testing to speak of and the number of contributors continues
>           to soar on github. However, this effort is, for the most part,
>           done on a volunteer basis in the nights and weekends of the
>           core developers.  To go beyond this maintenance level—to make
>           step-change improvements for the benefit of matplotlib’s
>           users—will require funding for full-time developers. Inspired
>           and encouraged by the example of IPython, we would like to
>           begin the process of fundraising.
> 
> 
> Managing
>           funding on the needed scale is a complex and time-consuming
>           process.  Thankfully, NumFOCUS, a 501(c)3 charity organisation
>           co-founded by John Hunter, offers a fiscal sponsorship
>           agreement to minimize the administrative and legal burden on
>           open source projects. We would like to enlist NumFOCUS as our
>           agents in all legal and financial matters, including banking,
>           accepting donations as a non-profit, payroll, and access to
>           legal counsel.  As part of the agreement, NumFOCUS would
>           charge a percentage of all funds raised to cover their costs.
>            The full text of the agreement is attached.
> 
> 
> To
>           comply with the legal and accounting requirements of a
>           non-profit, matplotlib needs to form an administrative body to
>           interact with NumFOCUS and direct the disbursement of any
>           funds.  The proposed initial members of the body, are myself
>           (Mike Droettboom), Eric Firing, Phil Elson, and Thomas
>           Caswell, with Thomas acting as the point of contact with
>           NumFOCUS.
> 
> 
> In
>           practice, signing an FSA will have very little impact on the
>           matplotlib project itself - it will still be BSD-licensed and
>           community-driven as it has always been, and the only
>           motivation for doing this is to give us an opportunity to
>           apply for funding to do more work on matplotlib. We'd like to
>           canvas the community's opinion on the matter, but to put a
>           concrete timeline on the discussion, we would like to propose
>           signing an FSA with NumFOCUS in 3 weeks (Feb 10th 2015) unless
>           there is a major community discomfort with us doing so. 
> 
> 
>         
> 
> 
> 
>           Cheers,
> 
> 
>           Michael Droettboom
> 
> 
>         
> 
> 
> -- 
> Michael Droettboom
> Science Software Branch
> Space Telescope Science Institute
> 
> 
> http://www.droettboom.com
> 
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> 
> -- 
> 
> Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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