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

[Michiel de H. <mjl...@ya...>]

+1

Best,
-Michiel

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 1/21/15, Michael Droettboom <md...@st...> wrote:

 Subject: [Matplotlib-users] Matplotlib and Numfocus Fiscal Sponsorship	Agreement (FSA)
 To: "mat...@li..." <mat...@li...>, "matplotlib-users" <mat...@li...>
 Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 12:48 AM
 
 
   
 
     
   
   
     
     
       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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