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From: Joe H. <jh...@oo...> - 2005-10-11 14:33:48
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After SciPy '04, Perry, Janet, and a few others and I put together a roadmap and framework, called ASP, for people to contribute to all the parts of SciPy other than the software: docs, packaging, website, etc. There was much interest expressed, and a few people even signed on the electronic dotted line to be involved: http://www.scipy.org/wikis/accessible_scipy/AccessibleSciPy The roadmap is laid out in this thread, which is linked in the first paragraph of the page above: http://www.scipy.org/mailinglists/mailman?fn=scipy-dev/2004-October/002412.html The first thing we did was to gather all the external projects using SciPy that we could find, and make an index page. The community found them and Fernando Perez did the hard work (more than he bargained for) of collating everything into the index page: http://www.scipy.org/wikis/topical_software/TopicalSoftware That is now a live wiki page, so if your project isn't on there, please add it! We were gearing up for effort #2, a web-site overhaul, early this year, when Travis announced his intention to heal the rift between the small- and large-array communities. We held up our push on web development, which was a few days from kickoff, so that it wouldn't take volunteers from his more-crucial effort. We all know the story of last year: Travis worked like crazy, called for volunteers, got only a few, and finished the job anyway. Now he's publishing a book in hopes of supporting some of his work from the revenues. He's made it clear that he will not be offended by or opposed to free docs, and may even contribute to them. He's also still Head Nummie and is leading the hard work of testing and bug swatting. Of course, we all want him to continue, and most of us freely admit our getting more than we are giving, and our gratitude to Travis, Todd, Robert, and the other core developers. Meanwhile, we have the problem of needing some basic docs that are free, and there seems to be quite a bit of interest in the community for doing one or more free docs. This seems to have more community energy behind it now than a web overhaul, so let's do it. The wiki and procedures are all set up to do some docs, and have been for about a year now. If you're interested in doing some docs, either as the lead author of a doc, as a contributor, or as a reviewer, please sign up on http://www.scipy.org/wikis/accessible_scipy/AccessibleSciPy The goal of the signups page is to make it easy for people to find each other: for lead authors to find people who will help them, for the community to identify who is taking part in what efforts, for low-level-of-effort volunteers to become hooked up with bigger projects, etc. There should be dozens of names there, not just three! So: If you're interested in LEADING A DOC, please add your name to the page, make a page for your doc on the wiki, and hang it off the main page, as "Scipy Cookbook" has done (there's a help link at the top of the page with instructions). A project can be anything from writing a collaborative book from scratch, to writing a monograph, to editing and revising existing docs. Announce your project on scipy-dev. If you would like to do a little work but not take the lead on something, you can contribute to the Cookbook or sign up to be a reviewer or contributor, either on an existing doc or at large. Or, contact a doc lead directly and sign up under that project. Please read the roadmap for ideas of docs we thought the community needs. The roadmap document is meant to be amended. For example, is the idea of using the docstrings to make a full-blown reference manual a good idea? I think so, since it's a rather self-updating format, but it will require some substantial work to get them all fleshed out and up to par. Discuss plans, changes, and ongoing efforts for docs on the scipy-dev mailing. It would be nice to have each project have a home on scipy.org, and Plone has excellent workflow-management tools. But, it's ok to home a project on your own site and just put a link on scipy.org. Finally, PLEASE everyone buy Travis's book if you can! Wait for the price to go up. Buy copies for everyone in your lab, if you can afford that. Buy one for your grandmother. It looks like it will be a really nice book, but it's more than that. This is a way to support development, which everyone desperately needs but few have the time (and fewer the skill and experience) to do. If you're at a company that benefits from SciPy and that hasn't already contributed resources to the effort, please consider parting with a larger chunk of change, either by buying more copies or by hiring Travis or others directly to do ongoing maintenance and package development. --jh-- |