[Numpy-discussion] A Foundation for the support of NumPy and SciPy

[Travis Oliphant]

Hi all,

At the recent US SciPy conference and at other times in the past I have been approached about the possibility of creating a foundation to support the development of SciPy and NumPy. 

I know there are varying opinions about that, but I am generally very supportive of the idea and would like to encourage it as much as I can.   It would be interesting to have a public discussion of the issues, but these discussions should not clog the main list of either NumPy or SciPy.   

As a result, there has been set up a public mailing list for discussion of the creation of a Foundation for the Advancement of Scientific, Technical, and Engineering Computing Using High Level Abstractions (FASTECUHLA).     The list is fastecuhla at googlegroups.com

This is a place-holder name that can be replaced if somebody comes up with a better one.     Please sign up for that list if you would like to contribute to the discussion. 

The items to discuss include: 
	* where to organize
	* what the purposes should be
	* who should be members
	* where should money come from
	* what other organizations exist that we could either piggy-back on or emulate
	* what are the pitfalls on starting a foundation to support NumPy and SciPy versus other approaches
	* who has time to participate in its organization and maintenance

One important feature is that I see this foundation as a service opportunity and obligation and not as a "feather-in-the-cap" or something to join lightly.   I'm hopeful that it can be a place where people and organizations can donate money and know that it will be going directly to further the core packages for Scientific Computing with Python. 
 
Thank you, 

-Travis