[Python-Dev] Democracy

[Guido van Rossum]

> > > A better comparison would be Habitat for Humanity (and voluntary
> > > associations in general).  [...]
> > 
> On 23 April 2003, Guido van Rossum said:
> > Maybe.  I get lots of junk mail asking for contributions from
> > HforH and frankly I've always thought of them as yet another
> > charity: there are lots of these, and most of them are so much
> > larger than our community that comparison is difficult.

[Greg Ward]
> Don't forget, the PSF is gunning for charity status too.  That's
> just the most obvious way to state legally, "We are a community with
> shared values, etc. etc.".  I think there are a lot of parallels
> between open source development and other volunteer organizations.
> Heck, I like to justify the occasional weekend spent hunkered down
> in front of the computer by saying I'm doing volunteer work.  IMHO,
> hacking on Python is the moral equivalent of helping to maintain
> public-access hiking trails.  (Although the latter is better
> exercise, it's nice not to have to jump in the shower after a day
> spent hacking on Python.  ;-)

Sure (although I hope you jump in the shower anyway :).  But I don't
want the PSF to grow to the point where we have to send junk mail to
people who haven't heard about us.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)