Your time is the most valuable thing you have, so when taking part in volunteer activities it is always worth asking “why?”. Here are a few reasons:
First, Scientific Python is about science. And if you believe that science makes the world better, then improving scientific tooling is extremely important! By putting better open source tools in the hands of researchers, we can help them to produce accurate results, do so in a transparent way, while also improving reproducibility. We believe that scientific tools should be open, and that they should belong to those who use them.
Second, Scientific Python is about openness. When you take part in building open source software, your work may be used by thousands, sometimes millions of people. Your software may only be a tiny cog in a big machine, but it could help fly the next space mission, decipher the origins of the universe, or help invent radically new medical treatments. That is real impact!
Of course, it’s not just about science and researchers, but also about you: the volunteer contributor. And as we said before, we strongly believe that scientific tools should be developed and owned by those that use them. This is the best way to ensure that tools meet the needs of science.
But, even if you are not a scientist, you can contribute and benefit from contributing.
Being part of the open source community, you will work with some of the very best programmers in the world. Through their feedback, you will become a better developer and also learn how to be an excellent collaborator and team member. You’ll learn best practices of software development and engineering, and how to best present and communicate your ideas.
Last, but not least, you will likely work with and make friends with people from around the globe!
These are but a few of the reasons why we contribute to open source Scientific Python.
Shaping the tools you and others use has been a transformative experience for many of us, and we hope it will be for you too.
We cannot wait to welcome you to the Scientific Python community!