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About

The DISC Committee and Program​

DISC Program Mission​

NumFOCUS recognizes that the open source data science community is currently highly homogenous. We believe that diverse contributors and community members produce better science and better projects. NumFOCUS’s Diversity & Inclusion in Scientific Computing (“DISC”) Program strives to help create a more diverse community through initiatives and programming devoted to increasing participation by and inclusion of underrepresented people.

DISC Unconference Mission​

The Unconference aims to produce tools and facilitate activities that will lead to a more diverse and inclusive open-source scientific computing community. We will host approximately 35 participants made up of new contributors, project maintainers, open source enthusiasts, and champions of community inclusion efforts interested in impacting their community through an unconference style event that will focus on collaborating on efforts to build resources to distribute and share with the broader open-source community. Participants will discuss and generate ideas for practical and scalable solutions, identify best practices, and share knowledge that welcomes, encourages, and fosters community growth inclusive of people from all backgrounds and identities.

Outdoors picture of all in-person participants of the 2023 DISC Unconference in Amsterdam. There are 33 people looking at the camera, and it is a sunny day.

The DISC Unconference​

Open-source scientific software projects serve as critical digital infrastructure in the public interest. These projects require a healthy, diverse community of contributors for long-term sustainability. As we learned from the outcomes of the CDR project sponsored by the Moore Foundation, the profile of a typical contributor can be summarized as an upper-class, highly educated, white male from North America and/or Central and Western Europe (Contributor Diversification and Retention research Baseline report, July 2021). There are many talented individuals from all over the world with diverse backgrounds whose contributions could enrich the open-source ecosystem.

The diverse perspectives in open-source projects are even more important than ever since unconscious bias might greatly affect AI software. Working with a diverse group of contributors could reduce this bias.

Approach​

We recognize the need to build a collaboration space for DEI leaders representing different global regions and types of underrepresented groups. Continuing the successes of the previous DISC Unconference, we will organize another edition of this beloved community event.

Based on our experiences, we would like to focus on the Global South for our 2025 event, reflected in the main event's location and the outreach to potential participants. In addition, we plan to expand the virtual path to attract global leaders who cannot travel.

Unconference Goals​

  • Create open-source educational materials on DEI, emphasizing activating more contributions from the Global South.
  • Increase understanding of challenges and opportunities for potential contributors from the Global South to the NumFOCUS community.
  • Open a dialog and build paths to collaboration between global DEI leaders in open source representing a number of underrepresented groups.

Details​

  • Location: São Paulo, Brazil; Online
  • Estimated Date: March 14-16, 2025.

The Unconference format is two and a half days of hands-on group collaboration, aiming to create and present the first versions of DEI education materials at the event's final session. Participants can propose specific topics they would like to work on before and during the event. Final topics for discussion will be selected, and working groups will be created at the start of Day One.

We expect about 35 participants in person and up to 30 participants online. The participants will be recruited from NumFOCUS Affiliated and Sponsors Projects, the PyData Community, and most importantly, programming and open source communities outside the NumFOCUS ecosystem.

DEI Leaders Network - The Unconference will provide a Slack Channel and Google Workspace to all the Unconference participants and alumni (Unconference 2023), as well as regular collaboration online following the event to continue the development of the materials and host bi-monthly community meetings. This type of communication will be crucial to continue sharing knowledge and experience and support any future cross-program cooperation.