code4lib, day 2 part 4 (breakout session) 2006 February 16
I went to the future of code4lib breakout session. It was a good session in which we talked about the pros and cons of formalizing code4lib. We also talked about what we want to do under the code4lib umbrella in the future. Some of the ideas included a week long institute/school/workshop, a journal, receiving and funneling grants (a grant clearinghouse) and provide blueprints. There was also some feeling that a formal structure may lead to more sustainability. At the end of the session most of us seemed to agree that we may want to formalize more in the future, when the pot is at the boiling point, but it is not quite there yet. However, this was still really constructive and it is good to think about where we want to be not only tomorrow, but months and years down the road as a group.
Thanks Ed for writing this up (especially for those of use who couldn’t make it to the conference). Very interesting stuff… I’d be interested in seeing the brainstormed list of pros and cons too. Did you happen to jot those down?
Hi Kevin, Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. The last week or so has been crazy. I just had a chance to look at my notes, and I noticed I didn’t write any pros or cons down, so this is from memory.
Most of the pros basically were that some sort of official entity would be able to move forward and do more things. Specifically the things I mentioned in the post such as organizing an “institute/school/workshop, a journal, receiving and funneling grants.” there was also some thought that a formal organization could be more sustainable and would also give a better (more professional?) impression to people outside of the code4lib community.
From what I heard the cons could be lumped together to “we have a good thing going, don’t screw it up.” I don’t mean that in a bad way. It is a very valid point. More specifically it was felt that a more formal organization could make decisions slow down too much because of all the bureaucracy. It also was felt by some that a formal organization would lose the sense of community that we have developed. One might also say that the timing was a con – it is just too soon to take that leap.