[SciPy-Dev] Proposal for Scikit-Signal - a SciPy toolbox for signal processing

[Mathieu Blondel]

I would like to give some feedback on my experience as a contributor
to scikit-learn. Here are a few things I like:

- Contributing and following the project allows me to improve my
knowledge of the field (I'm a graduate student in machine learning).
The signal-to-noise ratio on the mailing-list is high, as the threads
are usually directly related to my interest. It's also a valuable
addition to my CV.

- The barrier to entry is very low: the code base is not too big, the
code is clear and the API is simple. This explains partly why we get
so many pull-requests from occasional contributors.

- Contributors get push privilege (become part of the scikit-learn
github organization) after just a few pull requests and are fully
credited in the changelogs and file headers. We never had any problem
with this policy: people usually know when a commit can be pushed to
master directly and when it warrants a pull-request / review first.

- All important decisions are taken democratically and we now have
well-identified workflows. The small of size of the project probably
helps a lot.

- The project is very dynamic and is moving fast!


I like the idea of a core scipy library and an ecosystem of scikits
with a well-identified scope around it! The success of scikit-learn
could be used as a model, so as to reproduce the successes and not
repeat the failures (see Gael's document on bootstrapping a
community). This is already happening in scikit-image, as far as I can
see.

Why use the prefix scikit- rather than a top-level package name?
Because scikit should be a brand name and should be a guarantee of
quality.

My 2 cents,
Mathieu