What is the name of your organization?
NumFOCUS, Inc.
What is the name of your solution?
Open-Source DISC Collaborative
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Uniting open-source community champions from around the world to catalyze a more diverse and inclusive open-source scientific computing community.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Austin, TX, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
NumFOCUS recognizes that the open-source scientific computing community remains highly homogenous, primarily composed of contributors from similar racial, gender, and geographic backgrounds. Women and ethnic minorities are significantly underrepresented in open-source, with 95% of contributors identifying as men, and only 16% identifying as ethnic minorities in their country of residence (GitHub Open Source Survey, 2017). This phenomenon limits the ability of open-source tools to serve the global population that depends on them for research, education, and innovation. Without broader representation, the solutions developed often fail to reflect the needs of underrepresented communities (PLOS ONE, 2024; Springer, 2020).
As part of NumFOCUS’s core mission, we created the DISC Unconference to address this issue. The Unconference offers a collaborative, inclusive space for leaders in scientific computing, open source, and EDIA (equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility) to co-create solutions that reduce barriers to participation. This initiative is vital to creating usable, sustainable, and relevant open-source resources, especially for regions of the Global South, focusing on Africa and Latin America. By expanding who contributes, we foster better science, more inclusive tools, and a stronger open-source ecosystem.
What is your solution?
We recognize the need to build a collaboration space for EIDA leaders representing different global regions and types of underrepresented groups. Continuing the successes of the previous DISC Unconferences, we will organize another edition of this beloved community event.
There are many talented individuals from all over the world with diverse backgrounds whose contributions could enrich the open-source ecosystem. The Unconference welcomes, encourages, and fosters community growth inclusive of people from all backgrounds and identities. The open-source solutions produced from the unconference will serve a much larger population of underrepresented individuals in scientific computing.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution serves two key groups: direct participants and the broader global community benefiting from open-source solutions. Direct participants include open-source leaders, scientific computing experts, and EDIA champions. At the last three Unconferences, a total of 132 people from over 17 countries attended in-person and online. These leaders, particularly from underrepresented groups, are often underserved in the open-source ecosystem, which remains disproportionately homogeneous in race and gender. The Unconference provides a platform for participants to engage, collaborate, and create. Our solution fosters inclusivity with a focus on the Global South. The Unconference also extends virtually to include global leaders who are unable to attend in person.
Our broader impact reaches millions worldwide, particularly those benefiting from open-source innovations in scientific computing. By addressing gaps in accessibility, education, and resources, we aim to help create user-friendly and inclusive open-source solutions. These solutions produced at our events will directly serve underrepresented groups in scientific computing, helping to bridge the equity gap in research and technology development. By engaging and empowering diverse contributors, we seek to enrich the open-source ecosystem and improve scientific outcomes for communities traditionally excluded from these fields.
