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NOAA-CEFI-Portal / cefi-portal

This is a repository for the CEFI data portal developed on the webserver
https://psl.noaa.gov/cefi_portal/
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Add default docs to this repo #18

Open MathewBiddle opened 1 week ago

MathewBiddle commented 1 week ago

Take a look at https://opensource.guide/starting-a-project/#launching-your-own-open-source-project for guidance on default documentation that an open source project should have. You have inherited the Code of Conduct from the organization, and the .github repo contains some good boilerplates. What I see missing from here, specifically:

What do all the files in here do? Do they generate some webpage? Where is the webpage? How do I contribute to this effort?

Check out the links above for more information on what each of those files should contain. LMK if you need help with this.

chiaweh2 commented 1 week ago

thanks for sharing! I will make sure to check.

chiaweh2 commented 1 week ago

Currently combine the contributing into README. A readme is added through #23

chiaweh2 commented 1 week ago

We should discuss the license for all repos in our next meeting! I am currently thinking of using GPLv3 which allow the open source to continues if any of the code is being used somewhere else. However, we should probably also think about when would be a good time to put the license on. Should we wait till the repos are more established or now is actually a good time.

MathewBiddle commented 1 week ago

Looping in @ocefpaf for advice RE: which license to choose. The OpenSource Guide provides a lot of good context from which to make an educated decision.

Timing of adding a license: ASAP. According to GitHub's guidance on licenses:

You're under no obligation to choose a license. However, without a license, the default copyright laws apply, meaning that you retain all rights to your source code and no one may reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from your work.

Which does not jive with what we're trying to do here.

I'm trying to look for NOAA guidance on software licensing. But, I think as an initial step, MIT is a good one to start with.

ocefpaf commented 1 week ago

MIT is a good one to start with.

I try to avoid MIT b/c it has a loophole for plagiarism. BSD-3-Clause is virtually identical and without the text that allows for copy without credits.

The problem with MIT is the second paragraph:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial
portions of the Software.

What means substantial in code? How much of a library can someone copy without the need to include the original license and acknowledge?

chiaweh2 commented 1 week ago

Thanks! @ocefpaf and @MathewBiddle. I was originally thinking about GPLv3. Is the reason of BSD3 "more free" for the user? In other words, it allow the user to have the choice of choosing their derivative on their own license or also allow the derivative to be not open sourced? (GPLv3 requires the derivative to also be under GPLv3 and has to stay open sourced).

ocefpaf commented 1 week ago

The virality of copy left licenses may affect the project adoption. In a perfect world we all would use GPL only code. In reality, if we do that, we will restrict the code use. I don't know what this project is and what are its goals, so maybe GPL may be fine here. Still, I would avoid it.

chiaweh2 commented 3 days ago

@ocefpaf thanks for the suggestions!