NumFOCUS currently represents 26 sponsored and 24 affiliated open scientific coding projects. Glancing at them from a distance, one might have to squint a bit to see a pattern emerge. In truth, the community doesn’t mind that at all, out of the variety comes innovation. Beyond the logos and stickers, what is this community actually doing?

I present the various projects and argue that we have inadvertently created one of the most successful data science platforms in existence. From this vantage point, I pose some tough questions the community needs to answer: How can we present that platform more fully? How should we organize ourselves to make our work more valuable? How do we avoid a collapse of our communities?