The DISCOVER Cookbook is a practical guide for organizing diverse and inclusive events and conferences, developed by the NumFOCUS Diversity & Inclusion in Scientific Computing (DISC) Program with support from the Moore Foundation. The repository contains the source code and content that powers the live website at discover-cookbook.numfocus.org, serving as both a published resource and an active collaborative project. The project is written primarily in HTML and functions as a living document rather than traditional software, which shapes its contribution model and maintenance approach.
The repository distinguishes itself through a structured contribution workflow that recognizes the unique nature of content-driven projects. Rather than treating all contributions uniformly, the project separates ideas and discussions from implementation work, requiring content proposals to move through a discussion phase before becoming issues and eventually pull requests. This staged approach reflects the project's emphasis on maintaining high content quality despite receiving substantial submissions. The README explicitly acknowledges that content review takes longer than typical open source contributions and asks contributors to respect this timeline.
GitGenius activity data reveals the project maintains active engagement with a median issue and pull request response latency of 22.3 hours, indicating responsive maintainers. The most active contributor, aterrel, has logged 119 events, followed by tkoyama010 with 38 events and melissawm with 29 events. The project's issue tracking shows strong focus on content work, with the most common label being "new content" appearing in 21 tracked items, followed by "content enhancement" in 9 items and "good first issue" in 3 items. This label distribution directly reflects the project's primary purpose of building and improving the cookbook's content.
The repository's technical infrastructure uses Jupyter Book for building and serving the content locally. Contributors can set up their environment using either conda or pip, then build the site and view it at localhost:8000 to test changes before submission. The project provides detailed setup instructions for both package managers and multiple viewing options, acknowledging that contributors may have different technical preferences.
The DISCOVER Cookbook connects to related projects through overlapping contributors, with GitGenius identifying links to pydata/pydata-sphinx-theme, julialang/julia, and matplotlib/matplotlib. These connections suggest the project draws expertise from the broader scientific computing and data science communities. The project's classification spans community projects, tutorials, documentation, and educational resources, positioning it as a knowledge-sharing initiative rather than a software library.
The contribution guidelines emphasize collaborative discussion and maintainer approval before substantial work begins, particularly for content additions. This approach prevents duplicated effort and ensures proposed content aligns with the project's vision. The project maintains a discussions tab for ideas and questions separate from the issue tracker, creating distinct spaces for brainstorming and implementation planning. The README notes that contributors should check for active pull requests, engage in discussions about active issues, and seek approval before proceeding, establishing clear norms for respectful collaboration.
