[seqfan] Re: moving to wiki
David Wilson
dwilson at gambitcomm.com
Thu Aug 27 16:47:54 CEST 2009
I certain respect the work and talent involved to obtain credentials,
however, I don't see the world divided into PhDs and burger flippers.
The OEIS benefits from many kinds of skills: mathematical, research,
programming, organizational, linguistic, creative and technical, and not
all of these correlate with degrees.
I personally have a BA CS/Math from Cornell, which may or may not
qualify as sufficient credentials for OEIS editorship in the eyes of
some. I work as a programmer and moonlight in a supermarket deli.
OEISwise, I am at best an amateur math dabbler, and I have made my
mistakes, but on the whole I believe I have made positive contributions
to the OEIS. I hope this is primary reason NJAS chose me as editor.
Heretofore, OEIS editorship has been conferred by NJAS, and I have never
had reason to question his judgment in that regard. If an OEIS editorial
board is ever established, I would hope that they would they would
continue his tradition of judging editorial candidates, not on their
letters, but on the quality of their contributions and their
demonstrated respect for the OEIS and its goals.
Alonso Del Arte wrote:
> I too am warming up to this idea. But if there is going to the possibility
> of "earning stripes" as David Wilson suggests, I would hope that
> preliminaries to the awarding of stripes would include a verification of
> math credentials. People earning stripes should have degrees and experience
> in mathematics, and not be "teenagers with big egos and little common
> sense." (Brandt)
> Al
More information about the SeqFan
mailing list