I think that there are (legal/non-cultist) possibilities for small improvements, despite the limited power of licenses and the impossible challenge to predict the future.
Just some imaginary examples: (These are not intended as suggestions…)
- The package maintainers are maybe happy for input about potential ethical issues, like in this case [RFC] GenderInference.jl - #31 by kevbonham
- There could be guidelines (not rules) to raise awareness of some common issues.
- Surveys (yay
) - Outreach on different platforms to be more inclusive as a community.
- Common-sense rules for packages in the registry (like, not discriminating, …) [seems to be no problem so far.]
Sure, we cannot make everyone happy.
Also, there are mechanisms in place, for example, the Julia Stewards. As far as I can tell they do a good job. Maybe that’s already more than enough.