RE: [Axiom-mail] Bourbaki as default pamphlet author name

[Page, Bill]

Tim, Bertfried;

Is there some way we can confirm what "Arthur points out that there is a
current, active group called Bourbaki"? I strongly agree with Bertfried
about the appropriateness of associating the name "Bourbaki" with Axiom.
Axiom is very definitely in the spirit of the mathematics that was pioneered
by this group.

I was not able to find any reference to any legalities associated with the
name Bourbaki except of course the books and articles published under this
pseudoname. In fact there are a few instances of using the name for other
(similar) purposes, e.g. the name of a scholarship in mathematics.

Of course one does not wish to alienate one of the primary intended
audiences of Axiom (the mathematicians) but I think there are several very
good reasons for attempting to associate so influencial a group of
mathematicians as Bourbaki with Axiom. The "PR" value would in my estimate
be VERT LARGE. Can anyone think of some mechanism by which it might be
possible to gain the "approval" of some significant number of mathematicians
to use the Bourbaki name in this manner?

Regards,
Bill Page.

Ref.

On the web I find:

-------

The Mathematical Intelligencer

  http://www.ega-math.narod.ru/Bbaki/Cartier.htm

? 1 (1998) · pp.22-28  

The Continuing Silence of Bourbaki-
An Interview with Pierre Cartier, June 18, 1997
Marjorie Senechal 

Nicolas Bourbaki, 1935-???? 

If you are a mathematician working today, you have almost certainly been
influenced by Bourbaki, at least in style and spirit, and perhaps to a
greater extent than you realize. But if you are a student, you may never
have heard of it, him, them. What or who is, or was, Bourbaki? 

Check as many as apply. Bourbaki is, or was, as the case may be: 

the discoverer (or inventor, if you prefer) of the notion of a mathematical
structure; one of the great abstractionist movements of the twentieth
century; 
a small but enormously influential community of mathematicians; a collective
that hasn't published for fifteen years. 
The answer is: all of the above, and they are four closely woven strands of
an important chapter in intellectual history. Is it time to write that
chapter? Has the story of Bourbaki come to an end?

...

---------

Also in http://www.bluemud.org/article/17385

Archive-name: sci-math-faq/bourbaki
Last-modified: February 20, 1998
Version: 7.5
  
                              Who is N. Bourbaki?
                                      
  A group of mostly French mathematicians which began meeting in the
  1930s, aiming to write a thorough unified account of all mathematics.
  They had tremendous influence on the way math is done since. For a
  very accessible sampler see Dieudonne Mathematics: The Music Of Reason
  (Orig. Pour L'honneur De L'esprit Humain).
  
  The founding is described in Andre Weil's autobiography, titled
  something like ``memoir of an apprenticeship" (orig. Souvenirs
  D'apprentissage). There is a usable book Bourbaki by J. Fang. Liliane
  Beaulieu has a book forthcoming, which you can sample in ``A Parisian
  Cafe and Ten Proto-Bourbaki Meetings 1934-1935" in the Mathematical
  Intelligencer 15 no.1 (1993) 27-35.
  
  The history behind Bourbaki is also described in Scientific American,
  May 1957.
  
-- 
Alex Lopez-Ortiz address@hidden
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Computer Science
University of New Brunswick
http://www.cs.unb.ca/~alopez-o                       
                  




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Daly [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 9:27 AM
> To: address@hidden
> Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden
> Subject: [Axiom-mail] Bourbaki as default pamphlet author name
> 
> 
> Bertfried,
> 
> What I knew about the "Bourbaki" name was that it was associated with
> a set of anonymous mathematicians. Given the number of people who have
> been associated with Axiom over the years (and I've tried to find out
> anyone who has touched it in some way, see the list in the top level
> Makefile.pamphlet) it seemed appropriate to continue in the 
> same spirit.
> However, Arthur points out that there is a current, active 
> group called
> Bourbaki. It wouldn't be appropriate to use the name regardless of the
> amusing aspects. So, in a fit of exhaustion last night I renamed the
> author to "The Axiom Team". 
> 
> I'm open to a default author name. I considered Richard Jenks as he
> is the father of this whole effort but I'd have to get his permission.
> Similarly with Barry Trager. I've considered creating a combined
> default name of Richard Trager but I'd be the only one to "get it".
> I also considered William Schelter as the default. I've tried 
> to generate
> support for a "Schelter Award" based on the work he did while 
> he was alive.
> However, Bill's primary contribution was not DIRECTLY on 
> axiom (though he
> did help quite a bit) and I'm undecided about it. I even considered
> creating a "Richard Bourbaki", the illegitimate brother of Nicolas but
> decided my sense of humor needed to be kept under constraint, 
> at least in
> so public a forum.
> 
> When there is time I want to revisit the individual files and try to
> see if there was a single author (such as some of the algebra files).
> If so, I'd like to correct the author name. Credit is important and
> easily shared. At the moment all of the author lines were created by
> a sed script and my sed skills are limited to one-liners :-)
> 
> On the other hand there is a valid argument for an anonymous name
> similar to the Bourbaki case as there were a lot of people 
> who contributed
> without comment. Plus it is a great way to share the blame :-)
> 
> There should be a prize for a winning default name. 
> 
> Tim
> address@hidden
> address@hidden
> 
> 
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