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Today’s post is a follow-up to a previous post about a PSF funded project by   Hyperion Development   in South Africa.   The PSF has recently heard from Riaz Moola about his latest project–working with  Brothers For All  to deliver Python courses in 42 prisons–including eight female corrections facilities–in the Western Cape. Brothers  is run by an ex-con, Sihle Tshabalala, who taught himself to code online. When he got out of prison, he wanted to do something to slow the recidivism rate of South African ex-convicts. Not only does South Africa have the world’s eighth highest prison population, but the rate of re-offenders is over 80%. In addition, an extremely high  unemployment rate of 25%  adds to the hopelessness felt by those with prison records and without marketable skills. Brothers  began last September by opening a center in a Western Cape township area. There, ex-cons and at-risk youth come to learn coding skills, entrepreneurship, a...

As you may recall, I previously posted about a wonderful project in South America that has been funded in part by the PSF. That first blog post described the Python events that Manuel Kaufmann had organized in Argentina and his plans to move on to Paraguay and then Bolivia. Please check it out at  Python in Argentina . I’m very happy to report that Manuel Kaufmann has continued to be busy bringing Python events and knowledge to more and more people, as he left Argentina for Paraguay. He recently reached out to us to tell about his experiences. Here's a recap: First of all, PyDay Asunción took place as scheduled on March 28th. This event was the culmination of Manuel’s efforts in creating the brand new  Python Paraguay  community. His Paraguayan adventure began by meeting with people from different Software Libre groups (PHP, OpenStreetMap, Sugar, Google Code In, etc) in an attempt to  merge  them into a new community focussed on Python. Their first meeting ...

As we previously announced, nominations for the Python Software Foundation's board of directors are open, and they will be accepted through Friday May 1. Please see our original announcement as well as details about the wiki here . Candidates for the 11 seats on the board are found at  https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSoftwareFoundation/BoardCandidates2015 . Those interested in running for one of the positions can add themselves, and per Section 5.14 of our bylaws , all candidates must disclose their affiliations.

On the psf-members mailing list today, current Director David Mertz expressed some sentiments about increasing diversity in the governance of the foundation that I'd like to share.  Making the Python community, and the Python Software Foundation itself, more diverse, globally and across dimensions of privilege is something we have been striving for very consciously for years. Here's what he wrote (re-posted with his permission): This year, as for the last bunch of years, I'll be the election administrator in the upcoming election. This will have some candidates for the Board of Directors of the PSF, and probably a few other issues like Sponsor Members approvals or membership resolutions.     This year, as in past Board elections, I will use "approval voting" again. This will be explained again when you get ballots and announcements here. But the general idea is that each voter can cast as many Approve votes as they wish to for the 11 seats. A voter might vote...

Unfortunately, the Python Wiki has experienced some spamming and vandalism lately. This may mean that editing the Wiki, including the Directors nomination page may take a little extra work until we get things sorted out.  This is described on the Front Page : Since spamming and vandalism on this wiki has reached a level that is starting to require daily  intervention, new users are no longer allowed to edit pages. If you want to edit a page and have just signed up, or you find that you can no longer edit a page  that you could edit before, please write to the pydotorg-www mailing list, stating your account name  and your intended edits and we'll add you to the EditorsGroup . Sorry for the inconvenience, but we want to keep this wiki a useful tool for the community, while at  the same time need to prevent wiki admin burnout effects. Bear with us.  We will continue balancing making the Wiki usable with also making it resistant to harmful changes by unregiste...

The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers. It’s that time of year again! The PSF annual election for its 2015 Board of Directors is currently seeking candidates. But what exactly, you may ask, does the PSF Board do? Well, it turns out that the fulfillment of the above-quoted mission statement requires that they do quite a bit. Basically, the directors manage all the business of the PSF. This includes appointing the PSF’s officers; holding and protecting Python’s intellectual property rights and licenses (the open source   stack   of licenses on the source code, all logos and trademarks); managing the budget and allocating funds; organizing and managing the annual PyCon North America (through the esteemed PyCon team); maintaining the PSF's legal status as a non-profit corporation (with all appropriate le...

Last week at PyCon, I had the pleasure of talking with Katie Cunningham at a dinner party hosted by O'Reilly. Katie is well-known in the Python community. The author of  Python in 24 Hours , 2nd edition (Pearson 2013),   Accessibility Handbook  (O'Reilly 2012), and a video series  Python Guide for the Total Beginner LiveLessons  (Pearson 2013), she has also given talks and presentations at a number of conferences. Last year the PSF honored her with its Community Service Award in recognition for her work in founding and providing the Young Coders tutorial (along with co-recipient Barbara Shaurette). Imagine a room filled with pre-teens and teenagers eager to learn to code. Pretty daunting, huh? That’s the challenge Katie has taken on with Young Coders. This one-day tutorial covers basic Python by starting with simple concepts and then building up. Using Raspberry Pis, Katie says, helps to “demystify the computer,” and by the end of the day, students are doin...

Mark your calendars: SciPy 2015 is coming in July (July 6-12, 2015) to the fabulous city of Austin, TX. This will be the 14th annual SciPy devoted to scientific computing with Python, and organizers expect to exceed 500 attendees again this year.  The importance of this conference for scientific computing cannot be overstated.  Enthought , SciPy’s institutional sponsor, has been joined by many others, including  Microsoft Azure ,  Square Root ,  D E Shaw & Co ,  Kitware ,  PyLadies , and, of course, the PSF. The PSF, which has funded SciPy in the past, is sponsoring the conference this year at the Silver Level with a contribution of $3000. Last year’s SciPy saw sponsorship increase 85% over 2013, a clear indication that this conference is growing in size, importance, and reach, as is the use of Python as the premiere language for scientific computing! The 2015 conference will consist of 2 days of tutorials followed by 3 days of presentations. Last ...

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the PSF’s funding of the upcoming Plone Conference in Bucharest as an example of how the PSF supports Python development for the web (see  Plone ). Another web framework the PSF has been supporting is, of course, Django, and with the upsurge of Django Girls activities, support for Django Girls simultaneously allows the PSF to make progress on its commitment to diversity. For those not familiar with Django Girls, they are a non-profit organization that provides free one-day programming workshops to women. They began in Berlin in 2014 as a workshop at EuroPython given by Ola Sitarska and Ola Sendecka. Since then, they have spread all over the world. Just since the start of this year, the PSF has sponsored Django Girls workshops in the following cities:  $1,500 to Django Girls New York; $1200 to Django Girls Athens; $1800 to Django Girls London; $730 to Django Girls Cardiff; $600 to Django Girls Mbarara on April 18th. In 2014, the PSF supporte...

PSF Python Brochure PDF (low resolution version) After having distributed the first 5,000 copies of the PSF Python Brochure to Python conferences and user groups around the world in the last 12 months, we have now finished the second print run with another 5,000 copies just in time for PyCon 2015 in Montreal. Many thanks go to JetBrains for jumping in as additional ad sponsor to help finance the printing and community order shipping costs for this second print run. We would also like to thank all our initial sponsors and contributors for their hard work. Promoting Python to new audiences The feedback we have received for the brochure was positive all around. Conference attendees were really happy to be able to easily show and prove how Python changes the world, to make the point that learning and using Python is a good investment . The brochure helps them in promoting Python in their local and professional communities, especially to the many non-technical people we cannot easily re...

The PSF is looking to fill a position as an Event Coordinator/Administrator. Note that this is a remote position and that it does not require software development or Python coding skills. It is open to anyone who wishes to work for the PSF and has the relevant project management skills. JOB DESCRIPTION   Administrator Manage mailing lists Manage board meeting scheduling, agenda, facilitate, actual board meetings via phone and IRC Assist with sponsor member relations and invoicing Assist with foundation budget creation and up keeping Assist with collecting membership applications and contributor agreements Assist with bylaws, legal matters Assist with new membership (basic, supporting, contributing, managing, fellow) Project manage website up­keeping/redesign Keep track of grant requests and follow up work Manage/assist with short term projects when needed. Event Management   Communicate needs and changes to vendors Work on event logistics with convention center and hotels (fl...

The PSF has been happy to acknowledge and help sponsor the use of Python in creating terrific Web Development Frameworks. This blog has previously featured several instances of PSF involvement in Django-related events (see e.g.,  CSA Award to Django Girls ). There have also been major developments in the world of  Plone . For those of you who don’t know, Plone is an open source Content Management System, written primarily in Python. It was developed in 1999 by Alexander Limi, Alan Runyan, and Vidar Andersen, atop the open source Python-based  Zope  application server. Its license is held by the non-profit  Plone Foundation .  According to  Wikipedia , Plone is positioned as an  Enterprise CMS  and is most commonly used for intranets and as part of the web presence of large organizations. High-profile public sector users include the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Brazilian Government, United Nations, City of Bern (Switzerland), New Sout...