clair099

In honor of the 2016-2017 board of director's first board meeting today, I wanted to share the PSF's growing success with the public! For as long as I have been with the PSF, our goal has been to encourage people all around the world to learn and use Python. We have done this by funding conferences, workshops, and dev work. Due to the success of our community, each year more and more people have become aware of the PSF and our mission.  The success is hard to measure. More in-depth research can be done on how the PSF's mission has bettered the world, but for now, let us start with a simple, tangible, measurement: money. Turning gut feelings into metrics Besides our treasurer, Kurt Kaiser, most of us have not paid much attention to these metrics. Even though members of the PSF have received yearly reports from Kurt, sometimes that snapshot does not have the progression across several years. I have been helping with grant management since 2012 and recently it felt like the bo...

Portland, Oregon photo credit: A. Jesse Jiryu Davis A quick look back at PyCon 2016 I am writing this during my flight home to Chicago as I reminisce about PyCon, which officially ended yesterday in Portland, Oregon. This was yet another successful conference! We had over 3200 pythonistas check in! The 2016 tutorials and talks sold out in March, which is much sooner than previous conferences. Both committees did a great job reviewing and providing guidance to those that needed it. Personally I only found time to watch Lars' talk, but thanks to our efficient AV crew, I will watch the rest in the comfort of my home over the next few weeks. Hearing the positive feedback from our sponsors, even when logistical issues popped up, tells me the companies that helped make PyCon happen, are just as dedicated to our community as we are. I appreciate their support and understanding.  PyCon 2016 was my ninth PyCon. I have enjoyed organizing each one of those nine conferences. Over the last nine...

Note: This is the third post on my trip in April to Havana, Cuba to attend the International Open Software Convention, CubaConf . The second day of CubaConf, structured as an  unconference ,  was equally as lively as the first. In an unconference, the audience actively participates by proposing topics and then voting on which ones will be presented. This was especially effective as a way of conforming to the conference’s purpose to explore ways in which open software can be most effectively used in poorer nations, like Cuba, and how it can contribute to development. I was impressed by the number of audience members who came prepared to give a talk and who lined up at the front of the room to pitch their ideas. The suggestions were recorded on a white board, and at the end of the session we voted for the agenda. Proposed unconference topics Before moving on to the unconference talks, we heard an already scheduled keynote. Etiene Dalcol , a Brazilian software engineer, told us o...