phildini.dev
Working to Ensure the Future of the Python Community
Hey #Python friends! Inspired by #PyCon2017 I’m running for @ThePSF board of directors. https://t.co/9n85CcqfgI
— Philip at PyCon (@phildini) May 25, 2017
I’m entering the arena for the third year. I’m running to be a Director for the Python Software Foundation. This post will help explain why.
There’s an argument that anything I write here should instead be in my candidate statement. I don’t disagree, and the reason I’m writing here instead of there relates to one of the things I’d like to change: Nominating for the Board of Directors requires editing the Python Wiki. The Python Wiki is hard to use, the documentation on it is not well-exposed, and a room full of Pythonistas during the PyCon sprints (including one current Board member) couldn’t tell me who maintains it. Beyond that, you have to answer somewhat-esoteric Python trivia to submit your edits.
I’d like a clear definition of what the Board and the community thinks the Wiki is for, and regular check-ins on whether it’s serving the community well. I’d like to see us running “PSF Sprints”, where Board members or anyone else interested is writing documentation about how the PSF is run. Our election processes and funding processes and budget processes and outreach processes should be checked on regularly, and I’ll be pushing for more transparency and openness about how we run the business side of Python.
Speaking of outreach, I’d like the PSF to be doing more of it, and funding groups who are growing the Python community. There will be more about this in a future post, because I have plans on how to get our community of Pythonistas back out into the world growing the community at universities and hackathons and incubators and corporations. I want every group and individual trying to grow Python to know that the PSF has their back, and will put money behind them.
I also want to be on the Board to remind the PSF that they have power beyond grant giving. Yes, the majority of what the PSF Board has done in recent years has been giving grants to organizations around the world. That work is excellent, and I want to see it increase. But the PSF is also in a unique position to be a promotion clearing house and force multiplier for good ideas in the community. When good learning materials are written, they should be easily findable from the official Python websites. When Python events are being held, the PSF should be a cheerleader, spreading the word about what’s happening in the community.
These are the things I plan to do as a PSF Director to help grow Python. I haven’t even gotten into the investment I want to see us putting into our core tools and platform infrastructure; that will have to be another post and my brain is a little fried from PyCon.
So the only question left is: Why do I need to be on the Board to do these things? And the answer is I don’t These are things I’m going to push for no matter what. But the PSF is in many ways the voice of the community, and I want to see that voice brought to bear on the issues that will be affecting our community for the next year and the next decade. I think I can help use that voice to speak for the Pythonistas of the future, and I hope you agree.