Community Update: Python Software Foundation with Dawn Wages

Speaker 1: Hey everybody. Uh good morning. Yay. One more time. Good morning. After that amazing keynote with all of those hot takes, I expect you to be very peppy and lively. Uh but they were I mean shout out to Zags for the really great uh keynote. Yeah, yeah. So this is gonna be really interactive. I only have a couple of slides. My name's Don Wages. I'm the outgoing chair of the Python Software Foundation. And really cool thing is that I was introduce so I've been the chair for the last two years, I've been on the board for the last three, and I've been in the Python community for just under a decade, uh starting at DjangoCon 20 uh 16 in Philly.

Speaker 1: And I was actually brought in or mentored or, you know, really good friended um in the Python Software Foundation uh with uh Jeff Triplett, who is a Django Knaut hanging out here all the time. who has uh great takes. Um so I'm just here to I have three things that I want to talk to you about and then I'll leave the rest for questions and hopefully there's a little bit of interactivity in this Uh one, the you can vote in this election. It's going on right now. And if you are already a member of the Python Software Foundation, you should have an email giving you the OPA vote option to vote. Uh second, uh if you want to vote next year, right? So you get to see how the sausage gets made, uh see the voting process, learn a bit a lot about it, and then you get to vote in 2027

Speaker 1: election. Um, then you can become a member. There are two ways to become a member. Either you have more than five hours per month on average on our system, investing in the community. I know that's a lot of people in this audience Or you can uh pay to be a member and there is a new option to have a sliding scale membership. So that could also include a lot of people in this audience And then the last two things, the PSF has paused our grant uh grant program right now. Um this is for this upcoming year. It's come to a uh a shock to a lot of people. Um but we have con uh very often conversations with the community about the out that we're output that we're putting out into the community, which is a lot.

Speaker 1: Please check out. our uh uh our yearly um brochure about the things that we are uh impact report that we put out every year Um and then we also have an upcoming fundraiser. And these all come in the same breath and because they're the way as much as we are able to bring in from the community, we put out into the community. Year over year we give about $300,000 out in grants every year. That's one of our main ways that we are interacting with the community and people see our logo show up. Uh but there's a ton of ways that we are investing in the sustainability of the language and the community. Uh in primarily Pi PI is a really good way that people interact with us as well. So the last is questions.

Speaker 1: I this audience probably has a really wide uh breadth and depth in knowledge in the community. So I just wanted to leave the last maybe two or three minutes maybe of my time. I don't know how much I have, but I can spend the rest of it just being extemporaneous and answering any questions. And I have examples of potential questions on the on the screen For example, how do you get involved with the PSF? Or who how does the language get actually managed? Is the PSF doing it? I am not a CPython contributor. I can say three lines about that. um how to become a PSF member, other things like that. Where does the money go? Stuff like that. I got 10 minutes? Perfect. I can do the whole 10 minutes with questions. And I can also just talk more about it.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh yes. What qualifies being a member with just five hours? So you don't have to just do code as Jeff mentioned. You can volunteer in the community. So if you're running your local meetup, um if you are contributing to uh an open source project, if you're contributing contributing to package. I mean all of the Django Knots, if you're familiar with the Djangonaut space program , could be eligible for membership just by their contributions to that program. More questions? I think I saw a hand over a couple hands are here there this one

Speaker 2: oh how do i get involved with the PCF

Speaker 1: yes So the Python Software Foundation has a lot of different opportunities to get involved. My favorite are working groups. I think they're really important. I have a blog post about that on donwages. info Uh but you can also uh there's also some landing pages on uh Python Software Foundation, uh no, excuse me, python. org, which is the landing page for the language and the foundation Um so working groups, there's a bunch of different kinds. There's the code of conduct working group. Um we have uh now I'm just thinking one of the ones we just recently voted on, which are No longer, but um there are a lot of different there's um the uh uh the uh PyCon working group, so if you want to get involved with PyCon, that's one of our major events.

Speaker 1: Um and then you can also like come up with ways. We are always open to ideas. Um and we are just constrained by the bandwidth of the efforts involved or the people who want to involve them involve themselves. So Um yeah, those are ways. More questions? I see one here and then one there.

Speaker 3: I've got one real quick.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Can you volunteer for DjangoCon and become a Python Software Foundation member?

Speaker 1: Yes, you can. It is in the Python ecosystem. Oh yes, and that applies to Wagtail and other projects as well. So um yeah, I love Wagtail. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Uh, what would be your pitch for people who might not think like or what would be the pitch for becoming a PSF member outside of just voting? So um why would why should people care?

Speaker 1: Yeah. So great question. So um Fantastic question. So there's a lot of things. So if you want to know what we do with the Python Software and Foundation, we have our impact report. every year. A lot of that goes into deepening and broadening the uh experience that people have with Python across the world. Um many of it, for example, we have a C Python uh sprint that's happening and we make sure that we are able to To bring the CPython contributors there in one place, can commune over snacks and talk over code. And these are the things that are advancing your code. So Python 3. 14 is coming out. um in October and we see a multitude of

Speaker 1: new features like garbage collection and we have some performance improvements, um, things that were remnants of the Faster C Python team. And so we are there is A very um interesting and f fuzzy layer in between the code and what actually keeps it moving on the tracks all the time. Someone has to manage our trademarks, for example. We have accountants uh for example. We have a communications um team member. We have fundraising for the PyCon. So All of that you are able to have visibility and are able to support those activities. And then there is a membership meetings and emails that you can be a part of all with membership that keep you abreast of what's going on

Speaker 1: Uh this one was first in yeah. Yeah, I'll repeat. What's one positive thing that the Django Software Foundation can take from the Python Software and Foundation and vice versa? So I have a lots of opinions on the things that the PSF can pull from the Django community. I came through in and been in Python for about nine years. by way of the Django community. And I think there's already been some historical things that the Django community has definitely given to the PSF. And I I don't want to misrepresent the timelines of the people who did it, but there's absolutely things many of include like diversity, equity, inclusion, and consistency around the way that we support our community.

Speaker 1: So I would love to lean on a lot more of those. I think that Django is really good at having healthy conversations with the community about feature feature editions. For example, the keynote we had right here, a lot of these takes I've seen blog posts and conversations. Um, I see uh uh there's triage board for that, and those all require some type of support, some type of infrastructure, some group of people convening, usually supported by a foundation to chat over best practices and ideas. So I think that we could, as the Python Software Foundation, provide forums that talk about code contribution even more and make it even more accessible, which I appreciate.

Speaker 1: Vice versa. I am really excited about the investment and work groups that are happening with the Dive Django Software Foundation. There's so much that has gotten done via work groups. with the Python Software Foundation. And um I think we're currently with PSF, we're currently in a flux with the value and input and ex uh output of P of work groups. Because we are professionalizing our orgs, we are hiring a lot more people, and that it's absorbing some of the responsibilities that volunteers used to have to do. It provides sustainability, but it does also put up a little bit of a wall for volunteers to understand what's going on. Um so I gave a suggestion back to the community but with caveats

Speaker 1: because I don't think we're doing it in the best way at all as w as well and there's always ebbs and flows and evolutions of a foundation. So i it's not always one-to-one and cut and dry. Uh there was a hand here and then on there. Yeah, so you mentioned Python a moment ago. Yeah. So the DSF has DEFNA and the Jenga signal organizers. Can you explain a little bit about the relationship? Between the PSF and the PyCon organization group? Yes. So what's the relationship between PyCon and the PSF and then DEFNA and uh DjangoCon? So the way that we just kind of naturally evolved, there is a work group inside of the Python Software Foundation. It is covered by the PSF Code of Conduct. And we uh through our bylaws give uh the responsibility to that work group to organize PyCon.

Speaker 1: Um so now there is a p there are people who join the work group, they are all on a mailing list And then we also elect a chair for the uh for the uh PICON. Um that's one of the reasons it created that way and it has to be bylaw related is because it is one of our main funding sources for the PSF. It always has been. We're working on ways to move away from that and we we are some, but It's it's an ebbs and flows. Um, but that's there's a little bit of governance process and work group there. Um meanwhile, there is uh DEFNA, which is a separate foundation in within the Django community that is managing and runs DjangoCon. It owns its trademark and handle uh no, it doesn't own this trademark.

Speaker 1: Doesn't matter. The I don't know all of the details. Talk to the expert on that one. Sorry. Um and um but there are m machinations and nuances in that work group that support uh Django Khan. Okay. Uh I saw there was a hand here and then one here. Um Yeah, could you uh one of the things I'm excited about uh for DSF is like Uh chatter about potentially getting an executive director. I love this question. That's so great. Okay, so the question was what does an executive director do? And maybe in the context of the PSF, because that's where I have the most visibility, I have made friends with other foundation um

Speaker 1: um executive directors so I can talk a little bit in chairs as well. So the relationship between the chair and this ED, um one is that there is this um parallel track. So this is something that I'm like writing in my um offboarding documents and giving to the next chair is how do you interact with your ED. They are the first and highest full-time staff person for that foundation. They are managing the day-to-day and they are like an of sorts the CEO. Um the chair is the highest position that represents the community. And so where the board is elected and the chair Most of my job is making sure that we have a level of consensus amongst the group. We really value consensus. And when we have a tumultuous vote, but we all vote in the same way, it means that there was a lot of discussion that happens beforehand

Speaker 1: Because we are not a quiet bunch. Um, so that's that. And then representing that org, I am now having what I call healthy friction. I say that at work. um with the chair. And usually we're really I mean, I love our chair, um our board of um executive director, Deb Nicholsitz. She's fantastic at what she does. But in the case where there is healthy friction, it is a representative of the community and a representative of the day-to-day work of running a foundation. And then we find a path forward together. Um in the way that it can r represent uh the DSF, I think there's going to be a lot of conversations on um A lot of it is how much you can afford. You have to like build a salary and have a books, and it's really difficult to get to that professionalization um

Speaker 1: approach Um, but there are uh tons of open source leaders in the community that I think could shepherd the DSF into its next chapter. Um it's it's marking out the responsibilities and figuring out how much you can afford to be able to make it happen. So donate to the DSF. Um did I answer your question? Okay, cool. Um last one. Okay.

Speaker 5: Hello, old friend. Thanks for your service first and foremost. Uh could you talk a little bit about how people can get involved at the local level and how the PSF supports uh local Python meetup

Speaker 1: groups? Yay.

Speaker 5: I gave you an easy one.

Speaker 1: You did. It was a layup. That's great. Um so When we were running um at like kind of normal click, we did give money in um to local meetups. Um we that will be on a pause for this upcoming year. However, um lots of people uh specifically so I'll have a um North American-centric answer to this question. Uh there are PUGS, Python user groups. I was ingratiated into the Python community via my Philly pug. And I recommend we also give um meetup. com access to lots of Python user groups around the world. So if you go to meetup. com, it's not my favorite place, but there's also ways to look online. Um

Speaker 1: you can find it on meetup. com and then you can find your local meetup and then show up. Ask questions. Some of the best ways to make sure that your local group is moving at a decent pace is to volunteer to pick up the pizza. Um, and you if you have something that is really tightly bound in requirements and then you are able to do it on a cadence, um, that is a way to get to know what the whole organization looks like and still do your part. And it is important. Someone's got to pick up the pizza. Um okay, that's say to thank you everyone. I really appreciate the questions.