Behind The Scenes At The Python Software Foundation
Summary
One of the secrets of the success of Python the language is the tireless efforts of the people who work with and for the Python Software Foundation. They have made it their mission to ensure the continued growth and success of the language and its community. In this episode Ewa Jodlowska, the executive director of the PSF, discusses the history of the foundation, the services and support that they provide to the community and language, and how you can help them succeed in their mission.
Announcements
- Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
- When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With 200 Gbit/s private networking, scalable shared block storage, node balancers, and a 40 Gbit/s public network, all controlled by a brand new API you’ve got everything you need to scale up. And for your tasks that need fast computation, such as training machine learning models, they just launched dedicated CPU instances. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
- And to keep track of how your team is progressing on building new features and squashing bugs, you need a project management system designed by software engineers, for software engineers. Clubhouse lets you craft a workflow that fits your style, including per-team tasks, cross-project epics, a large suite of pre-built integrations, and a simple API for crafting your own. With such an intuitive tool it’s easy to make sure that everyone in the business is on the same page. Podcast.init listeners get 2 months free on any plan by going to pythonpodcast.com/clubhouse today and signing up for a trial.
- Bots and automation are taking over whole categories of online interaction. Discover.bot is an online community designed to serve as a platform-agnostic digital space for bot developers and enthusiasts of all skill levels to learn from one another, share their stories, and move the conversation forward together. They regularly publish guides and resources to help you learn about topics such as bot development, using them for business, and the latest in chatbot news. For newcomers to the space they have the Beginners Guide To Bots that will teach you the basics of how bots work, what they can do, and where they are developed and published. To help you choose the right framework and avoid the confusion about which NLU features and platform APIs you will need they have compiled a list of the major options and how they compare. Go to pythonpodcast.com/discoverbot today to get started and thank them for their support of the show.
- You listen to this show to learn and stay up to date with the ways that Python is being used, including the latest in machine learning and data analysis. For even more opportunities to meet, listen, and learn from your peers you don’t want to miss out on this year’s conference season. We have partnered with organizations such as O’Reilly Media, Dataversity, and the Open Data Science Conference. Coming up this fall is the combined events of Graphorum and the Data Architecture Summit. The agendas have been announced and super early bird registration for up to $300 off is available until July 26th, with early bird pricing for up to $200 off through August 30th. Use the code BNLLC to get an additional 10% off any pass when you register. Go to pythonpodcast.com/conferences to learn more and take advantage of our partner discounts when you register.
- Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, and read the show notes. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions I would love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter at @Podcast__init__ or email hosts@podcastinit.com)
- To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers
- Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat
- Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Ewa Jodlowska about the Python Software Foundation and the role that it serves in the language and community
Interview
- Introductions
- How did you get introduced to Python?
- Can you start by explaining what the PSF is for anyone who isn’t familiar with it?
- How did you get involved with the PSF and what is your current role?
- What was the motivation for creating the PSF?
- What are the primary responsibilities of the PSF?
- How has the scope and scale of the responsibilities for the PSF shifted in the years since its foundation?
- What is the relationship between the PSF and the language core developers?
- What are some reasons that someone would want to become a member of the PSF and what is involved in gaining membership?
- What are the challenges confronted by you and the PSF, currently and in the recent past?
- What are you most worried about and most proud of in the PSF, the core language, or the community?
- What challenges or changes do you foresee for the PSF in the near to medium future?
- What are some of the most interesting/unexpected/challenging lessons that you have learned while working with the PSF?
- How are the PSF and the PSU (Python Secret Underground) related?
- Outside of the PSF, how can the community contribute to the health and longevity of the language, its ecosystem, and its community?
Keep In Touch
- Ewa
- @ewa_jodlowska on Twitter
- The Python Software Foundation
Picks
Links
- The PSF
- Informix
- PHP
- PyCon
- PyLadies
- PyPI
- Denmark
- PSF Mission Statement
- ChiPy
- Brett Cannon PyCon 2018 Keynote
- Mozilla Open Source Support Fund
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
Activity