Python Software Foundation Fellow Members for Q2 2018

We are happy to announce our 2018 2nd Quarter Python Software Foundation Fellow Members:

Anthony Shaw
Twitter, GitHub, Website

Christian Barra
Twitter, GitHub, Website

Jeff Reback
Twitter, GitHub

Joris Van den Bossche
Twitter, Github, Website
Katie McLaughlin
Twitter, GitHub, Website

Marc Garcia
Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub

Rizky Ariestiyansyah
Twitter, GitHub

Tom Augspurger
Website

Wes McKinney
Twitter, GitHub, Website

Yury Selivanov
Twitter, GitHub, Website

Congratulations! Thank you for your continued contributions. We have added you to our Fellow roster online.

The above members have contributed to the Python ecosystem by maintaining popular libraries, organizing Python events, hosting Python meet ups, teaching classes, contributing to CPython, and overall being great mentors in our community. Each of them continues to help make Python more accessible around the world. To learn more about the new Fellow members, check out their links above.

If you would like to nominate someone to be a PSF Fellow, please send a description of their Python accomplishments and their email address to psf-fellow at python.org. Here is the nomination review schedule for 2018:

• Q3: July to the end of September (01/07 - 30/09) Cut-off for quarter three will be August 20. New fellows will be announced before end of September. 
• Q4: October to the end of December (01/10 - 31/12) Cut-off for quarter four will be November 20. New fellows will be announced before December 31. 

We are looking for a few more voting members to join the Work Group to help review nominations. If you are a PSF Fellow and would like to join, please write to psf-fellow at python.org.

Dr. Russell Keith-Magee, the Python Warrior: Community Service Award Q4 2017 Recipient

Dr. Russell Keith-Magee known name in the Python community having developed with Python since the late 1990s starting with Python version 1.5.

Russell started his career coding with Perl but was confused with it’s design philosophy of TMTOWTDI ("There’s More Than One Way To Do It”). This ultimately led Russell to Python. With its minimal use of symbols in it’s syntax - preferring keywords instead - and mandated indentation, Python was “a breath of fresh air”. Russell recalls, “I found myself wanting to use Python for more and more as time went by”. Contrasting Perl’s TMTOWTDI philosophy to Python’s “there should be one - and preferably only one - obvious way to do it” philosophy was a much welcomed change

Russell was elated to discover Python’s broad range of use cases. As he describes, Python “is used for systems integration, to run websites, to statistical data analysis, to predict astronomical phenomena, it's used for educating people who are just learning to program, and it's used by experienced programmers for serious heavy lifting". Such breadth of usage gives Python its most incredible aspect -- a diverse user community. “We should always remember that we are a community. Communities depend on people being involved, and giving back when they can.” 

Gallant Sir Russell, The Victorious Knight

Like Russell, we at the Python Software Foundation share the love for our Python community. We are delighted have such selfless and community minded Pythonistas in our ranks. Therefore the Python Software Foundation is honored to present the 4th Quarter Community Service Award for 2017 to Dr. Russell Keith-Magee:

RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation award the Q4 2017 Community Service Award to Russell Keith-Magee for his contributions to Django, for his work on the BeeWare project, and for being an active international speaker at PyCons.

Russell’s adventures with Django

Russell has been a core developer on the Django project since January 2006. Additionally, Russell has been a mentor in the Google Summer of Code for both the Django and BeeWare Projects since 2008.

Russell became a professional Python programmer just when the concept of web frameworks was emerging. He explains, “coming from a desktop UI background, I didn’t understand the fundamental shift that web programming required, or how these frameworks mapped onto those requirements”. When Russell discovered Django, however, this technology just clicked. Within a short period of time he had conjured up a working website. “But more importantly, Django allowed me to understand why the web worked the way it does”.

These were the early days of Django development and Russell rolled up the sleeves to start helping the nascent project. At first he, “dug into a couple of small issues, then some bigger ones - and before long, I’d been offered commit access.”

BeeWare: The IDEs of Python

Russell is also the founder of the BeeWare Project - a project developing tools and libraries for cross-platform native user interfaces in Python. One of the key contributions of this work is expanding the availability of Python onto mobile and browser platforms.

In his quest to build a rich, graphical debugger for Python, Russell found he needed a cross-platform, Python-enabled widget toolkit. It was then that he had a stroke of inspiration, “Why not have one code base but multiple apps?” The idea was to, “support Python natively on iOS and Android, and, at the same time, build a cross-platform UI toolkit that was Python-native.”

Five years into the BeeWare Project, Russell, and his fellow BeeWare apiarists were focusing on getting the BeeWare tools to the point where they would be a viable option for user interface development.

BeeWare is now a “spare time” project for Russell. He wishes to work on it full time and, so is looking for means ways of financial support. “It’s difficult to make a business case for something that is (a) Open Source, and (b) not yet ready for commercial usage.” In his words, “this highlights two existential threats for Python.”

The first of these threats is the growth of mobile and browser development . This “will have a profound impact on the viability of Python as a language.” He rejects the claim that JavaScript is a better language , but admits it has a key advantage: “it’s available in the browser, the most important new platform of the last 20 years”. Russell recommends that “Python should focus more on finding ways to target these new and emerging platforms and plan for where our industry is moving”.

The second threat to Python is the threat he sees to , the Python ecosystem - and the broader Open Source ecosystem. Open Source supports the existence of thousands of companies but the development and maintenance of the Python and other open source tools, critical to their existence, is massively* underfunded. For instance, PyPI is a classic example of this second sort of problem: it has active commercial usage but limited support from commercial users. This threat will continue to exist in the “absence of ongoing source of funding”. 

Russell’s Advice for Beginner Pythonistas

Russell’s numerous contributions to the Python community reflect his core belief in service to the bigger project. For beginning Pythonistas, Russell advices to give back to the community.

“As someone coming into the community, you may not think you have a lot to offer, but you do “.

He thinks there are many “activities around the language like user groups, meetups and conferences, that need people to help organize.” These are as essential as coding, for the development of a language, language community. So no specific skill is required to jump in, so come one, come all. 

Dr. Russell Keith-Magee, DjangoCon 2017

These words are an inspiration to us all no matter if we’re beginners or experienced Pythonistas. In short, thank you Russell for your years of service and contributions to the Python community and for those yet to come.

Ee Durbin joins the PSF team

I am happy to announce that on June 1, 2018, Ee Durbin joined the Python Software Foundation team as the Director of Infrastructure.

Ee is a long time volunteer contributor to the PSF's Infrastructure Work Group,  PyPI, and most recently PyCon US. Through their past experiences, Ee has gained the insight needed to best guide the PSF forward.

Ee's responsibilities in the role will include:

• evaluating and strengthening internal systems 
• supporting and improving community infrastructure  
• outreach and mentorship for our volunteers that contribute to the PSF's infrastructure
• developing programs that benefit the Python community world wide

Ee is very excited to take our infrastructure to the next level and through that better support our community. The PSF Staff and Directors are thrilled to have Ee on board.

Prior to this, the role was held by Mark Mangoba as a part-time position. We thank Mark for his dedication to the PSF for the last two years as our IT Manager. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.

If you have any questions or comments, please email me.

Note: Edited 2022-05-23 to reflect Ee's chosen name