Python in Education - Request for Ideas

The Python Software Foundation Board Committee for Python in Education wants to hear how the PSF can help members of our community increase the presence of Python in education.

Our first goal is to gather ideas from the community on ways the PSF can fund work to improve Python in education. We want to collect a broad spectrum of ideas and projects at all levels and in all disciplines. After the ideas phase, we will use the ideas provided to guide our request for proposals.

Timeline

Here’s the full timeline:

• January 23- February 18, 2019: Request for Ideas phase
• February 18 - March 31, 2019: Request for Proposals phase
• April 1-17, 2019: Review process
• April 18, 2019: Notify the accepted proposals
• June-August of 2019: Accepted proposal work begins

Scope

The scope of the “request for ideas” phase is vague on purpose. We do not want to steer the ideas brought forth and want to see a wide variety of pitches.

Think small. If you had $100 USD what would you do?
Think BIG! If you had $10,000,000 USD what would you do?

There is no limit to the amount of money that your pitch might cost. If we think you have a great idea and it serves to improve Python in education, we will support it. Smaller requests will come from funds we have on hand. Larger funding requests will take more work to fulfill as we will work to gather funds through several methods such as donation drives and grants from other organizations.

While the Request for Ideas is vague and open ended, there are some guidelines. These guidelines will come into play during the Request for Proposal phase, but they may help you in the Request for Ideas phase.

Here are some things that we will look for and consider in a proposal:

Basic requirements

• The criteria for acceptance will be based on the following guidelines:
• Does the proposal adhere to PSF’s Code of Conduct?
• Does the proposal align with the Python Software Foundation’s mission?
• Is the proposal well organized and detailed? Be sure to tell us what the main issue, problem, or subject is and why is it important. 
• Does the proposer have any experience relevant to the proposal? While not strictly a requirement, having previous experience in what is being proposed will be considered in the overall application.
• Is the subject pertaining to underrepresented topics within our community? As we strive to improve the diversity of our community, priority will be given to proposals that bring new viewpoints and additional representation to the Python ecosystem.

Advanced requirements

• The proposal should include a timeline and capture major milestones for the work being proposed.
• If the proposal includes assistance from other contributors/resources, please share the details.
• The proposal should include the expected outcomes of proposed work as well as metrics for how the outcomes will be evaluated.

Submit your ideas and questions to edu-committee@python.org.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to seeing all of the wonderful ideas!

Python Software Foundation Fellow Members for Q4 2018

It's a new year and we are happy to announce our newest PSF Fellow Members!

Elana Hashman 

Github, Twitter, Blog

Alexander Hendorf 

Zachary Ware 

Github

Jeff Triplett

Github, Twitter, 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/tools, organizing Python events, 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.

Let's continue to recognize Pythonistas all over the world for their impact on our community. Here's the criteria our Work Group uses to review nominations:

• For those who have served the Python community by creating and/or maintaining various engineering/design contributions, the following statement should be true:
  • Nominated Person has served the Python community by making available code, tests, documentation, or design, either in a Python implementation or in a Python ecosystem project, that 1) shows technical excellence, 2) is an example of software engineering principles and best practices, and 3) has achieved widespread usage or acclaim.
• For those who have served the Python community by coordinating, organizing, teaching, writing, and evangelizing, the following statement should be true:
  • Nominated Person has served the Python community through extraordinary efforts in organizing Python events, publicly promoting Python, and teaching and coordinating others. Nominated Person's efforts have shown leadership and resulted in long-lasting and substantial gains in the number and quality of Python users, and have been widely recognized as being above and beyond normal volunteering.
• If someone is not accepted to be a fellow in the quarter they were nominated for, they will remain an active nominee for 1 year for future consideration.
• It is suggested/recommended that the nominee have wide Python community involvement. Examples would be (not a complete list - just examples):
  • Someone who has received a Community Service Award or Distinguished Service Award
  • A developer that writes (more than one) documentation/books/tutorials for wider audience
  • Someone that helps translate (more than one) documentation/books/tutorials for better inclusivity
  • An instructor that teaches Python related tutorials in various regions
  • Someone that helps organize local meet ups and also helps organize a regional conference
• Nominees should be aware of the Python community’s Code of Conduct and should have a record of fostering the community.
• Sitting members of the PSF Board of Directors can be nominated if they meet the above criteria.

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. We are accepting nominations for quarter 1 through February 20, 2019. More information is available at: https://www.python.org/psf/fellows/.