Who are you?
I’m Keith Murray.
I engage with a lot of Python Communities, often with the handle KeithTheEE, and I find that my favorite parts of the many communities are seeing the hobbies people have, and if/how Python intersects them. Hobbies and passion projects (including silly, fun passions) are one of the ways to make code matter, and are one of the things I’ve been falling back to of late to help balance against burnout: particularly when I feel overwhelmed by code ‘engagement’ that feels overly extractive. Discovering hobbies of other Python community members has made engaging feel like a collaborative and supportive experience, even if the code isn’t tied to the hobby at all.
I love (trying) to grow orchids, birding, and making pasta, and while I don’t involve Python in every aspect of it, hearing about how it resonates with others (constructive or destructively), like how some prefer begonias over orchids, never got birding but love their dogs, or the many foods from their home I now need to try--helps me look forward to reading comments on the item at hand. So I’m Keith, I like many things and I love how so many people make the code around me joyful.
What would you bring to the PSF Board of Directors?
My experience would help drive outreach to communities and direct small changes to help navigate the Python ecosystem and communities with an increased awareness of engagement opportunities. A particular interest is tied to PSF membership, and using it as a pathway for communication and building outreach to help inform people about the many ways to get involved and support the Python community. Because I’m interested in the Education and Education Resources side of things, I’m more aimed at the new user experience, and trying to maintain the “exciting new world/what can I do next” feeling new programmers have.
I add perspective on the impact of things like navigating the python.org website, and how it feels to those who are new and not from a programming background. This experience with outreach and newer community member navigation helps shape how I consider relaying information to those I think either want to know about it, or want to share it to those they know want to know. In a Board of Directors role, this perspective helps understand how choices are felt in the wider community, and shapes the way I’d encourage asking for feedback, input, and help with larger goals.
What motivated you to run for the PSF Board of Directors?
I am running for the PSF Board of Directors because I think my experience reaching out to lots of communities, and relaying their events in other spaces has helped me learn a lot about helpful outreach methodologies as well as perceived limitations in many communities. I particularly hope to shape the workflow of becoming a member, to make “being a part of the PSF” feel more meaningful, and to help direct the excitement of wanting to help into things which are impactful, but may not immediately be alluring.
Things like sharing events, commenting on an old issue if it is still present on your machine, operating system, python version, telling community members, “thank you” and that you like the things they did are all ways to help which can alleviate some burden or stress from staff and core team members, and guiding that branch of empowerment is something I think is valuable.
What problem or challenge do you want to address if you are on the board?
Funding the PSF, and ensuring that funding is reliable so long term, structural improvement can be made is the among largest challenges I see PSF currently facing. While improving the PSF Membership workflow might not be the most direct way to addressing overall PSF funding, a wider audience who’s aware of the financial needs of Open Source gives strength to the conversation in every company.
One of my biggest hopes for the next year is a formalized means to nominate individuals for PSF “Contributing Membership”, that way it’s easier to communicate how many people actually qualify for this class of membership. The wording of the membership is a non exhaustive list of ways people qualify, but many people don’t know it exists, or pre-emptively determine their efforts aren’t enough. There are so many who qualify and if they’re invited they’ll highlight all the other amazing community members they know. Building a network of celebration helps communicate a core reason funding the PSF is very important, and makes it easier for more community members to start that conversation within their companies.
Where do you see the PSF 5 years from now?
Because funding is among the biggest challenges, and is one that is unlikely to be resolved quickly, I think “Community Empowerment” will be one of the strongest aspects of the PSF in the years to come. There are many bodies for regional, domain specific, or identity specific Python groups, and I think maintaining and encouraging strong relationships with the larger community will help relay messaging, and help build up diverse leadership skills by having more events like CPython development sprints at various regional events. That wider net helps foster skills, enables local companies to invest in their local community while seeing its direct impact on the growth of Python as a whole, and hopefully provides chances for community engagement in a fashion that alleviates burdens.
Looking at the strength of the PSF Board of Director Nominees as well as Python Packaging Council nominees, it’s clear that there’s a massive amount of talent and each person has amazing experiences which inform the direction they want to help the PSF grow. Each of those is an area that strengthens the whole Python Community, and strong and well defined paths of empowerment and organization resources help ensure these initiatives continue to help Python thrive.
What areas of the Python Community are you involved with?
I’m a part of the PSF Education and Outreach Workgroup, a Director and Community Outreach Lead for the community run Python Discord, and help with PyOhio (As a volunteer this year, prior two years as a Communication Chair). Additionally I moderated the Python Subreddit from mid 2020 through mid 2023.
I do a lot of work focused on the outreach side of things, trying to listen to where communities have needs and connect individuals who have strengths in exactly that domain. There’s a fair amount of times where people just didn’t know something existed, or don’t know where to find a resource, and helping relay that information has been one of the areas I’ve found to be fulfilling. It has the added benefit of getting to meet a ton of cool people and seeing the amazing things they’re doing in Python, and how their hobbies outside of Python shape their code and community.
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Note from the election administrators:
Want to learn more about this candidate or ask them a question?
Check out their nomination statement.
Check out their AMA thread on discuss.python.org.
