Our 2016 PSF Board of Directors

The PSF's annual election completed yesterday. Please welcome the new PSF Board of Directors for the 2016/17 term!

• Annapoornima Koppad 
• Carol Willing
• Carrie Ann Philbin
• Diana Clarke 
• Jackie Kazil
• Kushal Das
• Lorena Mesa 
• Naomi Ceder
• Trey Hunner
• Van Lindberg
• Younggun Kim

These eleven directors represent a range of continents, genders, ethnicities, and technical specialties. Their biographies, and their plans and hopes for the PSF, are in their candidates' statements on the wiki.

Our heartfelt thanks to the outgoing board members Nick Coghlan, Lynn Root, Alex Gaynor, Marc-Andre Lemburg, Anna Ossowski, and Ashwini Oruganti.

Reminder: Vote for the 2016 Board of Directors

If you're a voting member of the Python Software Foundation, then on May 20 you were emailed a ballot to vote for this year's Board of Directors. The voting booths close at the end of May 30, Anywhere on Earth, so please get your votes in!

Who is a voting member? Details of membership levels and voter registration, along with the list of candidates for this year's board, are on the PSF wiki:

Voting, Election Process, and Candidates' Statements

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Image: Women voting in New York City, 1917. Library of Congress file no. 00037.

Reminder: Run for the 2016 PSF Board of Directors

As we announced last week, the Python Software Foundation is seeking candidates for this year's directors. Nominations are open now until the end of May 15 Anywhere on Earth.

Candidates from anywhere in the world are welcome; members of the Board do not need to be residents or citizens of the United States. There are 11 directors, elected annually for a term of one year. Directors are unpaid volunteers.

The list of nominees is on the PSF wiki:

Candidates in the 2016 PSF Board Election.

If have a passion for the Python language and community, add yourself to the list! If someone you know would make a great member of the board, ask if they'd like you to nominate them.

We Want You to Run for the 2016 Board of Directors

You don't have to be an expert, or a Python celebrity. If you care about Python and you want to nurture our community and guide our future, we invite you to join the Board.

Nominations are open for the Python Software Foundation's Board of Directors now through the end of May 15. Nominate yourself if you are able and inspired to help the PSF fulfill its mission:

"The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers."

If you know someone who would be an excellent director, ask if they would like you nominate them!

What is the job? Directors do the business of the PSF, including:

• Appoint PSF officers.
• Manage the budget, allocate funds, and award grants.
• Raise money and recruit sponsors.
• Manage public relations, education, and outreach.
• Perform the PSF's legal duties as a non-profit corporation.
• Administer the PSF membership program and serve its members.
• Protect Python’s intellectual property rights and licenses: logos, trademarks, and open source licenses.

Read "Expectations of Directors" for details.

There are 11 directors, elected annually for a term of one year. Directors are unpaid volunteers. Candidates from anywhere in the world are welcome; members of the Board do not need to be residents or citizens of the United States.

The deadline for nominations is the end of May 15, Anywhere on Earth ("AoE"). As long as it is May 15 somewhere, nominations are open. A simple algorithm is this: make your nominations by 11:59pm on your local clock and you are certain to meet the deadline. Ballots to vote for the board members will be sent May 20, and the election closes May 30.

If you're moved to nominate yourself or someone else, here are the instructions:

How to nominate candidates in the 2016 PSF Board Election.

While you're on that page, check if your membership makes you eligible to actually vote in the election.

For more info, see the PSF home page and the PSF membership FAQ.

Jessica McKellar receives 2015 Frank Willison Award

Ask any Pythonista to name the best features of Python and they are sure to include its amazing community. For the past 15 years the PSF has recognized this important feature with its Community Service Awards and with a special annual award for outstanding contributions to the Python Community–the Frank Willison Award.

I am extremely happy to report that this year’s Frank Willison Award was presented at OSCON 2015 to Jessica McKellar (see Award Ceremony).

Jessica sharing her knowledge and skills

According to the PSF,

Jessica McKellar has served in many distinguished roles within the Python community: Director, Python Software Foundation; PyCon Diversity Outreach Chair; core organizer of Boston Python, one of Python’s largest user groups; frequent keynote speaker and tutorial presenter; board member of OpenHatch; Boston Python Workshop organizer and evangelist; PSF Fellow; mentor for Outreachy program; core contributor to OpenHatch and Twisted projects. She also has a long history as a Python advocate, as a book author (Twisted Network Programming), training author (Introduction to Python), startup founder, VP of Engineering, and MIT alumna in Computer Science.

Jessica’s tireless dedication to outreach and education created fundamental change in the Python community. In 2011, only 1% of talks given at PyCon were presented by women. Jessica’s outreach efforts included hundreds of individually targeted emails to women in technology, encouraging women to submit talk proposals, and mentoring many through the entire proposal process. In 2014 and 2015, a full 33% of talks at PyCon were given by women.

As a volunteer with genuine commitment to the education and success of others, Jessica spends a significant amount of her time on outreach, encouraging new leaders in the Python community, and sharing how Python education empowers others to change the world. She has touched many Python community members, directly and indirectly, with her grace, intelligence, and humble willingness to listen, collaborate, and celebrate the contributions of others.

The award is a memorial to the legacy of O'Reilly editor-in-chief, Frank Willison, who died in 2001. Author of the column Frankly Speaking, Willison shared his enthusiasm for programming, open-source, and, in particular, Python with his many appreciative readers. His writings and witticisms can be found at O'Reilly Archives and In Memory.

Previous recipients of this prestigious award were: 

• Barry Warsaw (2014) 
• Anna Martelli Ravenscroft (2013) 
• Jesse Noller (2012) 
• Georg Brandl (2011) 
• Christian Tismer (2010) 
• Mark Hammond (2009) 
• Martin von Löwis (2008) 
• Steve Holden (2007)  
• Alex Martelli (2006) 
• Cameron Laird (2004) 
• Fredrik Lundh (2003) 
• Andrew Kuchling (2002)

Please join me in congratulating Jessica McKellar on her well-deserved award and thanking her for her numerous contributions.

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.

Nicholas Tollervey and Python in Education

As many of you know, the use of Python in education has grown tremendously in the past several years (see PSF Newsblog).  The Python community celebrates this trend, and continues to strengthen our connections to the world of education. PyCon’s first education summit at PyCon 2013, initiated by Naomi Cedar (who was recently elected to the PSF Board of Directors), has been followed globally by many Python conferences holding education tracks and getting involved with community teachers and education leaders.

Recently PyCon UK and EuroPython announced their upcoming education tracks.

After attending the Education Summit at PyCon2015 in Montreal, I was inspired to read Nicholas Tollervey’s wonderful booklet, Python in Education. 

(MAS reading and learning)

Here Tollervey summarizes and explains Python’s use in education, recounts the history of the Python programming language, provides a case study of the amazing Raspberry Pi, and describes the important role played by the Python community in the language’s popularity and ability to meet and adapt to users' needs. 

After reading his booklet, I had some questions for Nicholas: 

Q: What was your motivation for writing this book?

NT: during my 20s I was a senior secondary school teacher in the UK - I taught music to teenagers growing up in areas of great poverty and deprivation. As a result I’m passionate about teaching and learning - especially as a vehicle for emancipation. Unsurprisingly, I see programming and technical literacy as such vehicles. This is reinforced because I also have three school aged children.

Q: How long were you thinking about and/or writing the book? 

NT: I’ve been thinking about programming and Python in education for quite a number of years. Given all that’s happening regarding computing education in the UK at the moment, I’ve also had a lot of opportunity to discuss the subject with a large number of teachers and developers and develop my outlook as a result (a process that is ongoing). The first draft of the report only took a weekend to write - although I made time during the following weeks for tidying up and editing (re-reading with fresh eyes is such a useful thing to do).

Q: Did you have the book’s contents in mind or did you discover it via research? 

NT: The philosophical outlook was very much the result of the discussions mentioned in the previous point. I also spent a day at Raspberry Pi Towerschatting with Eben, Carrie Anne and Ben [Editor’s Note: Eben Upton, Carrie Anne Philbin, and Ben Nuttall of the Raspberry Pi Foundation; Carrie Anne was recently elected to the PSF Board of Directors]. 

The case study in the second section is the result. The rest of the book just wrote itself (as it were) and I, of course, was very careful to ensure I was reporting the correct information while referencing others.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your background in Python in education?

NT: I was a senior teacher. I also have an MA in Philosophy of Education and a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education). For the last 4-5 years I’ve organised the PyconUK education track: last year we had 50 teachers and 90 kids turn up. This year will be bigger still. I also founded and help to run the London Python Code Dojo where developers come together to teach and learn from each other (see: http://ntoll.org/article/how-to-run-an-awesome-code-dojo for details of what a dojo is). I also collaborate with teachers on an ad hoc basis - for example, tomorrow I’m at a school in Nottinghamshire to help teach teachers to teach programming. This will be followed by some practical workshops helping a bunch of kids take their first steps as the tame programmer in the room along with all these hopefully newly enthused teachers. ;-)

Q: Anything else…? 

NT: YES! I always try to imagine who I’m writing for. In this case it was programmers who need an easy to remember source of arguments in favour of Python in education and teachers, students, parents and school board types (i.e. policy makers) who know nothing about computing but who need information in an easy to digest format. I wanted to write a kind of manifesto (but without explicitly calling it one because that has all sorts of connotations) that would expose all the amazing work and progress the Python community has made in the world of education. It’s all about helping people join the dots, make connections and collaborate. By the end of the book I want the reader to want to teach and learn Python. ;-)

An e-copy of Nicholas’s book can be obtained for free from O'Reilly. I highly recommend reading it, giving it to others as an introduction to this increasingly important topic, and getting involved in the education tracks at PyCons and in CS education activities in your communities.

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.

The Election Process and the new PSF Election Administrator

Background: 

As those of you who have been following recent events in the PSF know, there were some difficulties and disagreements surrounding the election for the 2015-2016 Board of Directors. The initial attempt at an election for Board members was cancelled due ambiguity concerning candidate nomination deadlines. 

Then, as possible solutions were discussed on the PSF voting members list, it became apparent that there were additional aspects of the previously used system (E-vote) that were considered less than ideal by some members.

The Election Administrator at that time, due to newly undertaken professional commitments, was unavailable to relaunch the election or to modify the procedures to satisfy the desiderata expressed by many. Fortunately, Ian Cordasco agreed to step into the position, and he has been hard at work since the beginning of May getting the recently completed election back on track and exploring long term solutions to newly identified problems.

Already some important changes have been made: First of all, with the hard work of the Board of Directors and many volunteers, a precise and unambiguous deadline was set for nominations, for the issuing and for the receipt of ballots for both the Board election and the Sponsor election (See New Board Election.) That election has been successfully conducted and we have a new Board of Directors (and some new sponsors) as a result. (See Congratulations.)

Secondly, an Elections Working Group was formed to study the desirability of an enhancement to the E-vote software developed by Massimo DiPierro and David Mertz that had been used by the PSF for the past several years. An alternative solution, switching to another system like Helios, is also being explored. For those who wish to participate in this discussion and/or to contribute to this important evaluative study, please subscribe to  Elections-wg@python.org.

I recently had an email chat with Ian about his new role which I’d like to share with you:

Q: Why did you get involved?

Ian: There was a lot of conflict over the last Board Election. Unnecessary conflict is something I really don’t want to see in the Python community, so I stepped up to attempt to deescalate the situation.

Q: What is your background/interest as election administration?

Ian: I have no background in running elections. The software is intriguing to me. The way of verifying votes and ensuring anonymity is also intriguing.

Q: What are some of your goals as election administrator?

Ian: To run elections well and improve the software we use to run our elections.

Q: What are the criteria for a good election process?

Ian: This list is probably incomplete, but,

• User friendly: The nomination process should be easy as should voting.
• Transparent and Verifiable: Nominations and votes should be verifiable by any one observing the election.
• Secure: It’s unlikely someone might try to attack a PSF election, but users should know that their votes aren’t being altered when casting them and that the ballot they received was correct.
• Well documented: Voters and candidates should know the schedule. The software should be well documented for all involved - candidates, voters, and election administrators alike.
• Cooperative: I have the great pleasure of coordinating with Ewa Jodlowska who helps in the election process. Massimo DiPierro and David Mertz have been very helpful in learning and navigating E-Vote.This whole process would have been a lot more stressful if not for their help and support.

Q: I understand that recent election yielded a tie in the number of votes for the eleventh Director’s seat. How was that resolved?

Ian: I spoke with David and in the past, ties have been broken with code such as:

if random.random() < 0.5:
    print('Candidate A')
else:
    print('Candidate B')

So in following with that, I ran that code and came up with the 11th… For some amount of verifiability, I recorded the run of that script.

Q: How can we (PSF members) help?

Ian: Join the Elections WG! We’re trying to improve the whole of the PSF elections process. There are a few known issues with the current process. Many hands make light work.

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.

Congratulations to the new Board of Directors!

Board Election Results

The PSF annual Board members' election was just completed, with voting closed at end of day (AOE) on May 31, 2015. Thanks to all who took part, including candidates, PSF Directors, staff and volunteers, as well as all members who participated by voting in the election. A special thanks to Ian Cordasco who undertook the daunting task of administering this election at a point of upheaval and controversy last month.

The slate of candidates for the eleven Directors' seats was the strongest ever, with 23 people, each of whom brought a high level of skill and experience in tech and open source, and who collectively represented several countries, ethnicities, gender identities, and varied experiences. (Candidates' statements can be reviewed on the wiki.)

We are very excited and proud to see such strength and diversity in our new Board and extremely grateful and proud of the work of our outgoing Directors, who pushed very hard and intentionally toward opening the Board to this new diversity. 

Please join me in thanking the outgoing Board members:

Brian Curtin, Kushal Das, Selena Deckelmann, Jessica McKellar, David Mertz, and Travis Oliphant.

Congratulations to the new PSF Board of Directors:

Nick Coghlan, Diana Clarke, Van Lindberg, Lynn Root, Alex Gaynor, Marc-Andre Lemburg, Carol Willing, Naomi Ceder, Anna Ossowski, Carrie Anne Philbin, and Ashwini Oruganti.

There has been a lot of growth and discussion of new ideas in the past couple of months, in the halls at PyCon, on the membership lists, and over emails. It is time to put those ideas, along with a new optimism and a renewed commitment to the mission of the PSF, to work.  I believe that this moment is the beginning of a new stage in the PSF adventure and I look forward to working with the new Board and all of the membership!

In my next post, I will be writing about some of what we’ve learned during this election process and how we’re channelling this learning via the new Elections Work Group, and posting an interview with our new Elections Administrator.

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.

New Board Election! Important! Please Read!

For those of you who haven't followed the recent discussion on the PSF members list, there has been an important development regarding the election of members to the Board of Directors. 

Due to ambiguity with respect to the candidate nomination deadline (the former election administrator interpreted the deadline as midnight May 1, UTC; while others were operating with the understanding that the deadline was midnight Anywhere on Earth), a candidate who wished to self-nominate was not able to.

The PSF Board moved quickly to respond to this issue and the following solution was adopted: 

Here's the official explanation by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Van Lindberg:

Due to some procedural problems with the current election for the Board of the Python Software Foundation, the Foundation has taken some steps to make sure that the elections are freely open for nominations and that there are no conflicts of interest. Specifically, today the board adopted the following resolutions:

RESOLVED, due to procedural deficiencies, the Board Election ballots issued on May 1st (AOE)/May 2nd (UTC) be deemed null and void.

RESOLVED, that David Mertz be removed as election administrator, and that Ian Cordasco be appointed as election administrator.

David has been the election adminstrator for quite a while, and designed the "e-vote" system that we use along with Massimo DePierro. He has put in a lot of time and effort, and we thank him for it. David in particular volunteered for a complex voting administration task that needed to be handled as the PSF expanded internationally beyond a primarily US-based membership that could previously realistically vote (in person, or by proxy) at physical meetings held annually at PyCon
US.

Without David's efforts as Election Administrator over that time, it would not have been feasible to expand the membership as we have, including the conversion to an open membership model in the 2014 update to the PSF bylaws.

For anyone who has received a ballot already, or has received a ballot reminder, please ignore it. We will be canceling the election as quickly as possible.

We also wanted to make sure that the procedure for upcoming board elections was clear, particularly with regard to the timelines for nominations and voting eligibility. To address that, we also adopted the following resolution concerning the timing of future votes for the board. For those who aren't familiar with the term "AOE", it means "Anywhere on Earth." 

RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation adopt the follow procedure for Board elections:
    - Day 1: There is announcement of an upcoming board election via public announcement and email to existing voting members.
    - Day 10 (AOE): Nominations and voting eligibility closes for the upcoming board election. The list of voting members is updated.
    - Day 14-15: Ballots are sent out to voting members.
    - Day 25 (AOE): Election closes.

We also are starting a new election using this procedure, so the timeline for the election is as follows:

    - May 5: Announcement of a new election . . .  and an email to the voting members.
    - May 15 (AOE): Nominations and voting eligibility closes for the upcoming board election. The list of voting members is updated.
    - May 19-20: Ballots are sent out to voting members.
    - May 30 (AOE): Election closes.

This means that in an effort to be inclusive, the nominations will again be open for anyone until May 15 AOE. If you missed the opportunity to nominate for the 2015 Python Software Foundation Board, you will have that chance.

Thanks,

Van Lindberg
PSF Chair

I urge all prospective candidates to post their nomination statements in advance of the May 15 (midnight AoE*) deadline, and all voters to read the Wiki for the candidate statements and to cast their ballots in advance of the May 30 (midnight AoE*) deadline Wiki.

* AoE = UTC - 12

For those with more specific scientific requirements for deadline info, the following should be completely unambiguous:

Deadline for candidate nominations and voting rights self-certification: End of day May 15, 2015, AoE: = UTC May 16, by12 noon = ISO 8601: 2015-05-15T23:59:59-12

Deadline for Voting: End of day May 30, 2015, AoE = UTC May 31, by 12 noon = ISO 8601: 2015-05-31T23:59:59-12:00

Any questions or problems can be addressed to the Board (PSF-Board@python.org) and/or the new election administrator, Ian Cordasco (graffatcolmingov@gmail.com).

Photo Credit: M.A. Sushinsky, private collection 

(S. Dali multiple original lithograph--sketch for Persistence of Memory)

("Time is the horizon for the unfolding of the meaning of Being," 

-- M. Heidegger, 1927)

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.