A new conference: Python Namibia!

The Python community has been fortunate to experience a lot of growth over the last few years, especially when it comes to user groups and conferences. A lot of these meetings have seen huge attendance, with PyCon having sold out the last three years, regional conferences seeing sharp growth, and some monthly meetups occasionally "selling out" (they're free, but attract more than the venue can hold). On top of those existing events growing, we're seeing more events pop up around the world.

We just got word that another new conference is starting up: Python Namibia, taking place February 2-5. This first time conference is taking place in Windhoek at the University of Namibia, with collaboration from Cardiff University, giving a group of students an opportunity to attend as part of their studies!

"Open-source software represents an opportunity for developing nations to become owners and producers of the software that they need; it's a key to their future prosperity," said organizer Daniele Procida. "There's an enormous benefit to software developers in being part of a supportive community."

The conference plans to start with two days of talks, a day of workshops and tutorials, and concluding with collaborative activities like sprints, as well as planning work for hosting a PyCon Namibia in 2016.

"We hope that this event will help programmers in Namibia feel that they belong to a welcoming international community that values their participation - and that it will help set a series of virtuous circles into motion," says Daniele.

Keep an eye on http://python-namibia.org/ and follow @PythonNamibia for more info!

Matching Donations to PyPy in September!

We're thrilled to announce that we will be matching donations made to the PyPy project for the month of September. For every dollar donated this month, the PSF will also give a dollar, up to a $10,000 total contribution. Head to http://pypy.org/ and view the donation options on the right side of the page, including general funding or a donation targeted to their STM, Py3k, or NumPy efforts.

We've previously given a $10,000 donation to PyPy, and more recently seeded the STM efforts with $5,000. The PyPy project works with the Software Freedom Conservancy to manage fund raising efforts and the usage of the funds, and they'll be the ones notifying us of how you all made your donations. At the end of the month, we'll do our part and chip  in to making PyPy even better.

The matching period runs today through the end of September.