In mid-2006, the PSF agreed to hire JeffreyRush for full-time work on ["Advocacy"]. The contract was renewed for another six months starting March 15, 2007, along with a [http://www.python.org/psf/grants/advocacy/revised-tasks.pdf list of tasks to tackle].

["AdvocacyAccomplishments"]

Current Tasks:

• Use the [http://www.dfwpython.org:8000/ www.python.org mockup area] to test some proposed changes, re a "spotlight" topic and a "get involved" feature, and get feedback from the community.

• Produce more "5-Minutes with Python" screencasts -- I've produced five so far.
  • Python, Numbers and Array Processing
  • Python and Strings
  • Python and the Imaging Library
  • Python and Relational Databases
  • Python and Object Databases
  • Python and Scientific Computing
• Work on "Starting and Running a Successful Python User Group" paper, with select members of the Usergroup Support Committee who have volunteered to help.
• Hold another online meeting of the Usergroup Support Committee.
• Decide where to put reST/S5 slides on www.python.org and how to hook them into the build system so they are functional web slideshows.
• Decide how to create a "spotlight" box on www.python.org, in consultation with the pydotorg group.
• Device how to create a "get involved" box on www.python.org, in consultation with the pydotorg group.
• Begin reviewing 12th edition of "Understanding Computers" textbook. - deferred

Existing Challenges (most recent at top):

• crunching a talk down into only 5-minutes - it is surprisingly difficult
• figuring out why threads I start re advocacy and usergroups die out, lacking persistence.
• why no response pretty much at all to the repeated calls for podcasts and screencasts -- why is the community so averse to multimedia?

For active discussion on advocating the use of Python, please join the [http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy Advocacy mailing list] and visit the [http://advocacy.python.org/getinvolved Advocacy - Get Involved!] site.

CategoryAdvocacy