Steve Holden

2011 Board Member.

I have been a board member since 2004, and the board has elected me as chairman each year since 2008. I am seeking one final year of office as a director, during which I would like to consolidate the structural and financial changes I have made over the last few years to ensure the Foundation's long-term stability.

Van Lindberg

New Board Member.

(Nominated by Steve Holden.) I am a long-time Python user, having first started with version 1.4. Relative to the work of the PSF itself, I have been the PSF's legal counsel since 2007. 2012 will also be my fifth year working with the PyCon organizing committee; in 2008 and 2009 I ran sponsorship and publicity, and for the 2010-2011 cycle was the chair of PyCon US.

Tim Peters

2011 Board Member.

I'm again running under the banner of the venerable Institutional Memory Party (I've served on the Board since its beginning). I'm pleased with the Board's actions, and don't have ambitious visions for doing more. That may not be exciting, but it helps keep the PSF solvent ;-)

Marc-Andre Lemburg

2011 Board Member.

I've been board member in the years 2002-2004 and am again serving on the board since 2010.

Here's my 2011 agenda, with comments on progress:

• Starting with some real PR work for Python

I started this in 2010 with the Python brochure project (see below).

• Giving the PSF a face at various important IT- conferences by sending delegates there to give talks, setup and run a booth, etc.

This idea will hopefully pick up some speed once we have the brochure printed, since it'll provide a great starting point for booth discussions.

• Establishing the PSF as lobby organization in the political sphere in order to participate in projects where Python and its mindset can help, e.g. open-source, scientific and educational projects

Due to regulations for 501(c)3 organizations, this idea will likely not be easy to implement. The PSF could indirectly play a role in this by putting more emphasis on funding other organizations which do lobbying work.

• Establishing and running services for the community, such as those needed for running small- to medium-sized conferences or meetings

There hasn't been much progress in this area. The infrastructure team is currently working on a new PSF server infrastructure, which will hopefully make getting such services setup a lot easier.

• I hope to add a more a business-like mindset to the PSF board, in order to enable the PSF to mature both in terms of figures and responsibility.

During the last two terms the board has become a lot more organized, so I think the board is moving in the right direction.

• Getting a web firm to give the python.org site a face-lift, make it more attractive for users (pupils, students, novices, developers, educational institutions, governments and businesses), donors and the press

Jesse initiated the call for proposals to find a suitable web firm, so this is in good hands.

• Organizing fund raising in a professional way

Jesse is currently doing a fantastic job with getting PyCon US sponsors lined up, so this is less pressing than it was in previous years.

During the last term, most of my energy went into the PR project to create a professional quality marketing brochure for Python which will help us get Python known outside the developer community. The project is moving forward steadily and making good progress - it did turn out to be a lot more work intense than we had expected, but it's fun to work with the team and we're all still very enthusiastic about the idea. I also worked on the trademark committee, monitored the PSF financials, initiated getting a PSF inventory list put together, and some other things I don't remember anymore ;-)

I'd like to continue with the work started in 2010 and look forward to another year serving on the board.

Martin v. Löwis

2011 Board Member

I will continue to work on PSF infrastructure issues, and represent the views of a core Python contributor to the board.

Jessica McKellar

New Board Member.

(Nominated by Jesse Noller.)

Note that I have nominated Jessica McKellar not only due to her bona-fides within the community, but also her amazing attitude and ideas on how to help grow and nurture the community. I think she will be a very welcome and passionate voice on the Board of Directors. I have included her short bio below - Jesse Noller

Jessica is a kernel engineer living in Cambridge, MA. She works for Oracle by way of the recent acquisition of Ksplice, a software startup out of MIT.

Jessica is a PSF member and is on the Outreach and Education Committee. Some actions she has taken as part of this committee include: * conducting a Python user group organizer survey * revamping the PSF grants program documentation * promoting PyCon events to underrepresented communities

She is also an organizer for the Boston Python user group, the largest user group in the US, with over 1600 members. The user group runs monthly lecture-style events, monthly unstructured project nights, and weekend workshops. Jessica leads a beginners' corner at the project nights and makes sure there is excellent content every month for and by Pythonistas of all programming backgrounds, including lectures, lightning talks, and opportunities to contribute to open source projects.

She is the lead organizer, curriculum developer, and lecturer for the Boston Python Workshop, an intro to Python workshop for women and their friends run under the auspices of the Boston Python user group. The workshop runs every 2 months and has run 5 times so far, helping over 200 learn Python and become a part of the local programming community. The workshops have 3 goals:

• To show new programmers and the Boston Python community examples of smart, confident, capable programmers of all backgrounds.
• To bring new, awesome, diverse people into local Python programming communities through diversity and outreach events.
• To inspire other people to run their own introductory workshops and outreach events, and to get more user groups thinking about diversity and outreach.

The workshop material is all online and Creative Commons-licensed and has been used at intro to Python events around the world. The PSF awarded the Boston Python Workshop a grant to support the workshop as it continues to grow and to help 3 new user groups in the US bootstrap their own workshops. Jessica has travelled to Philadelphia to work with PhillyPUG on an outreach workshop as part of this grant.

She is a maintainer for the Twisted and OpenHatch Python projects. She is writing a chapter on Twisted for The Architecture of Open Source Applications, is working with O'Reilly to release a new edition of Twisted Network Programming Essentials, and is presenting a PyCon 2012 poster on Twisted as a case study in getting and retaining contributors to open source projects. Besides working on the code for the OpenHatch website and open source training missions, she helps run weekend workshops introducing college students to the tools and community around open source development as part of the Open Source Comes to Campus OpenHatch program.

Jesse Noller

2011 Board Member.

• I have been on the board since the 2010 election.
• I did some stuff last year: http://jessenoller.com/2011/12/30/2011-in-review-the-python-portion/
• Got sponsorship/funding to get all new infrastructure for python.org
• Got the RFP under way for the redesign and overhaul of python.org - stalled due to PyCon
• Chaired PyCon 2012. Expect 1800 Attendees, over 120 sponsors and partners.
• I need to write up future plans.

David Mertz

2011 Board Member.

• I have served on the PSF board for three years, would like to continue to do so, and would be honored if the membership elects me again to do so.
• Beginning prior to membership on the board, and on a continuing basis, I serve on the PSF Trademarks Committee, currently as its Chair.
• I created the voting procedure now in use for the PSF (and the small software tools needed to make it work) and assist PSF Secretary Pat Campbell in its operation.
• In general, I have assisted with the administravia of Board operation, sometimes acting as Chair where our esteemed Mr. Holden has been unable to, taking and publishing minutes in another case
• I am also chair of the Outreach and Education Committee, which was formed in 2011.
• By background, I am a recovering humanities academic, tempted away from post-structuralist political philosophy by the intrigue and wiles of algorithms and data structures (always best expressed in this language Guido gave us).
• I am the author of Addison Wesley's Text Processing in Python, of the IBM developerWorks' column Charming Python (since 2001), and of various other articles advancing and explaining the use of Python and its tools and libraries.
• I have created some moderately well-used FOSS Python tools (most collected in Gnosis Utilities), although these are poorly maintained in recent years.
• Sometimes speaker at PyCon and OSCON. I have been an advocate for use of Python by several public-interest software projects, including in the voting software developed by the Open Voting Consortium (I was CTO and board member of that organization). I also have been a consultant with a number of notable Python-using organizations, at the margins helping to expand that use.

Daniel Greenfeld

New Board Member.

Nominated by Jacob Kaplan-Moss.

Daniel Greenfeld, aka pydanny, is a long-time Pythonista and a contributor to a variety of projects, mostly around the Python web space. He's been active in the Zope, Plone, and Django communities, has released a variety of open source projects of his own, most recently Open Comparison, the software behind Django Packages.

This is what Danny has to say about his goals for being on the board:

I want to promote and evangelize the language. I want to see the hard work put into PyPy, PyPI, RTFD, and other projects continue. I want to see PyPI be given funding so it can build a better infrastructure - not next year as volunteers can get to it but as soon as possible. I would like to see the rebuild of python.org move forward and will contribute in any way possible to that effort.

I want to make Python much more diverse. I believed in that before Audrey Roy (my fiancee) founded PyLadies, and it needs to continue. It's a sensitive topic and I believe I have an insight into it which is unique and positive. Not just because of Audrey, she just shares my beliefs and I've stood by her at every moment.

I'm positive and encouraging of others. I salute others for their intelligence and believe that attitude is what makes Python such a great community.

I'm also strong enough to change my mind and apologize publicly.

I can line up sponsors. I can get groups energized. I can and have done this without board membership, but that would empower me more to help Python.

I've seen first-hand Danny's drive and ambition: he knows how to get things done. He can navigate both the open source world and the corporate world with ease, and I believe he has the right mix of technical ability and management skills to serve the PSF well.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can give to Danny is this: we don't always agree, but when we disagree it's always a pleasant, professional, respectful conversation. The PSF has many stakeholders whose needs often conflict, and I trust Danny to listen to all sides and make conscientious, careful, respectful decisions.

Andrew Kuchling

New Board Member.

I've been a PSF director before (from 2005 to 2008, and again in the 2009-2010 year) and a past PyCon conference co-chair.

I'm very pleased with the PSF's increased activity level for the past two years, that came from new and fresh board members who've introduced new approaches and initiatives. I want to see that continue, so I don't bring any significant new initiatives of my own and instead aim to contribute my effort and assistance toward seeing the existing projects completed.

Doug Napoleone

2011 Board Member.

• I have served on the board for 2 years.
• I am one of the core organizers for PyCon US since 2006.
• I am active in multiple sub committees (Trademarks, Sprints, PyCon US)
• Headed the PyCon website sub-committee until it was subsumed within PyCon US reporting.

I am very pleased with the more active role the Board and the PSF in general has taken in the community. I want to see more outreach and activity going forward. The initial work for helping fund local user groups needs to be expanded and streamlined. I want to see the grants program have a more formal processes, with a new sub committee for managing submissions and monitoring the efforts. Thank you for your consideration.

Brian Curtin

New Board Member

• Leader of PSF's Sprints committee, involved since its inception in 2010.
• Involved in PyCon program committee and organization since 2011. Became publicity coordinator for the 2012 conference.
• Currently transitioning to lead the PSF's communications team, maintaining the PSF blog, dev blog, and publishing PSF information on the python.org site (meeting minutes, resolutions, etc).
• Involved in CPython development since 2009, from maintaining the Windows areas to continuing a relationship with Microsoft to get our developers MSDN licenses and other help they need.

I'm a fan of getting stuff done. I got my start by contributing code and have found many other enjoyable areas to further contribute to the community. I like the direction the PSF has been going and I want to continue to push forward efforts to ensure the community has the resources to make great things. Whether it's funding Python 3 porting or helping the after-school children's groups I spoke with at PyCon, I think we have a lot of work ahead and I'd like to put my name in the hat to make it happen.

Please use the following format:

Candidate Name
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*2011 Board Member.* or *New Board Member.*

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