Revision 10 as of 2013-03-07 17:57:36

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Candidates for the 2013 PSF Board of Directors

The following people have been nominated as Directors of the Python Software Foundation for the term beginning in March 2013. Their self-written summaries follow.

There are currently 11 seats on the Board of Directors (last changed in the 2012 PSF Members vote).


...Candidate entries go here...

Marc-Andre Lemburg

2012 Board Member.

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

PSF things I've been working on last year:

in addition to the usual PSF board work.

Things I'd like to initiate this year:

  • create conference kits to promote Python for use at conferences that have a broarder scope such as OSCON and FOSDEM
  • create more marketing material and setup a way for conferences and user groups to more easily request such material
  • start work on creating a PSF network of national and regional Python associations to help market Python in more diverse ways

I'd like to continue with this work as director and look forward to another year serving on the board.


Jesse Noller

Current 2012/13 Board Member.

I have served on the board since 2010.

Foundation work I have started/lead:

Things I'd like to continue to do / evolve:

  • Revamp and rethink the PSF Sponsor member system; put together a strong recurring revenue stream for the foundation that can assist the community through grants.
  • Continue to work with outreach and education groups on behalf of the foundation (such as PyLadies, etc)
  • Finish the Python.org redesign
  • Work on further evolution and modernization of the python.org and other services infrastructure and team
  • Examine additional areas where the foundation can serve and assist the community as a whole
  • Continue in assisting and advising PyCon US (in montreal) as a sponsorship coordinator / board liaison
  • Continue to work and assist in finding ways of improving the general knowledge of, and general marketing of the foundation and how it can help the community in general.
  • Continue finding areas to improve the general public relations other areas of the foundation.
  • Examine how the foundation can get more involved in "future-proofing" the community - e.g. outreach and getting involved in education initiatives.
  • And a lot more!

I would be honored to continue to serve on the board and working to make a more diverse (in all ways) board, membership and community.


David Mertz

Current 2012/13 Board Member.

I have served on the PSF board for four 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. We resolve legal matters in the committee, enter into relationships of fiscal sponsorship with relevant projects to further protect our IP, and actually generally improve the relationships with broader Python communities through friendly and productive conversations about trademark rights. Having a friendly demeanor and also a thorough concern with protection of PSF rights, when I send a "C&D" letter as TC chair, the reply I get is always "thank you." Of late, I assisted moderately with PSF Chair Van Lindberg's spearheading of an opposition to a conflicting trademark claim in the EU over a logo incorporating the "Python" word mark.
  • I created the voting procedure used by the PSF for the prior couple years (and the small software tools needed to make it work), assisted the PSF Secretary in its operation, and administered the last election. In response to some requests by members, I worked wtih PSF member (and Web2Py lead) Massimo Di Pierro to get his E-vote software concept to provide all the same wonderful cryptographic and security guarantees as the prior email-based system (and some more).
  • As a Director I have participated in supervising, and reaching some difficult staffing decisions.
  • I am chair of the Outreach and Education Committee, which was formed in 2011. The committee has funded numerous outreach efforts to user groups and educational efforts, and will continue to fund more in the future; acting as Board liaison is useful.
  • I was very pleased to serve as PSF/Board representative to give one of the two keynotes at PyCon-India in 2012. As well as enjoying representing the PSF broadly, this tied in with the mission of the Outreach & Education to regionally/nationally diversify interest in and commitment to Python and to the PSF.
  • 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. Often a 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.

Lynn Root

New board member

I am a Software Engineer/Python programmer for Red Hat in the Bay Area, but only have been programming since late 2011. I am active in the local Python, PyLadies, and Django communities, and lead PyLadies SF.

As a board member, I hope to help the PSF in continuing to foster its relationships with its many local, regional, and international communities. I also want to look for new opportunities for the PSF to develop and influence the Python community.

What I have accomplished in the past year:

What I wish to continue:

  • Diversity outreach with speaking, holding events, and starting conversations.
  • Help future PyCons in North America with program selection, and any other capacity that I can.
  • Spread the word & love for Python & open source by holding intro workshops, sprints for OSS projects, writing http://github.com/econchick/new-coder tutorials, etc.
  • Continue creating comfortable environments for Pythonistas and budding new coders to learn, develop, hack, speak, etc.

Naomi Ceder

New Board Member.

I've been using, promoting and teaching Python on various levels since 2000, as a teacher, author, developer, manager, and organizer.

In addition to being the author of The Quick Python Book, 2nd ed., which was Manning Publications' number 2 selling book in 2012, and giving various Python talks and tutorials, I currently am one of the organizers and main instructor of the Chicago Python Workshops and am active in ChiPy's North branch.

After creating the poster session at PyCon and coordinating it for 3 years, this year I proposed and am coordinating the first education summit at PyCon, which will have about 90 attendees from all areas of Python education.

As IT director of a company that runs on Python I'm very interested in the long term health and growth of Python and the Python community, and my personal circumstances have given me some very personal experience with diversity and inclusion from several different, and even contradictory, perspectives.

Finally, perhaps the best qualification I can offer is that once committed to something like this, I'm excruciatingly reliable - I absolutely hate to miss meetings or deadlines, and I make sure tasks I'm assigned "just get done."

My goal as a board member would be to do all that I can to help the PSF achieve its mission in any way that I can. In particular, I'm interested in furthering the adoption of Python 3, in making sure that python.org has the resources it needs to serve the growing communitiy, in fostering the growth of that community through education and outreach, and in ensuring that the Python community is as inclusive and welcoming as possible.


Please use the following format:

Candidate Name
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*2012 Board Member.* or *New Board Member.*

Description.

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