David Mertz

2014 Board Member.

I have served on the PSF board for six years, and would be honored if selected to continue to do so. I am currently, among other things, one of several Vice Chairs, and the Chair-Elect of the foundation—and enormously thankful that Van Lindberg is the actual chair :-).

Most recently, in 2015, I have created, and will co-chair with Tim Couper, a joint PSF/NumFocus working group to decide on funding for projects within scientific Python (conferences, user groups, library development, educational efforts, etc). This is a new model for the PSF to enter into a cooperation with another non-profit of overlapping purpose, and I hope it will be productive and helpful. A number of prominent names in the world of scientific computing are members of this Scientific Python committee. I am also trying to shake out a similar cooperative working group with the Django Software Foundation, but volunteer organizations sometimes move slowly.

I co-chair, with Marc-André Lemburg, the PSF Trademarks Committee, and have served on the committee for seven years. We resolve legal matters in the committee, license our trademark to commercial users, enter into relationships of fiscal sponsorship with relevant projects to further protect our IP, and generally improve the relationships with broader Python communities through friendly and productive conversations about trademark rights. I am rather proud to be able to make the unusual claim that "Every time I have written a C&D (cease and desist) letter, I have received a thank you note back." (I'm the one who almost always writes such things, but sometimes other TM members do). Python is a wonderful worldwide community, filled with people aiming for a common purpose.

I chair, with vice-chair Jessica McKellar, the Outreach & 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'm particularly proud of the outreach efforts we have made to help young programmers in Africa through a variety of grants, but other parts of the world also have seen remarkable programs.

I created the voting procedure and protocol used by the PSF. Initially this protocol was implemented with some small scripts I wrote, and rather too much manual effort to conduct each election. In response to some requests by members, I worked with PSF member (and Web2Py lead) Massimo Di Pierro to get his E-vote software to provide all the same wonderful cryptographic and security guarantees as the prior email-based system (and some more). I've been the "Election Administrator" of all elections conducted for a number of years; so I'm the one to praise or blame for every choice of wording and layout of the ballots and invitation emails you have received.

I was very pleased to serve as PSF/Board representative to give a keynote at PyCon-India in 2012. As well as enjoying representing the PSF broadly, this tied in with the mission of the Outreach & Education Committee to regionally/nationally diversify interest in and commitment to Python and to the PSF. I gave two keynotes at PyCon-UK 2013, one on a technical topic, the other on PSF administravia and mission. I gave two keynotes also at PyCon-ZA (Johannesburg, South Africa) in 2014 (again, one technical, one administrative). I am pretty sure I gave the first public presentation on Python's forthcoming optional type annotations as a keynote at PyCon Belarus in 2015 (and the same talk at international Minsk-based company WarGaming during the same visit). I've also spoken frequently at various PyCon and OSCon conferences over the last decade, on a variety of topics, sometimes on voting and security, sometimes on arcane Python features, sometimes on social dynamics of Free Software.

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 (2001-09), and of various other articles advancing and explaining the use of Python and its tools and libraries, including some recent O'Reilly white papers about Python. I created some moderately well-used FLOSS Python tools (most collected in Gnosis Utilities); however, these have been poorly maintained in recent years.

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 have also been a consultant with a number of notable Python-using organizations, at the margins helping to expand that use.

And last, perhaps least, I was co-author of a recent April Fool's joke that caused more of a kerfuffle than I anticipated. This blog post, written with Mary Ann Sushinsky, poked fun at US policy towards Cuba, and expressed a sincere, albeit satirically tongue-in-cheek, hope that the PSF can be part of a growing openness between our two nations, and our many Python communities. However, I made errors when I assumed a too peculiarly American perspective, assumed too much background knowledge about US/Cuban relations and rhetoric. The terrible effect of my misunderstanding was that some readers felt the post belittled Cuban developers or conference organizers; I did not intend this, and apologize sincerely to anyone who took it this way. However, the happy outcome of the joke was nonetheless as hoped: we have a number of good new connections with Cuban Pythonistas who enjoyed the joke, and I hope and believe the PSF will be able to support and fund future activities there (something I will myself earnestly work for).

Affiliation: Gnosis Software (own company); D. E. Shaw Research; O'Reilly; ...

Marc-Andre Lemburg

2014 Board Member.

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

PSF things I've been working on in 2014/2015:

• ran the PSF Python Brochure project, which has so far been a great success by providing a nice tool for Python community members to promote Python; the first edition was available for PyCon 2014 in Montreal, the second for PyCon 2015; also see the PSF Python Brochure wiki page
• continued worked with the Python Events Calendars team to run a central place where Python users can lookup Python events; calendars are shown on https://www.python.org/events/python-events/, http://www.pycon.org/ and also available as map mashup.
• took the European PSF Conference Kit to several conferences (EuroPython, FOSDEM, PythonCamp Cologne) to show PSF support; created new carry-on displays for StephaneWirtel to use for Python events in Belgium and France.
• created and sent out giveaway marketing material for use at Python conferences and by user groups (flyers, stickers)
• promoted the PSF at conferences in Europe, giving talks and available as contact for people interested in the PSF (EuroPython, PyCon UK, PyCon DE, FOSDEM, PythonCamp Cologne)
• managed the central PSF domain management account at Gandi.net, transferred and registered more domains to that account
• created and managed the central PSF SSL certificate management accounts at StartSSL and Gandi.net
• administered the Python, Jython and PSF wiki systems together with the volunteers on the pydotorg-www mailing list, helped setup the new editors scheme to prevent wiki admin burnout due to very frequent spamming and vandalism of the wikis.
• administered the http://www.pycon.org/ page and the pycon.org DNS record (which I've owned from 2003-2012 before contributing it to the PSF
• ran the new Python Job Board team together with initially 30 volunteers; pushed for jobs app implementation changes and worked on the final ones to be able to finally launch the new Python Job Board on 2015-03-19
• contacted new potential PSF sponsors as part of creating a more diverse PSF marketing strategy
• built closer relationships with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, getting joint blog posts running and investigating possible closer collaboration on education workshops
• a lot of the above relates directly with my PSF work to create closer ties with the Python community

in addition to the usual PSF board and trademark committee work.

Things I'd like to focus on for 2015/2016:

• integrate the PSF more into the global Python community and make it's organizational structures more diverse and international
• make more use of the new PSF work group setup and work out the organizational details for this
• push for getting the python.org website setup with a real CMS in order to attract more content contributors and maintainers
• create a marketing work group to (a) develop a more diverse marketing strategy for Python which doesn't only focus on developers, (b) create more marketing material and tools to enable Python user groups and evangelists to better promote Python in their local and professional settings, and (c) create more Python merchandise
• rewrite the Python trademark policy to make it more readable and straight forward
• get the PSF to adopt more community friendly PyPI terms & conditions
• if we can get PSF funding, help create a second volume of the PSF Python Brochure

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

Other Python community projects I'm involved in:

• EuroPython Society (EPS) - I'm a board member of the EPS, which is the organization running the EuroPython conference series; this uses a work group structure similar to the one the PSF wants to use, but we actually have it working already for the 2015 edition
• Python Meeting Düsseldorf (PyDDF) - Together with Charlie Clark, I started a local Python user meeting series in Düsseldorf in 2012; we're having quarterly meetings with talks, discussions; videos are available in our PyDDF YouTube Channel

If you want to see more details about what I've done for the Python community, please see my wiki home page.

Affiliation: eGenix.com GmbH, Germany

Alex Gaynor

2014 Board Member

I've served as a board member for the past two years.

In the last year, here are some of the things I've worked on:

• Served as a member of the PSF Sprints and Outreach and Education committees
• Collaborated with the infrastructure committee on a variety of projects
• Served as co-chair of the PyCon program committee

Affiliation: I'm employed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Nick Coghlan

2014 Board Member.

I have been a part of the Python community for more than a decade, a CPython core developer since 2005, and a member of the Board of Directors since 2014.

As a PSF board member, my two primary concerns would be addressing the challenges the PSF faces around volunteer burnout (including for Board members), as well as continuing to address the long term structural risks potentially impacting the sustainable operation of PSF provided infrastructure and services.

Key perspectives I believe I bring to Board discussions:

• Experienced CPython core developer
• Heavily involved in the Python software distribution & deployment ecosystem
• Employed by a major commercial redistributor of Python
• Professional training and experience in infrastructural risk management

Specific initiatives I would personally be aiming to advocate for and participate in over the 2015/2016 Board term include:

• Providing additional community visibility into the ongoing activities of the PSF Board through the Strategic Decision Making Process proposal
• Enhancing the PSF's ability to suitably recognise contributions to the broader Python community through the updated PSF Fellowship Recognition Program proposal
• Providing a more constructive framework for discussions regarding the allocation of PSF funds and effective direction of volunteer time and energy by capturing and clearly documenting agreed strategic priorities for the PSF (which also includes clearly documenting things the PSF isn't doing itself, as other organisations are better positioned to handle them)
• Working with the PSF Events Coordinator and other PSF Directors to finalise and publish the "International PyCon Prospectus" (a proposal developed in collaboration with a number of conferences the PSF has previously sponsored). The intent of this proposal is to allow other organisations to easily sponsor multiple regional conferences via the PSF, rather than having to arrange payment individually with each conference throughout the year
• Working with Selena Deckelmann on a Strategic Hiring Plan proposal for the PSF, with the aim of enhancing the PSF's core staff and volunteer management capabilities to help reduce the incidence of volunteer burnout within the Python community

Affiliation: Nick Coghlan works for Red Hat.

Kushal Das

2014 Board Member

Description: TBD (Will fill up after reaching India).

Affiliation: Kushal Das works for Red Hat.

Brian Curtin

2014 Board Member

I have served on the board for the past three terms and have been involved in the PSF for the past four. Prior to being elected, I helped kickstart the PSF Sprints Committee, have been involved in PyCon's organization - namely around promotion and publicity communications - since 2010, became involved in the Outreach & Education committee, and became a core developer of CPython in 2010. Throughout the previous board term, I was in attendance for all but one of our meetings.

Through a lot of the work I do for PyCon, from making various announcements to sharing news to user groups around the world, I'm connected in some way with Python communities around the globe. In June 2014 I represented the PSF as a speaker at PyCon Russia, and through other travel for work or conferences, I've spent a lot of time talking with people on what they do, what they need, and what the PSF is there for. Through those conversations and efforts, I believe that I bring a perspective to the board and the greater foundation that represents a lot of the people and ideas that permeate our communities.

A lot of the things I'd like to improve for the PSF in the coming year are communications focused. I've served as the communications officer since joining the board, and I'd like to continue doing so and improve our reach there. We've had on-and-off board reports due to a number of factors, but I'd like to find a communication channel that works best that will balance between under-sharing and over-saturating with information. I'd also like to move us off of the current blog platform and into something that will both enable more collaborative writing and also introduce a set of checks and balances for review - Blogger is an antiquated platform that often causes more trouble than it's worth.

Overall, I'd like to continue my general efforts and support of the PSF's mission and help us share not just our work but the work of those around the globe who share in that mission. This year we've begun to grow partnerships with two organizations - Django and NumFOCUS - and for all involved we need to be able to tell that story. We've gotten better at it this year, and I'd like to help us continue that on that trajectory.

Affiliation: Rackspace

Berker Peksag

New Board Member

I'm a core developer on CPython, Gunicorn, GNU MediaGoblin and Hylang projects.

In addition to my CPython Core Developer duties I've also:

• selected as a PSF Contributing Member
• helped to launch the new Python Job Board
• overhauled the contributing documentation of python.org
• working on switching from Chef to Ansible in provisioning of python.org
• helping maintaining of planetpython.org
• working as a PEP editor

I'm also a regular contributor to the Django project and selected as a Fellow by Django Software Foundation in 2014.

I'm currently living in Istanbul, Turkey and am co-founder of Python Istanbul. We have organized a Python and JavaScript conference called JsPyConf in 2013.

Currently, I'm part of the Debian Python 3 Porting effort.

I'd like to work on:

• Create a healthy and diverse python.org development community
• Promote Python 3 porting efforts

Affiliation: None

Stéphane Wirtel

New Board Member

• organiser of the PythonFOSDEM 2013, 2014 and 2015 in Brussels during FOSDEM
• committer on Gunicorn
• Starter Contributor to CPython
• PSF Fellow
• EuroPython Society Member
• Association Francophone de Python (AFPy) Member
• Volunteers for EuroPython 2015
• Participate to the Python meetups in Belgium.
• Former Core dev of Odoo (formerly OpenERP) (6y)
• Started to use Python with Aragne in Belgium (EuroPython 2002 and 2003)

I'm currently living in Charleroi, Belgium.

I'd like to work on:

• Help for the promotion of Python during the events and the meetups
• Help for the brochures of the PSF
• Work on the events and the coordination of the events
• Increase the Python Community
• Work on the donation process
• Create a marketing workgroup with Marc-André Lemburg
• Create more Python merchandise (t-shirts, hats, snake ...)
• In February and April 2015, I have printed some flyers for the donation and the membership for the PSF

Affiliation: Freelance , Belgium

Philip James

New board member

My main contributions to the Python community in the past year have been speaking at PyCon 2015, assisting with a tutorial at PyCon 2015, and general local efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area training new Python developers and encouraging contributions to open source projects. I was a member of the PyCon Program Committee for 2013 and 2014.

The additional experience I bring is in the form of four years spent in Senate at my university, with two of those years as Senate Chair, as well as my years developing large Python codebases at various companies.

I would like to do whatever I can to strengthen the Python community, and ensure its future as a inclusive and welcoming place for all.

Affiliation: Philip James works for Eventbrite

Ashwini Oruganti

New Board Member.

I love the Python community, and I have learnt a lot from it. I want to be an active leader in its journey towards becoming a bigger and more diverse place for everyone in the world.

• I have been a long-time Twisted core developer. I started out as a mentee, and grew to be a mentor to new Twisted contributors, through the Google Summer of Code programs.
• I worked on HippyVM, a high-performance PHP Virtual Machine using the PyPy toolchain. I built the technical underpinnings that made it possible to run two major open source content management systems through Hippy:­­ WordPress and MediaWiki.
• I am the author of Python Cryptographic Authority’s TLS, an easy-to-use, opinionated, and secure TLS 1.2 implementation in Python. I was awarded the Stripe’s Open Source Retreat grant for this project.
• As a member of the PyCon 2015 program committee, I reviewed talk proposals.
• I am the Financial Aid Chair for PyCon 2016. I will be leading the Financial Aid committee in spreading the funding to provide assistance to and cover expenses (such as reimbursement for travel, lodging in the various conference hotels, or the conference admission) of as many applicants as possible.
• I have been speaking, mentoring, and volunteering at regional and international Python conferences and events, such as, PyCon US 2013, 2014, and 2015, PyCon Dublin 2013, PyTennessee 2015.

As the Python user base and community grows, there have been some hiccups along the way. My goals are to:

• create a more diverse and welcoming community, with more initiatives and a diverse perspective respectful to all cultures, both geographical and social. I grew up in India and have collaborated with open source developers across the US and Europe. I have personal cross-cultural experience required for achieving this goal.
• work on bringing more transparency in the processes, mailing lists, and activities of the Foundation, so as to encourage better and more diverse participation.
• encourage, support, and lead global community development, support more Python conferences and events, as well as provide assistance to a diverse audience in attending said events.

Affiliation: I will be joining Eventbrite in May 2015.

Ruben Orduz

New Board Member

• PyCon US tutorials co-chair for the last two years ('14 and '15), will remain so until at least PyCon 2016.
  • In charge of instructor outreach, tutorials CFP, volunteer recruiting, voting rules, voting direction, instructor, category split, scheduling, instructor feedback, general instructor support, on-site direction and assitance
  • Managed 36 tutorials and their successful completion
  • Over 1700 attendees.
  • Over $200,000 in generated revenue in '15 alone.
• Looking to serve the PSF in other and more direct ways.

Affiliation: works for Infor, inc

Mathieu Virbel

New Board Member.

I'm a Full stack developer, with a deep love for Python since 2007. My main contributions are done for bringing Python to the mobile stack:

• the UI: Kivy
• the toolchain for compiling Python for mobile: python-for-android, kivy-ios, buildozer
• libraries to communicate with mobile language/API: pyjnius (Java) and pyobjus (Objc)
• gather everything to simply communicate with python mobile: plyer

And thousands of contributions on various projects, as well as less-know project like condiment, hanga.io.

In the past few years, i've also:

• given few talks on EuroPython, Pycon, RMLL, FITG
• been a Google Summer of Code mentor since 2008 via Nuigroup then the PSF
• been invited twice in the Ubuntu Summit for multitouch expertise
• been president of Nekeme, an organisation for promoting Opensource / free games
• currently President of the Kivy organisation

I would like to bring more attention on Python for mobile, as still many peoples doesn't even know that it is possible, and what the language can do for them.

Affiliation: Freelance.

Lynn Root

• 2014 Board Member *

Lynn has been a PSF board member since 2013, a member of the PSF Outreach and Education committee since 2012, the Django Software Foundation liaison for grants & coordination, and continues to lead the PyLadies of San Francisco since 2012. She currently leads the development and growth of the global organization of PyLadies, including helping other locations starting a local PyLadies, maintaining pyladies.com, github.com/pyladies/pyladies-kit and other repositories under the pyladies account. Lynn is also helped organize PyCon 2015 by leading the lightning talks segment and PyLadies presence at the conference.

Lynn wishes to be a board member for the next year to accomplish the following things:

• Broadening the PSF's reach in diversity,
• Coordinating with the Django Software Foundation in diversity initiatives with grants, and
• Finding more PSF/PyCon sponsors that align with the PSF's diversity mission.

Affiliation: Spotify, PyLadies

Anna Ossowski

New Board Member.

I love the Python community with all my heart! I recently wrote a blog post about the awesome things the Python community has done for me and what a positive impact it had on my life. I would like to help maintain this positive environment and make it even better. I am very passionate about diversity and community outreach and would like to encourage more people of underrepresented groups, especially women, to learn programming in Python, attend conferences, and get involved in the community because it’s awesome!

A little bit about me:

• I am very involved in Django Girls. I am a Django Girls organizer (co-organized Django Girls Budapest and Django Girls @ PyCon 2015, more events in the making) and also run the “Your Django Story“ interview series on the Django Girls blog where I highlight one awesome woman and her work each week. I also mentor women in my free time and help other Django Girls organizers make their events awesome.
• I spoke for the first time at this year’s PyTennessee about “Django Girls: A success story“. I plan on speaking at more meet-ups and conferences in the future.
• I am a member of the Django Software Foundation grants committee and recently created a draft for the new DSF grants policy.
• I helped review/select talks for PyCon 2015 as a member of the program committee.
• I will join the tutorial committee for PyCon 2016.
• I am currently working on building the “PyLadies Remote“ chapter with online content for everyone who doesn’t live near a PyLadies chapter and therefore doesn’t have the possibility to attend meet-ups.
• I will help with diversity work for the Open Tech School conference in Dortmund, Germany in August this year.
• I write a series called “Understanding Computer Words“ for programming beginners on my blog. It is important to me to help beginners and encourage them on their programming learning journey.

What I would like to work on:

• Increase and broaden the PSF’s diversity efforts. I would like to keep working on bringing more women into the community but also extend the diversity work to increase the diversity of other underrepresented groups in the Python community.
• Find more financial aid sponsors and work on extending the financial aid program. If it wasn’t for the great financial aid programs I wouldn’t have been able to attend conferences and get involved in the community. It is important to me to support as many people as possible and make it possible for them to attend conferences. I would also like to explore how the PSF could help smaller and regional Python conferences offer financial aid to their attendees.
• Help with the communication between PSF and DSF as far as grants etc. are concerned.
• Explore how the PSF can support educational programs like Django Girls more. As a self-taught programmer workshops like Django Girls have really helped me gain new skills and support on my programming journey. I believe that educational programs like Django Girls are one of the best ways to increase diversity and bring more people into the Python community.
• Lead initiatives to help Python users in remote areas without access to user groups.
• Help increase the PSF's global/international reach.
• Help make the PSF’s processes more transparent and increase/improve communication with the community.

Affiliation: Django Girls, PyLadies

Diana Clarke

New Board Member

Over the past 4 years, I have chaired or co-chaired 5 PyCons. As I step down as PyCon chair, I look forward to serving the PSF and the Python community in new ways.

• PyCon US 2015 Chair
• PyCon US 2014 Chair
• PyCon US 2013 Co-Chair
• PyCon Canada 2013 Co-Chair
• PyCon Canada 2012 Chair

Affiliation: r/ally Inc.

Please use the following format:

Candidate Name
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*2014 Board Member.* or *New Board Member.*

Description.

Affiliation: ...

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