Approval process for these strategic priorities

After a preliminary review by the Board, these draft priorities are currently posted for discussion with the full PSF membership as described in the strategic decision making process proposal (pending the creation of the new PSF Discussion mailing list as described in that proposal). They will be amended as appropriate based on that discussion, and then placed before the Board for formal ratification through the Board resolution process.

Background

In order to facilitate better engagement between the elected board, PSF members, sponsors, partner organisations and the media, it is proposed that the PSF Board prepare and formally ratify (as a Board resolution) a document laying out a set of strategic priorities for the Foundation. Where the PSF Mission statement is the "What", the documented Strategic Priorities will describe, at least in broad terms, the "How".

The intent of formally documenting these priorities is not to change the current strategic direction of the PSF, but instead to document the existing priorities of the Board and larger organisation in a readily consumable form.

An agreed set of strategic priorities should also help in shaping the working group structure and delegation of responsibility from the Board to PSF Members interested in each of these areas.

Disclaimer

Some of the programs mentioned in these draft priorities (such as the International PyCon Prospectus) are yet to be generally announced beyond the circle of folks actively working on them. If you see a program like that referenced, "Coming soon to a PSF near you" is implied - they're included now so I don't need to remember to go back and edit them in later.

It is also unlikely this initial draft is complete, especially the list of links to other organisations helping to support and grow either the open source community in general, or the Python community in particular.

Activities of the Python Software Foundation

These are activities that fall within the mission of the PSF, and are being pursued by the PSF directly, rather than being pursued primarily through partner organisations.

• encouraging and facilitating the increased adoption of the Python programming language across a broad range of use cases, focusing primarily on education, scientific research, government infrastructure, and corporate infrastructure. For example, this activity encompasses operating the www.python.org, wiki.python.org and mail.python.org services. It also covers the activities of the PSF Sprints working group, the operation of the Foundation's blog, a range of community diversity initiatives, and the collection of Python success stories for online publication and inclusion in the Python Marketing Brochure.
• encouraging and facilitating the availability of compelling professional opportunities for individual members of the Python community. For example, this activity encompasses the operation of the Python Jobs Board at jobs.python.org, backing crowdfunding efforts judged to be of relevance to the Python community, and encouraging sponsor organisations to not only contribute financially to the Foundation itself, but also to contribute staff time directly to open source projects of interest to them.
• providing a firm legal, operational and financial foundation for the CPython reference interpreter development project. For example, this activity encompasses operating the docs.python.org, hg.python.org and bugs.python.org services, as well as managing the Python trademarks through the PSF Trademarks working group. Selected other projects may be supported directly at the Board's discretion if their needs are sufficiently well aligned with those of CPython.
• providing a firm legal, operational and financial foundation for the software distribution ecosystem anchored by the Python Package Index service hosted at pypi.python.org. In addition to providing the service itself, this activity encompasses other activities such as hosting documentation on pythonhosted.org, serving as PyPI's DMCA agent, and ensuring the site's Terms of Service appropriately protect the interests of uploaders, downloaders, and the Foundation itself.
• providing a firm legal, operational and financial foundation for a global network of Python conferences, user groups and community workshops. For example, this activity encompasses the organisation and financial backing of the annual PyCon US conference, grants to regional Python conferences, the operation of the "International PyCon Prospectus" program, the activities of the PSF Outreach & Education committee, fiscal sponsorship of PyLadies and other community groups, grants to DjangoGirls, GeekGirlsCarrots and other community workshops, and reimbursing Meetup.com fees for Python-related user groups.
• operating as a financially sustainable non-profit foundation that effectively pursues its overall mission in accordance with the other priorities described in this document. For example, this activity encompasses maintaining the Foundation's status as a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, the operation of the PSF Grants program and the work of the PSF Infrastructure team.

Third Party Activities

These are activities that potentially fall within (or at least partially overlap with) the mission of the PSF, but the PSF Board currently considers it most appropriate to recommend, partner with or otherwise endorse specific organisations that specialise in these areas, rather than pursuing them directly as activities of the Foundation itself.

• Software Freedom Conservancy, as a recommended service provider for open source Python projects seeking a more stable legal and financial basis of operations without the overhead of establishing and maintaining their own independent non-profit foundation
• Outreachy (formerly the GNOME Outreach Program for Women, now operating as a project of the Software Freedom Conservancy), for their work in providing paid internship opportunities for members of underrepresented communities seeking to become involved in open source software development
• OpenHatch, for their work in lowering barriers to participation for prospective contributors to the global open source community
• the Ada Initiative, for their work in supporting women in open technology and culture, especially their educational work around creating and sustaining healthier and more inclusive community environments
• Trans*H4CK and Trans*Code, for their work in supporting trans*, gender non-conforming, agender and non binary people in open technology and culture, especially their efforts to apply open source technology and community building practices to help address the significant societal challenges facing members of these communities
• The Online Abuse Prevention Initiative and Crash Override Network, for their work in combating online harassment
• BlueHackers for awareness of mental health issues and concerns potentially affecting open source contributors
• Software Carpentry, for both their work in encouraging increased computational literacy for research scientists and librarians, and for their research into providing effective adult-focused intensive training courses in software development, including organisation of the "Teaching Tech Together" community education summit
• the Open Source Initiative, for their work in promoting the value of open source licensing and the adoption of open collaborative models in general
• NumFOCUS, for both the IPython Notebook data analysis and reporting environment, and for the effective use of Python in scientific research and data analysis
• the Raspberry Pi Foundation, for both the low cost Raspberry Pi computing platform, and for educational materials and programs aimed at encouraging increased computational literacy for professional educators and their students
• OpenEdX, for both the OpenEdX online education platform, and for exploration of more collaborative approaches to online curriculum development
• the Open Knowledge Foundation, for both the CKAN data portal platform, and for exploration of the potential of open data sharing in a wide range of areas (including government and corporate accountability)
• the Django Software Foundation, for the support of projects that fall within the Django ecosystem
• the Plone Foundation, for the support of projects that fall within the Plone ecosystem
• the OpenStack Foundation, for the effective use of Python in the management of computing infrastructure services
• Linux Australia, to promote the growth of the open source Python community in the Australia/New Zealand region
• the EuroPython Society, to promote the growth of the open source Python community in Europe
• the Python Software Society of India, to promote the growth of the open source Python community in India