2014 Year in Review¶
This was originally posted on blogger here.
Happy New Year from the PSF!¶
2014 was an eventful year for the Python community, and so we thought a brief rundown of highlights from last year should put us all in the right frame of mind to make 2015 an equally, or even more, productive year. There was so much activity in 2014, that it will take the next couple of blog posts to cover it all, so today’s post will focus on membership growth, PSF funding, and conferences.
In 2014 the PSF revised the membership rules, creating a new category of “Basic Membership.” We now have over 2000 Basic Members in addition to our Sponsoring, Supporting, Contributing, and Managing Members and Fellows. The community has also grown on social media, with followers totaling more than 100K on Facebook, 91K on Google+, and 41K on Twitter.
This increased inclusivity is good news, since the mission of the PSF is to promote the use and knowledge of Python. The more, the merrier. However, this does not mean a dilution of the power and quality of the language or of the community of users. Rather, this is a recognition of the necessity and value of Pythonistas at all levels of technical mastery—from core developers, through daily professional users, through occasional users, to hobbyists, to anyone who believes computer technology and literacy is and will continue to be the intellectual currency of the 21st century, and that open-source, freely available, non-proprietary access to the way the world works is important.
2014 also saw an explosion of Python-related events and conferences around the world. The PSF was delighted to fund many conferences. In total, $78,853.41 USD was given for conference scholarships and $11,270.37 went to workshops. The list includes _Django Weekend_ , _PyCon Philippines_ , _Python FOSDEM_ in Brussels, _PyCon Australia_ in Brisbane, _PyData London_ , _PyCon Brasil_ , _DjangoCon Europe_ , _PyCon APAC_ , _PyCon Italia_ , _PyOhio_ , _Python Camp_ in Cologne, _SciPy_ in Austin, _PyCon Kiwi_ in Wellington, _PyCon Russia_ , _PyData Berlin_ , _PyCon ES_ , _PyCon Japan_ , _PyConZA_ , _Python Argentina_ , _PyTexas_ , and in NYC, both _PyGotham_ and _PyData_.
In support of the PSF’s commitment to education and diversity, we also sponsored programs including _Bangalore PyLadies’ Introduction to Python Workshop_ , _Gnome Outreach Program for Women Summer Internship_ , the _Kivy Contest_ , _Young Coders_ in Nashville Public Schools and at _PyTennessee_ , and _UNB Saint John Department of Computer Science Python Game Programming Camp_. The PSF also gave a grant enabling 20 teachers to attend _PyCon UK_ , funded _Django Girls _all around the world (at _EuroPython_ , and in Warsaw, Budapest, Edinburgh, Uganda, Krakow, and Kampala), _Code Chix_ in the Bay area, _Cyberjutsu Girls Academy_ , _Geek Girls Carrots_ , and _Teen Python Camp_ in Peru.
Additional grants allowed Python programming projects, education, and conference attendance to become reality for many more Pythonistas. If you know of someone(s) deserving and desiring of financial assistance in order to attend a conference, or otherwise participate, let us know. We have limited resources, but these resources exist for the purpose of advancing the mission of the PSF—and that means helping you in your Python endeavors.
And, of course, April’s PyCon 2014 in Montreal was a great success. More on this next time.
P.S If you are not yet a member of the PSF, you can sign up at the python.org website. And be sure to visit the Python Events Calendar to keep current on what’s happening and to post your organization’s events.