As I get ready to step back from being a Director of the Python Software Foundation, I’m taking a moment to reflect back on the past two years on the PSF Board and open source. I enjoy coding in Python for its flexibility and rich ecosystem of libraries. Yet, it’s the Python community that I truly cherish. For two years, I’ve been able to serve the Python community by putting my non-profit experience and management skills to work.…

A Fab Lab is a community space for people to gather and fabricate their dreams and ideas. A formal definition of a Fab Lab can be seen at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. The Fab Foundation’s website has a map of many Fab Labs around the world and information about the Fab Lab charter and how to start a Fab Lab. Fab Lab San Diego is my little corner for inspiration and outreach.…

Today, the Python Software Foundation, commonly known as PSF in the Python community, gave the PSF Distinguished Service Award to Mark Hammond. Brian Curtin, a past PSF Director and long-time communicator of “community” importance, wrote a thoughtful PSF blog post about Mark’s many contributions to our Python community. The wonderful Python community also has itself to thank for allowing this book to come to fruition. The Python newsgroup seems to be one of the final bastions of Usenet where spams are ignored, newbies are treated kindly, and trolls are either ignored or quickly turned into a serious and on-topic discussion.…

Today, I reflect on a life changing event. For a few days, we came together from around the world to form a community to share our thoughts on change and our compassion for individual experiences in technology. I’m sharing a very rough draft of a letter that I wrote on May 29, 2014. I hope you will find a nugget of wisdom, inspiration, or comfort in these jumbled, unedited yet heartfelt words.…

As I get ready to attend the Write/Speak/Code conference, I’m doing more reflecting on the past few months than packing for the trip. While I would like to leave San Diego with warm enough clothes for New York City, I want to write a few brief thoughts about learning from others. Learning from others is one of the things that I love most about software development. While I enjoy my time quietly working through code on my own, I value the time that I spend collaborating with other developers.…