What lies ahead?

Transcript

1. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv What lies ahead? Confessions of a dubious futurist Naomi Ceder Chair, Python Software Foundation naomi@python.org • @NaomiCeder PyLondinium June 9, 2018
2. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv “The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers.” What is the PSF?
3. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv https://www.python.org/psf/membership/ (I have stickers ;-) ) Join the PSF!
4. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Oversees staff; ensures policies are carried out Ensures sufficient resources Set strategy and direction (Elections still ongoing - Vote!) What about the Board?
5. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv And no one ever checks on futurists to see if they're right So as chair of the board I have to be futurist
6. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv In person, on Twitter, via email... Today, next week, next year... With me, your friends, whoever... (but POLITELY, of course) Please question everything I’m saying
7. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv I can promise that only one thing is true...
8. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv I am quite old
9. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Audience Participation Who here has been using Python for: Less than 1 year? Less than 5 years? Less than 10 years? Less than 15 years? Over 15 years?
10. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv <Shameless Plug> If you are new to Python from another coding language, see me... I have some free e-book codes... Or ctwpylondonium18 (40% off at Manning.com) </Shameless Plug>
11. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv I started in 2001 (That would be Python 2.1)
12. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Things were quite different then
13. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv This was my phone
14. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv This was my “tablet”
15. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv This was my laptop Yes, I had that sweet docking station...
16. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv What about Python?
17. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv What were we thinking? Thanks to Tanya Schlusser's & Hailey Hoyat's PyCon 2018 poster for helping my memory
18. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv We were defensive about Perl (the competition) Whitespace “Scripting language”
19. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv We were talking about Zope & Twisted Desktop apps Education & Science
20. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv We didn't see coming... Django/Flask Infrastructure/DevOps Big Data/Data Science Python 3 The GIL Community & Diversity PyCon as a brand
21. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv The future is hard How long did we wait for video conferencing?
22. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Still waiting for flying cars (Futurist pro-tip: always predict flying cars...)
23. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv (This time for sure?)
24. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv What does lie ahead? Disclaimer: I'm a very near-sighted futurist...
25. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Technical Issues These are fairly easy to see coming
26. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv End of Python 2 People are now accepting that it will happen... Python 3 is now more popular Python 4 will be a thing (but don't be afraid)
27. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv The GIL CPython performance on multiple cores will be an issue
28. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Mobile devices Almost everyone has a phone... but can you get a Python app into an app store?
29. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Growth Issues These are tricky to predict, even harder to solve
30. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Worldwide Growth In top 3 popular languages Django Girls, PyCons, etc Web, Science, Data Science
31. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Demand for resources PSF support of regional/local events Maintenance of PyPI, etc Providing more/better services
32. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Growing & maturing the PSF as an organization Increasing member contributions Finding sponsors/donors Identifying funding sources Solidifying leadership
33. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Avoiding volunteer burnout Running an open source project or organizing a community takes an enormous amount of time and energy... Usually for little to no reward
34. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Diverging Users We used to just have Pythonistas, Now we have back-end, Django, data science, scientific, systems, and more...
35. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Handling Diversity More people joining us, from different groups, from different places, with different languages, different customs...
36. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Bringing new people into what we do We need to include these people; Onboarding new people, as coders or organizers, takes time, patience, effort
37. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Without losing the sense of community Connection within and between communities
38. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv What do we have to meet these challenges? Two very powerful strengths...
39. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Python itself A language that strives towards readability, clarity, even beauty
40. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Our people & community People of enormous energy, intelligence, and good will
41. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv It bears repeating... “I don't know about the rest of you... I came for the language, but I stayed for the community.” Brett Cannon, Python Core Dev, Pycon US 2014 Opening remarks
42. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv What really lies ahead? Flying cars... definitely flying cars...
43. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv With Python inside
44. Slides -> https://goo.gl/wXAmAv Again, please question everything I’m saying... @NaomiCeder, naomi@python.org Thank you!