Ned Batchelder

Visit podcastinit.com for information about the show and links to our iTunes and Stitcher feeds. Brief Introduction Date of recording – May 4th, 2015 Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti Overview – Interview with Ned Batchelder Follow us on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn Give us feedback! (iTunes, Twitter, email, Disqus comments) You can donate (if you want)! Interview with Ned Batchelder Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? Zope … Implemented in Python How did you get started as the organizer for Boston Python Meetup? History is long and varied (Why is this switching to numbers? Started – 6 people sitting around a coffee table 5 or 6 years Co-organizer Jessica McKeller Built structures to help keep the community goingr Weekend Python Workshop People ‘adjacent’ to the male members – wives, mothers, etc. “What comes next” from weekend workshops – became Project Night How much of your time ends up being dedicated to the Python community? Also maitainer of coverage.py Active on Freenode IRC #python 20 hours a week What are your goals for the Boston Python community? Continue to grow More events, different events? chipy – Chicago UG very active – 1 on 1 mentoring program Smaller events – 5 person events – study groups All levels not just beginners Computational Biologists – study genomics Three user groups Pyladies Boston DJango Boston Boston Python Meetup What do you find to be the most important thing(s) for building a healthy community (particularly in reference to programming)? Consistency – good to know what to expect Pick a cadence – don’t burn out Speakers aren’t superheroes, they’re just people. ‘Everyone has at least one talk in them’. Value in having a blog, twitter stream – people talk back to you and by correcting your mistakes everyone benefits. How do you keep people engaged outside of the monthly meetings? Meetup.com – requires moderation python.org mailing lists – unmoderated – low traffic Need to do more in that regard What do you like the most/least about the Python community? Communities can improve – IRC has gotten better Turmoil on PSF mailing list over election for directors How do you strike a balance between sponsors and the rest of the community? Do you have policies around sponsored presentations / talks? Tend not to do sponsored talks Microsoft NERD – great benefit to Boston Python Provides monthly space for the group 1 minute slots for sponsors No sales pitches What are the steps I can take to start my own tech community? How can you get the word out? Meetup.com is useful People like free food and beer Be predictable. Pick something sustainable What is the State of Python, from your perspective? No signs of slowing down Ruby people are moving to other environments Python people are still using Python Python 2 to 3 conflict is unfortunate – transition could have been handled more smoothly Python 3 ecosystem is getting much better Next big drama – type hinting proposal Appears to be contrary to one of the basics tenets of the language at first blush Do you feel that Boston will ever have its own regional Python conference? Toyed with bid to bring Pycon to Boston Would require someone stepping up to do it Not sure how a regional conference ‘feels’ as a local event Try to have Boston Python be like a year long conference all year long Huge undertaking Picks Tobias Scribd Konch DupeGuru Chris The River Cafe Pythonista Rototo – IOS Game Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ned Tox Pythonz Spell Tower Richard Feynman’s Cornell Lectures Keep in Touch Twitter: @nedbat and @bostonpython IRC: nedbat nedbatchelder.com bostonpython.com