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Nominee for 2019 Python Software Foundation Board Election

Jannis Leidel

  • Previous Board Service: New board member
  • Employer: Mozilla
  • Other Affiliations: Django Software Foundation, Deutscher Django-Verein e. V., OpenStreetMap Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V., Changing Cities e.V., Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V.
  • Nominee Statement:

      Jannis who?

      My name is Jannis Leidel, better known in the Python and Django community under my alias jezdez, and I have been a Python developer for 12 years.

      For the last 6 years I’ve worked at Mozilla, first as a web developer on the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN web docs) and later as a software and data engineer working on data analysis tools for the Firefox Data Pipeline.

      Experience

      I have experience in writing, maintaining and managing Open Source projects, e.g.

      • Google Summer of Code student for Django, to integrate it with Python packaging tools, 2007
      • Django Core Team member 2009-2018
        • translation coordinator
        • Technical Board member
        • founder and member of Django Ops team
        • maintainer of the Django website
        • co-lead of first Django fundraising campaign and platform
      • Founder and member of the German Django non-profit, since 2009
      • pip and virtualenv core developer and release manager, 2009-2013
      • Chairman of DjangoCon Europe, 2010, Berlin, Germany
      • Founder of the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA), 2011, to take ownership for pip and virtualenv from Ian Bicking
      • Developer and admin for the Python Package Index (aka Cheeseshop), 2012-2013
      • Django Software Foundation board member, 2014-2015
      • Mentor at first Django Girls tutorial, 2014, Berlin, Germany
      • Google Summer of Code mentor and admin for Django and Mozilla for multiple years
      • Caniusepython3.com — Developer of the web version of Brett Cannon’s caniusepython3 CLI tool
      • Jazzband — Creator and “roadie” of a collaborative community on GitHub to share the responsibility of maintaining Python projects
      • Mozilla-internal champion for the successful MOSS (Mozilla Open Source Software program) grant for the PSF to improve sustainability of the Python Package Index (PyPI)
      • Co-maintainer of Redash — A Open Source software for teams to query, visualize and collaborate with data, since 2018
      • Developer or maintainer of many other Python packages: PyPI, GitHub

      Nothing of this would have been possible without the support and encouragement from strangers that I met on the internet.

      Personal board goals

      The reasons why I’d like to run for the PSF board are two-fold at the moment.

      I look forward to refining them based on my guiding principles together with my fellow board members and community colleagues.

      Guiding principles

      • Community building means clear values, an ethical mission, diverse backgrounds and respectful collaboration.
      • Trust those with domain knowledge and support everyone to attain it.
      • Build partnerships, not silos.

      1. Support and extend the use of Python for a community of people by lowering the barrier for educational, scientific and commercial use

      • Increase spending on opportunity and project grants as a key part of the PSF’s mission.
      • Introduce paid Python internships in PSF member organizations to create the next generation of Python community members.
      • More closely associate the PSF with other organizations that overlap in their missions, e.g. pool funds or collaborate on common goals like grant-giving.

      2. Build and strengthen the PSF’s role in the research and development of the Python language and ecosystem

      • Create an R&D arm in the PSF that allows the community of organizations (e.g. PSF member organizations) to easier reinvest in Python as a foundational technology for their success.
      • Enable the Scientific Python community to more closely engage the Python language community in working with emerging technologies such as WebAssembly.
      • Engage with documentation, design, security and project management experts to strengthen Python’s ongoing work in those fields.