Introduction

I am Noufal Ibrahim. I'm from Kerala, India and have been involved with Python as a user since 1999 and have been involved more heavily with the community since 2006 or so.

Contributions to the Community

I was in Bangalore, India when I started to get heavily involved with the Python community. I was able to organise and lead the python developers in Bangalore to conduct the first PyCon in India in 2009. (for which I received a community service award in that year). Since then, PyCon India has grown to be one of the largest PyCons in the world and we're still going strong. I keynoted the event in 2017.

This has made me a notable figure in the Indian Python ecosystem.

As a minor point, I created a set of slides by hand which were donated to PyLadies and auctioned off at the next edition of PyCon in the US

On the technical side, I've been contributing several small patches to various projects and some large ones. I've also been very active on Stack Overflow and other fora where I've answered queries on several topics. I've conducted many workshops at community events, for college students at their schools and for corporate audiences at companies on various Python related topics.

Current work

I have a natural inclination towards teaching and I've been doing that in a personal and professional capacity for a long time and I've been increasing my outreach to young students who are looking to join the software workforce. Most of my teaching has been done using Python as the language and I've enjoyed good success in this regard.

Aims as a director

I'm primarily an educator and outreach person.

My recent (since 2016 or so) work has been heavily oriented on mentoring students and freshers and while the PSFs and local communities initiatives have made a huge difference in outreach, they've still mostly reached people like me (English educated, exposed to technology at a young age etc.).

I was doing a series of workshops at various local colleges (in Kerala, India) and found the need for reaching out to talented students who have language barriers or a general lack of confidence to get into the community.

I've been making some inroads in that direction (till the covid situation derailed my plans). However, I'd like to become a director and use the PSFs name and resources to reach out to this segment of people.

My current plans on implementing this

1. I would like to, in association with the universities and the PSF, create an open syllabus for education that colleges and other institutions can use. This will allow educators to deliver decent quality classes (along with exercises) and perhaps write books and other content that will help students.

2. Create something like an internship program which students can participate in and be awarded some kind of recognition for their efforts so as to increase interest in Python and the larger ecosystem. I have several connections with the technical universities in Kerala which can help in this regard.

3. I'd like to create bridges using the PSFs name and reputation to reach out to students that have a less privileged background than my own so that they can easily become members of the larger community in various capacities.