[python-advocacy] Marketing Python - An Idea Whose Time Has Come

[sdeibel]

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006, Michael Tobis wrote:
> However, I am not now, and (though I'm not giving up yet) likely will
> never be a top-tier Python programmer.
...
> One big trouble as I see it is that Pythonistas, like most open source
> programmers, revere the most productive coders and undervalue many
> other skills.

I'm anything but a "top-tier Python programmer" and yet I'm 
chairman of the board of the PSF.  You don't have to be 
contributing to Python's core/libs to contribute in other ways. I 
got involved w/ the PSF by way of my early efforts at marketing 
Python, which resulted in the Python Success Stories collection 
and pythonology.org.  I've submitted maybe one patch and it was a 
pretty lousy one at that... please don't let this perception of 
programming skill levels get in the way of contributing in other 
ways!

> And though I think I am articulate and friendly and have a good sense
> of humor, I'm not exactly charismatic, so there is some problem with
> stepping up to a role called "leader" or even "director". If I were
> granted, in effect, a title of Benevolent Assistant Dictator for a
> Provisional Term with a Portfolio in the Stuff that Doesn't Much
> Matter to the Community, I would be a hopeless basket case in a week.

The focus should be on getting good advocacy ideas implemented -- 
like anything else in the open source community, it's a 
results-oriented meritocracy w/o much (if any) focus on titles!

> Secondly, I suggest the funds should not all go to one person, who
> will then find self in the position of defending turf as much as
> advancing the community. Rather, small amounts of funds should be
> doled out to several projects each with its own protagonist.

Agreed.  I don't know exactly how all this will pan out but we 
certainly want more than one person to be involved.  The 
motivation of my posting a request for leadership is that we *do* 
need someone to take leadership, but that doesn't mean all the 
money goes to them.

- Stephan