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Python Software Foundation Community Awards

Contents

Introduction

The Python Software Foundation relies on volunteer efforts to achieve many of its goals. The PSF Community Awards are a formal way for the PSF Board of Directors to offer recognition of work which, in its opinion, significantly improves the Foundation's fulfillment of its mission and benefits the broader Python community. The intention of these awards is to demonstrate that service to the Python community does lead to recognition and reward, rather than to provide a direct incentive to contributors.

Awards will be made periodically, normally every three months, although the Board may choose to consider awards at other times. Any PSF member is entitled to propose an award at any time, stating the reasons for which the award is merited. Proposals should be made confidentially to the Board by sending email to psf@python.org.

The minutes of award considerations will not name the individuals concerned unless an award is made. The Board will contact proposers to keep them informed of the status of their proposals (such as when the proposal wil receive Board consideration).

In the event that more than one award is proposed in a given period the Board may elect to hold over a proposal. Awards will be considered in the order in which they are received.

While it would be unusual for a single individual to receive multiple awards, repeated awards will be appropriate to acknowledge ongoing contributions. Recipients need not be Foundation members (though receiving an award may be an indication that consideration for membership is appropriate).

Recognition will take the form of an award certificate plus one of the following:

  1. A cash award of up to $600, allowing a single award to a US taxpayer to be made without requiring any formalties; or
  2. Free registration at PyCon, with optionally a contribution of up to $500 towards the recipient's travel and accommodation expenses. This award would be preferred for recipients from outside the USA, as there are fewer tax implications.

The Board should consider awards at any quarterly meeting where a member award proposal has been received since the last award consideration. At each such meeting where no proposal has been received within the preceding three months the Board may, at its descretion, make an award to an individual nominated by the Board.

2008

August

The following awards were announced on August 7, 2008 (PSF blog article):

  • Georg Brandl has been an enthusiastic contributor to the core for several years, and a while ago stunned the Python development world by building the Sphinx documentation system as an alternative to the LaTeX-based system we had been using previously, and converting the Python documentation to use it.
  • Brett Cannon has also been an active core developer for many years, but was nominated for his infrastructure work in migrating the Python bug-tracking system off of SourceForge to our own Roundup instance, and for his efforts keeping the Python developer introduction updated.

March

The following awards were announced on March 16, 2008, during PyCon in Chicago (and followed up with a PSF blog post):

  • Matthew Dixon Cowles: Matthew has been a tireless (and unfailingly polite) responder to the many users of the python-help mailing list, used by those seeking assistance not readily available through other channels. This assistance covers not only elementary questions but also quite advanced ones. Matthew has been a member of the Python community for many years, patiently answering questions and enlightening those who seek to get more out of the Python language.
  • Brad Knowles: Brad has managed the python.org e-mail since I can remember, and it's down to him that our lists and newsgroups are so blissfully free of spam. It's hard to appreciate the sheer volume of mail that Brad handles, and he is fiercely defensive of our domain's status on the Internet. Keeping the e-mail flowing is essential not just to the PSF but also to all the users of mailing lists and newsgroups. Brad does all this not because he is a big Python user, but because it needs to be done. This is the community service ethic at its best.
  • Peter Kropf and Martin Thomas: Peter and Martin are probably best known to those people who want to employ Python programmers, as they have jointly been almost the sole workforce behind the Python Job Board for the last several years. The fact that the Job Board exists, and is available free of charge to anyone looking to hire people with Python skills, is possibly more central to Python's rise in popularity than we appreciate. PyCon chairman David Goodger paid tribute to the Job Board as helping him out of unemployment in his opening remarks this year, and I know there are dozens if not hundreds of others who should be similarly grateful to Peter and Martin.