We often think about “the Python Community” as a monolith, but in reality it behaves more like a collection of diverse sub-communities. One could name, as highlighted by the 2024 Jetbrain Python Developer Survey, data analysis, web development, machine learning & artificial intelligence, academic research, DevOps & System Administration, scientific computing, to name only a few. In typical distributed open source fashion, each of these communities has their own set of communication channels, conferences and governance, and this is generally a very good thing, but it does create silos and blindspots. In this panel, we hope to explore some ways that the scientific Python community, specifically, can more closely interact with core Python development and the rest of the Python ecosystem.
In this panel, we will invite leaders from the scientific Python ecosystem and the core Python development team to participate in a lively discussion about working better together to create a Python that works for all, how to advocate & steward for a lively open source community and keep the community engaged and working toward a common goal.
Some of the topics we hope to cover are:
- How can we create better communication structures so that the needs of the scientific Python ecosystem bubble up into core development decisions?
- How can we encourage technical leaders in the scientific Python ecosystem to participate more in core development? What are some of the current barriers to that?
- How can the core team better signal long-term direction to downstream maintainers of major scientific Python libraries?
- How can we make the community more welcoming to new members?
- What are the most effective ways to onboard and mentor new contributors to core and critical ecosystem projects?
Panelists: - Dawn Wages (moderator) - Travis Oliphant - Carol Willing - Savannah Ostrowski - Barry Warsaw - Michael Droettboom - Jonathan Dekhtiar