[python-advocacy] Second-Term Status Report for Python Advocacy

[Jeff Rush]

As we come to the end of my second six-month term as advocacy coordinator, I
would like to report on what has been accomplished and what has not.

First the detailed list of what I've done is maintained at:

   http://wiki.python.org/moin/AdvocacyAccomplishments

but it can be hard to follow the specific directions so here is a summary.

Screencasts
===========

One aspect of the work for this term was to develop content resources that can
be used to spread the word about Python.  One form this took is screencasts,
in cooperation with the showmedo.com website.  Here is a list of those I
produced, with the date of creation and the number of views recorded on the
showmedo.com website so far.

The first set was to get information out there to encourage others to create
screencasts as well:

  Series: Casting Your Knowledge, With Style
    Jun-28 "Preparing for Screencasting" (146 views)
    Jun-28 "Giving Your Screencast" (54 views)

followed by a series focused on 5-minute introductory talks.  I had hoped to
get contributions from the various sub-communities of Python but so far been
unsuccessful.  Besides these of mine, Ian Ozsvald also created one as well,
and as of this weekend, I have firm interest from two members of the Jython
community to produce at least one as well.

  Series: 5-Minutes with Python
    Jul-02 "Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'" (500 views)
    Jul-08 "A Demonstration of ReStructuredText" (20 views)
    Aug-22 "Python and the Image Manipulation Library" (46 views)

I've also collected several existing screencasts of the appropriate length
about Plone but am not sure they gently introduce the listener to the topic at
hand, and could use some feedback.  I've learned along the way that a 5-minute
talk, although consisting of less material, is much harder to create than a
20-minute talk, due to the need to be precise and know exactly what you want
to convey within that tight timeslot.

To expand on the 5-minute talk about the IPython shell, I then produced
a demonstration series showing off most of its features:

  Series: A Demonstration of the 'IPython' Interactive Shell
    Jul-17 "The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1" (691 views)
    Jul-17 "The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 2" (38 views)
    Jul-17 "The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 3" (25 views)
    Jul-17 "The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 4" (133 views)
    Jul-17 "The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 5" (147 views)

And then to provide something different, in order to get some idea of what
presentation format is most popular with the community, I started a series of
source code reviews as you would experience in a development team.

  Series: Python Source Walkthrough Series
    Aug-23 "Python Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)" (70 views)
    Sep-06 "Python Walkthru of a Twisted Webserver" (31 views)

And last, I remembered discussions on the usergroup organizers chat meeting
that people in the community often have trouble staying on top of the various
happenings and sources of information, so I started a series to help with
that:

  Series: Keeping in Touch with the Python Community
    Sep-06 "Watching the RSS Feeds" (32 views)
    Sep-08 "Searching the Python World (just went public)
    TBD    "Joining Interesting Python Discussions"
      [An overview of what Python mailing lists exist and
      why certain ones may appeal to you.]

The idea is to help those new to Python build stronger bonds with the overall
community, especially as that community grows much larger.

As a general evaluation of screencasting, the showmedo.com website seems to be
an excellent way to reach those new to Python.  By the statistics of all their
talks, their audience seems to be those wanting introductory material, so it
currently is not necessarily an ideal avenue for reaching IT departments.  I
think it reaches those who program as a hobby, students wanting help, and
those just starting to check out Python at the office that don't yet have
official buy-in.  I hope to work with showmedo.com to broaden their offerings
and draw in the more advanced Python programmers as well.


Usergroups
==========

Another focus of this advocacy term was to strengthen usergroups.  I've helped
several to form, and to support them I subscribe to their lists, help where I
can and encourage the organizers.  The youngest groups are:

  CentralOH (32-members since March 5, 2007)
  Portland Usergroup (29 members since May 18, 2007)
  Phoenix Usergroup (Sunpiggies) (6 members since July 27, 2007)
  Omaha Usergroup (?? members since March 24, 2007)

Changes continue to trickle onto the usergroup roster on wiki.python.org,
including the recent creation of the Norwegian Python Interest Group.

One item created as part of the advocacy effort was a shared blog to which
usergroup organizers can post, and be aggregated to the various planets.

  http://python-groups.blogspot.com/

Since starting this blog in April 2007, there have been 16 postings.  Twelve
usergroups have posting access but we need to encourage more to participate.


Wiki Successes
==============

http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonTraining

The Python Training wiki page continues to see updates and new entries and
seems to be a valuable resource.  I've attached to the bottom a blurb
encouraging trainers to show off their skills by creating screencasts but so
far I don't know any who have done so.

http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonWriters

Since the creation of a Python Writers/Editors page in June, there have been
25 contributions, with 12 writers and 4 editors.


Forrester Survey on Dynamic Languages
=====================================

"Python Is An All-Purpose Leader; PHP And Perl Are Popular Options"
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,41386,00.html

The Forrester Survey is complete and has been published for sale at $399 on
their website.  Initially they considered us a traditional for-profit client
and we would have to pay to use anything from the report.  I reminded them
that in their initial meeting with us contributors, they said this was their
first experience with the open source community and that they wanted to find a
way for us to work together.  After internal consideration they have granted
each language community free citation of selected portions of the report.

It is on my urgent to-do- list to extract quotes and pull it together into a
press release the PSF can issue in the very near future.


Python Unconference
===================

The first Python Unconference (that I know of) will take place in Houston Sep
15-16.  I'll blog about the results when I return.


Self-Evaluation
===============

Along with the above developments, I keep an advocacy blog at:

  http://python-advocacy.blogspot.com/

In 2007 there have been 14 postings related to Python advocacy.

My ideas continue to run ahead of my abilities, as I'm sure they do for all of
us.  I'd hoped to do more for advocacy than I have but believe I have some
good results to show as well.

I continue to be unable to inspire much participation by others, a failing of
mine as well as part of the job.  The two lists most related to advocacy,
advocacy at python.org and group-organizers at python.org remain excessively quiet,
and my attempts to get the edu-sig community to contribute to advocacy have
not found much traction.  My real concern with this is whether others will
carry on the advocacy steps we've put in place once I leave the office.

On my task list was the writing of several whitepapers which I've failed to
achieve due to a focus on other tasks, mostly screencasts.  Andrew Kuchling
has worked to make several of them happen (thanks Andrew) but I've not yet
collected/linked his work into an overall promotion.  I've also been remiss in
creating the slideshow about how to start and run a usergroup.  I plan to
crank that out this week as I consider it urgent.

In order to make use of the screencasts compiled so far, I have been placing
sidebars onto www.python.org with commentary and links to screencasts related
to the topic discussed near that spot.  More work is needed here that I plan
to continue incrementally.


Toward the Future
=================

Should the board be open to the idea, I would like to continue for one
last 6-month term (Sep 15 - Mar 15), bringing us to a final report and closure
at PyCon 2008.  During that term I propose to continue work on the following
tasks:

 1. get citation of Forrester survey onto website and into news stream
 2. produce more screencasts and draw others into doing so as well.
 3. work with the PR firm potentially being hired for PyCon to see what
    opportunities exist for promoting Python in general
 4. write the whitepapers listed on my second-term proposal

On the other hand, if the board decides I've had my shot, I thank you and will
contribute as my time permits to advocacy efforts.  Or if there is someone
else bubbling with ideas on how to get others involved who wants to step into
the advocacy coordinator position, I'd be glad to play a supporting role.

Python Advocacy Coordinator
Jeff Rush