[Python-ideas] Python Research Insitute

[anatoly techtonik]

I am well aware of https://www.blender.org/institute/ and I like it.

And recently I realized that my claims and accusations towards
PSF are just wrong. PSF is a fund - it should process the money
to ensure Python Community has at lest some degree of
independence from sponsors. It is not its role to register domains,
maintain servers, assign copyright to itself from contributors  - it
is not its role to do anything at all.

PSF waits for initiatives to appear and then supports them, but
the problem is - there are not many initiatives (except website,
which is well, <opinionated opinion stripped>). And that's the
problem that PSF is not solving, because it can not do this. It can
not just do what it wants - grab a bunch of people together to
solve a particular problem, provide them with a place to do stuff,
with access to funding from people interested in certain initiative,
direct contact with them, being interested people from outside
into the team and do other nasty things (like filming movies!).

PSF holds a lot of responsibility and therefore is not effective
for research works and experiments. This things that PSF can
not do, and nobody can, because economy doesn't allow this:

1.  Maintain a list of top 10 stdlib modules that need a redesign

The one is gathered there:
http://sayspy.blogspot.com/2009/07/informal-poll-what-python-stdlib.html

Try with Python community a usability study to find out "why
people feel these things need a redesign".

2. Do economic study on Python contributions

How many people could escape the corporate "slavery" to do
the necessary work for high quality patches. Are they allowed
to work on Python, do they feel stressed, etc. How do they feel
the economic model helps Python development, is there a way
for alternative models that help more people to jump in to make
good thing better.

3. Get data on Python services, develop participation tools

bugs.python.org is not only a GSoC project. There are a lot of
things that can be improved, should be improved and the issues
are not trivial.

4. Publish a research what will happen if Python 2.8 is released

Study the things like
https://gist.github.com/techtonik/574401cebf5e17c33f5b
with reports on income and outcomes that could actually be
referenced (unlike mails, which are good, but hard to filter).

5. Get data on Python usage, a set of areas and most popular use cases

This is came from Geo coordinates conversion module in stdlib.

>> Most people I know who use Python as a serious data processing language
don't care much what's in the stdlib because they're using numpy and/or
pandas.
> Yes, and that's sad that the Python still doesn't have the basic building
blocks of Pandas in stdlib.

Study the idea of making a stlib that consists from modules that cover the
most common scenarios of using the scripting language, provide a "toy
modules" that cover these common scenarios - a mini demos of more powerful
tools, like a "swiss-knives toolbelt".

6. Get a tools on measuring Python stdlib usage

Build a linked semantic AST from all packages on PyPI (vector data like
OpenStreetMap, but from the language level objects). This will allow to
grep how many times a particular module is used, and allow people to use
that database to extend into their own research (like trying to guess
context and usage scenarios for stdlib calls).

7. Record a summaries of Python evolution, build media materials

Visual information requires much much much less time to be consumed, but
requires a significant amount of time to produce. PyCon talks are
exceptionally good for video material, but for the community coordination,
a lot of HTML5 and dynamic design works needs to be done.

PSF won't be able to make it interesting to HTML5 folks, because it is
solely about Python itself, and the object of Python Research Institute
include everything that goes side by side and influences the development of
the project and community around it. From "cultural aspects of Monty Python
in context of computer language programming" to "feasibility of designing
an operating system in stackless" and "test of new economic models for
sustainable Python development" etc.

I just can't stop with ideas - research how appearance of startup scene
affected open source contributions, research why open source project die
and how to prevent that, what happened with former Python contributors and
where their interest is now, how other languages compare to Python, what
are the key problems of converting Python code to other languages, how to
deal with complexity etc., what this "agile" is about and could it be
useful for Python development etc.


Please, tell me if that is a worthy utopia and add your ideas.
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