PSF Meeting Minutes for Dec. 19, 2012
A regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation ("PSF") Board of Directors was held over Group Conference Call via phone and Internet Relay Chat beginning at 18:00 CEST/ 12:00 EDT, on December 19 2012. Van Lindberg presided over the meeting. Ewa Jodlowska prepared the minutes.
All votes are reported in the form "Y-N-A" (in favor-Y‚opposed-N‚abstentions-A; e.g. "5-1-2" means "5 in favor, 1 opposed, and 2 abstentions").
Contents
- 1 Attendance
- 2 Minutes of Past Meetings
- 3 Votes Taken Between Meetings
- 4 Votes Taken Over Email
- 5 Treasurer Report
- 6 Python.org Redesign Report for 12/18/12
- 7 PyCon Chair Report for 12/17/12
- 8 PSF Event Coordinator Report for Nov/Dec
- 8.1 Other PSF Conferences
- 8.2 PyCon AV Management
- 8.3 PyCon Budgeting
- 8.4 PyCon Catering
- 8.5 PyCon Contract Negotiations
- 8.6 PyCon Electrical
- 8.7 PyCon Exhibit Hall
- 8.8 PyCon Financial Aid
- 8.9 Future Event Planning
- 8.10 PyCon Hotel/CC Management
- 8.11 PyCon Housing Management
- 8.12 PyCon Internet
- 8.13 PyCon Printing
- 8.14 PyCon Registration Management
- 8.15 PyCon Site Visits
- 8.16 PyCon Sponsors
- 8.17 PyCon Website Management
- 9 PSF Administrator Report
- 10 Sprints Report for 2012-12-19
- 11 Communications Report for 2012-12-19
- 12 Trademarks Committee Report for 2012-12-18
- 13 Associate Membership Program Report
- 14 Marketing Material Project Report - 2012-12-19
- 15 Community Relations Report - 2012-12-19
- 16 PyCon Australia Sponsorship
- 17 Grant for Matin v. Löwis for Microsoft Surface tablet
- 18 Community Service Award for Antoine Pitrou
- 19 Community Service Award for Stefan Krah
- 20 Fosdem 2013 Sponsorship
- 21 Other Business
- 22 Adjournment
1 Attendance
The following members of the Board of Directors (8 of ll) were present at the meeting: Van Lindberg, Marc-Andre Lemburg, Tim Peters, Brian Curtin, Doug Napoleone, Martin v. Löwis, Andrew Kuchling, and Jesse Noller. Also in attendance were Kurt Kaiser (Treasurer) and Ewa Jodlowska (Secretary/Administrator).
2 Minutes of Past Meetings
The 05 December 2012 Board meeting minutes were voted on and approved.
RESOLVED, that we approve the minutes at http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/psf-board/2012-December/020069.html as representing a true and accurate record of the December 05 2012 meeting.
Approved, 6-0-2.
3 Votes Taken Between Meetings
There were no votes taken between meetings.
4 Votes Taken Over Email
There were no votes taken over email.
5 Treasurer Report
5.1 PSF Balances 30 November 2012
- Assets
Current Assets 700K
Prepaid PyCon 13 Expense 82K
AR 178K
Net Fixed Assets 52K
Total Assets 1012K
- Liabilities
AP 25K
Deferred PyCon Revenue 348K
Total Liabilities 373K
Total Equity 639K
2012 YTD Net Income 248K
- A balance sheet and income statements for November and November YTD are attached to this report.
- Our net assets were down by 22K in November to 639K.
- Accounts Receivable was up in November by 20K, reflecting PyCon sponsor billings net of receipts.
- Please refer to the P&L for the full details. Some highlights:
5.2 Revenue
PSF Donations for the month were $1,450.00.
Restricted Donations (fiscal sponsorship) were $1,536.
5.3 Grants/Sprints Expense
Kivy Port to Python 3 $4,915
LA DIYgirls Workshop $300
RuPy 12 $1,046
Python Brazil 12 $3,000
Kansas City Sprint $168
Other Expense:
- Outside Services:
- Wendroff $1,150 Kilburn and Strode LLC $1,860
Fiscal Sponsorship Expense $3,923 Travel $619
5.4 psfmember.org
- During the month, we reimbursed expenses for PyArkansas, PyCarolinas, and PyLadies out of the donations received through psfmember.org.
- At this time, we have received over $29,000 in donations through psfmember.org. Most of these donations are due to our fiscal sponsorship activities for Boston Python, PyArkansas, PyCarolinas, PyLadies, and PyTexas. There is now a donation / sponsorship web page for each of these groups, which is linked from the group's website.
- The website is also accepting Associate Member registrations. We still need to link psfmember.org to python.org, improve the attractiveness of the offering by adding content on python.org relating to the Associate Membership, and make the community aware of the opportunity. I believe significant growth will require adding value to the membership through discounts and other perks, as is done by other organizations similar to the PSF.
- My focus is on PyCon and PSF sponsor invoicing, AR/AP reduction, and year-end wrapup and 1099 transmittals.
<http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/psf-board/attachments/20121218/e11536ce/attachment-0003.pdf>
<http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/psf-board/attachments/20121218/e11536ce/attachment-0004.pdf>
<http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/psf-board/attachments/20121218/e11536ce/attachment-0005.pdf>
6 Python.org Redesign Report for 12/18/12
6.1 Summary
- http://dev.projectevolution.com/python/. Some of the top-level links work now, so you can see landing page wireframes for About, Downloads, Documentation, Success Stories, Blog, Events, PSF, and Jobs.
- This is "working software" without the software, so the layout may break or look bad depending on the devs working on it.
6.2 Issues / Blockages
- Collaborating w/ team and the public on good ideas for the community sub site.
6.3 Continued Activities from Last Month
- Public announcements out
- Backend work is ramping up
6.4 New Activities
- None
6.6 Notes
- Con call w. the team scheduled for this week.
7 PyCon Chair Report for 12/17/12
PyCon 2013: March 11th — 21st, Santa Clara, CA Official Site: http://us.pycon.org/
7.1 Summary
Registration is slowed due to the holiday season. Press releases and major pushes are planned come january. Early bird is sold out.
All tutorial and talks have been accepted, schedules announced.
Budget summary sent to board last week.
Financial Aid applications are proceeding: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/12/reminder-financial-aid-requests-due.html
Excellent sponsor testimonial from Walt Disney Animation: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-become-pycon-sponsor-sponsors.html
PyPgDay Announced: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/12/announcing-pypgday-at-pycon-us-2013.html
We have partnered with NumFOCUS and Continuum Analytics to run PyData SV alongside our sprints: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/11/pycon-us-2012-big-data-how-about-pydata.html
We have announced a 6th talk track: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/11/pycon-us-2013-how-many-talk-tracks-are.html
7.3 Continued Activities from Last Month
- Sponsorship continues. We have a decent pipeline.
- Working in depth with sponsors.
- Raspberry.io work now proceeding.
7.4 New Activities
- None
7.5 Planned for Next Month
- Continue driving sponsorship
- Drive registration hard.
7.6 Notes
- Ewa's monthly report sent by Ewa to the board.
8 PSF Event Coordinator Report for Nov/Dec
8.1 Other PSF Conferences
- I have been helping pgDay with their request for an event at the convention center, which will be one day before PyCon starts. I have negotiated a price and they will handle the contract directly with the Convention Center.
- I have been assisting PyData with their request to host their conference during the PyCon Sprints at the Convention Center. I have been handling contacting the CC on their behalf. This process is complete. We are just waiting for the convention center contract to arrive at PyData via snail mail.
- I have noted to Jesse that for 2014, we should not get involved with these requests. We should simply give the groups our contact at the venue and let them book their own event. There are many things that could become a risk for the PSF and it is best to stay out of it.
8.2 PyCon AV Management
-I have been sending information to Carl on new track layout. He is asking for complete floor plans of the program so I am currently working on those. -I have reserved the hotel rooms that he requests in his contract since he still has not been able to send me a staff list. This way he will still have rooms available when he has his staff list complete.
8.3 PyCon Budgeting
- I am continuously fielding invoices to the ledger for 2013 and then sending to Kurt for payment.
8.4 PyCon Catering
- I have been working with Melanie at the convention center to come up with a buffet menu for PyCon's lunches. I am trying to keep the costs as close to 2012 as possible however buffets are more expensive than plated lunches (which is what we have had in previous years). This had to be changed because with this many attendees it is hard to please everyone with a plated lunch. Currently I am averaging $31.40 per person for lunch (this is not final yet).
8.5 PyCon Contract Negotiations
- I have contacted the Marriott in Santa Clara to book rooms for our FA recipients at the hotel. For 2012 we were able to get rooms for $99 per night. If we can get that again in 2013, that will be helpful financially and will spread the FA budget farther.
8.6 PyCon Electrical
- Nothing to report
8.7 PyCon Exhibit Hall
- Working with Tricord on getting the floor plan for the expo hall ready. I have completed the first version, but need to have it revised to include more booths since we have booked several since it was made. We have created a floor plan that will have lunch and the booths in the same expo hall.
- I have sent in my second revision for the expo hall. My count as of the morning of Monday December 17 is as follows:10x10 booths: 53, 10x15 booths: 42, 10x20 booths: 2
- I am working on the details of how lunch will work during the expo and job fair. I am aiming to have seating/buffets in the aisles available in order to draw people closer to the booths.
8.8 PyCon Financial Aid
- Worked with Peter/Jessica/Jesse to get the timeline and details for FA squared away, especially budget wise.
8.9 Future Event Planning
- Helping PyLadies/Women who code with their suites and lunch requests. Currently we are planning a special RSVP lunch event for Saturday during the conference that will happen in 209/210 in the conference center. I am currently going over details with Lynn Root regarding this event.
- I have created the time slot schedule for tutorials and helped coordinate this with Eldarion. After this was completed, the tutorial committee went in and assigned talks to the time slots. This is complete already and available on the site.
- I have created the time slot schedule for the conference program and helped coordinate this with Eldarion. JKM will be going in now and plugging in talks to the time slots. This should be available soon.
8.10 PyCon Hotel/CC Management
- Nothing to Report
8.11 PyCon Housing Management
- See Registration Management below.
8.12 PyCon Internet
- Nothing to Report
8.13 PyCon Printing
- Nothing to Report
8.14 PyCon Registration Management
- I have daily communication with the registration bureau regarding special requests and general questions.
8.15 PyCon Site Visits
- At 2012, Yannick and the Montreal team started working on a general guideline for submitting a proposal for PyCon. I have been pinging him this month to get him working on it. This will be helpful to have since during the first Montreal conference we will need to choose the next location of PyCon.
8.16 PyCon Sponsors
- I continuously assist sponsors with any questions they may have when Jesse is working on getting them signed up.
- I continuously respond to sponsor emails that have questions about logistics/general things.
- I have created time slots for the Sponsor Workshops. I have sent out an email to the Sponsor Workshop participants and started to gather their information so we can also release that schedule to the public (this will most likely happen sometime in January).
- I have compared admin and our google doc to find any sponsors which are missing from our google doc. I have gone back and added the missing entities to our google doc.
- Every week I send a new file to CTE and Tricord with the new sponsors and any changes they need to be aware of. Now that it is getting closer to the event, I am sending new data as it comes. I will continue this until the expo hall is full/closed.
- I have sent information to the Sponsors regarding the Auction at PyCon 2013. So far I have only received two responses. After the holidays I will ping them again. We need to create more interest for this event, otherwise it will not be successful.
- I have begun to draft a holiday letter to the sponsors that Jesse will be sending out. I am urging Sponsors to have their registrations in by mid-January or we cannot guarantee space after that. I am urging people to let me know if they will need booths because if not, we will fine them.
8.17 PyCon Website Management
- Worked on the open space stub. Removed the talks/tutorial proposal stubs since the cut off has passed.
9 PSF Administrator Report
9.1 Board Agenda / Minutes
- I have continued to control the Board Agenda for the PSF Board
- I have continued to control the minutes for the meetings (including drafts)
9.2 Grant and Award Notification
- I have been notifying groups about the Board's resolutions.
- I have communicated with the people who have recently given out awards on the PSF's behalf about reimbursements for the projects. We have all decided to cover the costs out of pocket.
- I have been assisting with sponsorship requests.
9.3 Email and Communication
- I am continuing to monitor all PSF Board/Members mailing lists also making sure emails are being answered/followed up on.
- I am continuing to read through all of the email threads that occur on the board/members mailing lists.
9.4 Document Creation
- I am working on the letters to send out to Sponsor Members when we send out Invoices.
- I have created Community Service Award for Thomas Heller. I still need to print it out and mail it to him, will do so this weekend. He is located in Germany.
- I have started to create a series of documents, which can be used by the chairs of PyCon US for referencing. I am currently working on a general timeline so next year flows as nicely as this year.
9.5 Research and Review
- I have taken a training with Wendroff & Associates for QBOL. This training was also joined by one of our accountants, Rui. We went through the basic use of QBOL. Details that were covered included outstanding balances and invoicing. I have written up questions for Kurt and will be emailing them next week (cc'ing the board). I'd like to get involved with following up on invoices because we have over 90K outstanding that is 60+ days overdue and I do not see why it has to be that way. Overall the training went well and QBOL seems very straight forward.
9.6 Contributor Agreements
- I am continuing to collect Contributor Agreements, acknowledge their receipt, and store them on dropbox.
9.7 Documentation Upkeep and Wiki
- I am continuing to update the Wiki with necessary info such as approved minutes from the Board Meetings.
9.8 Election Management/Membership
- I have started going through the data in CiviCRM to see where/what information is missing. I plan on sending out an email to those that we lack info for soon. This has been at a stand still with everything else going on. Planning on going back to it after the holidays.
9.9 Website and Infrastructure Management
- I have purchased EchoSign to start testing it to see how it would work with pythondotorg. I have successfully tested it on a local build of pythondotorg. This test has been sent to Van/Brian/Jesse for review. Brian has reviewed it with suggested edits. Those edits have been made and sent back to Brian for final edit. More edits have been sent from Brian, which I am working on this week.
9.10 Other Conferences
- Please see the Event Coordinator Report for the detail.
10 Sprints Report for 2012-12-19
10.3 New Activities
- Processed two reimbursements, including one that slipped past me for a small reimbursement to Asheesh.
- In conjunction with the Outreach & Education committee, we sponsored the PyData sprint in New York on 16 December. We haven't heard from them yet regarding reimbursement.
10.4 Planned for Next Month
- We heard from the Julython organizer that they're doing an event in January, but there was no concrete plan for how we could help. I'll follow up and see if there's anything we can do for them.
11 Communications Report for 2012-12-19
11.2 Continued Activities from Last Month
- Working on a year-end summary of board and foundation activities. I'm going to spend some of my time off around the holidays to have this in a better shape and have it up on the blog and website for the first week or so of January.
11.3 New Activities
- Since last report we had the announcement of the Kivy and NLTK porting grants up on the blog, which made their way to a few other sites. Jesse put up a post on the blog about the status of the redesign, which was picked up by a number of sites and was the highest viewed post all year.
- We covered the recent Code of Conduct resolutions in early December, and that post was picked up in a lot of places as well, including the Ada Project, who supported the actions.
11.4 Planned for Next Month
- There's no specific action here, but for PyCon we switched news release vendors to Marketwire, so I'm going to keep an eye out for how the press releases are being picked up through that service.
- If it turns out that we get a good value out of the service, I may propose that we do some of our bigger PSF announcements as press releases.
12 Trademarks Committee Report for 2012-12-18
12.1 Issues / Blockages
- Need to locate someone to create a better unified record of all the trademarks authorizations and refusals made by the committee. The PSF Secretary/Administrator has agreed to take this on, but as far as I know, no progress has yet been made? The information on actions is all there in mailing list archives, but not in any nicely digestible form (such as on a Wiki or a Google Docs spreadsheet).
12.2 New Activities
- July 2012. Authorized Ryan Walmsley <ryanteck at gmail.com> to use a derived logo: "The logo I have created is for an event called RasPiThon which is where Myself and 3 others create a game using the language python in a 48 hour time limit. We then ask for donations to go towards the Raspberry Pi Foundation charity." Image attached to this message.
- July 2012. PSF Chair filed a DMCA takedown on an infringing use: "I am the chairman of the Python Software Foundation. I have filed a DMCA request regarding the use of our copyrighted logo at phyton.weebly.com (also available at pmarket.tk), but I am also writing to note the violation of our trademarks on the associated sites. Both the logo (as a trademark) and the term "Phyton" are identical to or confusingly similar to the marks of the Python Software Foundation as shown at http://www.python.org/community/logos/. Phyton marketing is not associated with the Python Software Foundation and appears to be trading on the PSF's logos and goodwill."
- July 2012. Declined request by Jachym Cepicky <jachym.cepicky at gmail.com> and Tom Kralidis <tomkralidis at hotmail.com> to use a modified version of Python logo. Members of the TC varied in opinions, but in aggregate I felt I needed to reply with: "However, I'm afraid that our overall conclusion is that we cannot authorize the modified logo at: http://ubuntuone.com/59KKj3LjUnPIhB9t0OvVef. This logo modifies the shape of the Python logo in a way that is dilutive to our brand, since the internal contours of the "snakes" are changed by "navigation star."
- Through July 2012. Long discussion without entirely clear resolution. But James Costa <james at thephuse.com> provided numerous designs for a possible "Python Software Foundation" logo and assigned the work to the PSF. The assignment agreement and the "consensus" version of the logo are attached. We should use this design wherever relevant. MAL also provides version at http://wiki.python.org/psf/PSF%20Logos.
- July 2012. Brian Curtin noticed that: "http://learnstreet.com/ contains a use of the Python "two snakes" logo that I figured should be brought to your attention." After notification, the site administrator, Rajiv Parikh <rajiv at learnstreet.com>, dropped use of a logo with a changed shape, and now only uses unrelated designs.
- July 2012. 陳俊達 <hi.chuntachen at gmail.com> inquired about use logo on T-shirts. The TC authorized this use: "The Python Software Foundation Trademarks Committee has taken a look at your proposed derived logo that incorporates the PSF's "two snakes" logo into a larger design. Since you have retained the original shape of the Python logo intact, we have determined that this is proper and permitted usage."
- July 2012. Former PSF Administrator had setup https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar1VXyR84h-AdEFuR21hUTNlbUF3NW96UEFZVmVRcXc as a documentation of actions by the TC. This is incomplete and partial, but may be starting point for future unified documentation.
- July 2012. The TC authorized the use of the name "Pythonista" by Ole Zorn <olezorn at me.com> for use as the name of an iOS distribution and environment for Python. The distribution is apparently available at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pythonista/id528579881. This may have been documented earlier, but some followup thank you's post-date last report.
- July 2012. Feth AREZKI <feth.arezki at gmail.com> presented a large number of possible designs for use by PyconFR (http://www.pycon.fr/2012/). Some of these may have been problems, others were clearly parodic and/or nominal use. In the end, the TC and its chair didn't followup as carefully as I should have; but none of the designs were evidently used in any case. August 2012 followup with Marc-André writing to Tarek Ziadé <tarek at ziade.org> to state problem with specific design (which was really attractive, but dilutive).
- July 2012. Martin <martin.brochhaus at gmail.com> inquired about use of a derived logo by the Singapore Python User Group. Their use was infringing, and Martin was gracious about changing to a non-infringing (unrelated) design after receiving clarification.
- August 2012. Peter Funk <pf at artcom-gmbh.de> inquired about guidelines for derived logos, and MAL provided excellent clarification on the topic. Unfortunately, there was not further followup with specific suggested use, but we assume Peter was clear after MAL's explanations.
- August 2012. The PSF Chair created a document detailing the history and use of Python as a trademark name, particularly in Europe. "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> and "M.-A. Lemburg" <mal at egenix.com> suggested a number of specific references. Other PSF members contributed supporting information via https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGxZNlRxQ0x2a3g3ZHpQZTRTOGp5emc6MQ and on the psf-members mailing list.
- August 2012. Approved use of PyArkansas logo for "Chad Cooper (CAST)" <chad at cast.uark.edu> and Greg Lindstrom <gslindstrom at gmail.com>. Image attached at bottom.
- August 2012. Decided to allow use of a "grandfathered" modification of Python logo at http://tomerfiliba.com/blog/Splitbrain/. This wouldn't be approved if it was a new use, but it preceded any real action of the TC by quite a while.
- August 2012. Van Lindberg approved in the abstract--i.e. explained the PSF's non-concern--with creation of an iOS Python learning tool that retained nominative use of trademarks. Explanation to Matthew Zipf <matthewzipf at gmail.com>.
- August 2012. Approved for Fletcher Heisler <fheisler at gmail.com> the use of a minimally derived "two-snakes" logo within an ebook on Python. Shape of derived logo leaves Python logo unchanged but incorporated. "Real Python" logo attached.
- August 2012. Approved for lobianco alessandro <llobiancoale at googlemail.com> the use of an intact Python logo for the "vita half byte loader menu." Discussion was really just to clarify what that menu was
- August 2012. David Sorrentino <sorrentinodav at gmail.com> inquired about using an unmodified Python logo surrounded by other elements in the logo for a commercial company he is creating. We had concern with confusion possible that it constituted a PSF endorsement of his company, and he agreed to use a different design that did not incorporate the Python logo.
- August 2012. Jesse Noller <jnoller at gmail.com> discusses obtaining free 3D swag incorporating Python logo for PyCon 2013.
- August 2012. Anand Chitipothu <anandology at gmail.com> presented the TC with a beautiful but improperly dilutive image for PyCon-India (attached). Unfortunately, it was too late to cancel printing T-shirts, but they agreed to alter the design for future uses. Given the absence of actual jurisdiction in India, the TC decided this was fine to let by. The improper use is also available as swag that the TC chair will distribute in some manner TBD at PyCon-US 2013. A non-dilutive logo is used on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ now.
- September 2012. Hugo Bessa <hrba at cin.ufpe.br> request use of dilutive modification of Python logo for a T-shirt design. We explained the dilution concern and he agreed to a different design.
- September 2012. MAL noted http://fi.pycon.org/2012/ which the TC decided was "inspired by but not derived from the Python logo" and hence required no further action.
- September 2012. MAL noted http://ua.pycon.org/ which is probably dilutive, but the TC (i.e. me) failed to discuss a change with them before the actual conference.
- September 2012. Michał Rostecki <michal.rostecki at gmail.com> inquired about use of a derived logo for an academic group called "PyCircle". The use incorporates a "coat-of-arms" within the Python logo in a manner that somewhat changes the shape. Much belatedly, I wrote to Michał in December to share this concern--no time for reply at time of this report.
- September 2012. Selina <selina at derivative.ca> inquired about use of unmodified logo in TouchDesigner software. Approved by TC.
- September 2012. Andrew Simmons <andrew.simmons at knightswarm.com> requested permission to created a "hand-drawn" version of the logo. The TC expressed concern about dilution in such a modification, but never received a concrete sample or indication if use would proceed.
- October 2012. Swag from PyConZA received and to distribute in a manner TBD.
- October 2012. Petr Viktorin <encukou at gmail.com> inquired about logo use that was entirely nominative for http://python.cz/. TC OK'd it.
- October 2012. Diego Monselice <info at diegomonselice.it> inquired about creating a "fuzzy" version of Python logo for a fuzzy logic system written in Python. We clarified dilution concern and he agreed to alternative design.
- October 2012. Carl Trachte <ctrachte at gmail.com> raised a concern about the PyUGat logo. The TC decided to allow it as "inspired by but not derived from Python logo." Main similarity is in use of same colors and shapes suggestive of snakes, but different from elements of "two-snakes" logo.
- October 2012. MAL noticed http://www.stackless.com/ uses a logo related to "two-snakes." The Chair agreed with MAL, but contrary to Carl Trachte that it falls under "inspired but not derived."
- October 2012. Carl Trachte <ctrachte at gmail.com> noticed dilutive logo on "Get Python" Twitter account, and contacted owner. craig zheng <craig.zheng at gmail.com> (said owner) agreed to change it.
12.3 Other New Activity
- October 2012. Jakub Paczkowski <jakub at paczkowski.eu> contacted TC about use of Python logo for a non-profit Python/Django workshop on the Jagiellonian University. TC OK'd the nominative use.
- October 2012. Clarification for PyArkansas that monochrome version of derived logo is still OK. Also, received PyArkansas swag for distribution TBD.
- November 2012. Patchie <patchie at gmail.com> (Odd Magnus Rosbach) inquired about python.no CC-TLD domain. I referred him to PSF Board, but expressed no specific trademark concern. The Board who opined all seems to feel Rosbach was a good advocate for Python in Norway.
- November 2012. Carl Trachte <ctrachte at gmail.com> raised used of color-modified logo on Katie Cunningham's website. No special concern by TC on use (color modifications are generally allowed).
- November 2012. Authorized Anand Chitipothu <anandology at gmail.com> and the Indian Python Software Society (IPSS) to register python.org.in.
- November 2012. Slightly misdirected inquiry from Hank Harris <hank.harris at gorillalogic.com> about software called "CloudMonkey" which is both a product of Gorilla Logic, Inc. and a project hosted at PyPi (created by the Apache CloudStack Team). The TC has no opinion on that trademark issue that is not our issue, but I directed Harris to Rohit Yadev of Apache Cloudstack to seek resolution. No idea what outcome resulted.
- November-December 2012. Continued PSF member confusion about authorization of name "Python for iOS" for a Python distribution. Clarified a few times on psf-members and to private inquiries.
- November 2012. Inquiry from ocecopyrights <ocecopyrights at mx.uillinois.edu> (Sarah Y. Walkington, Copyright and Library Assistant, Online & Continuing Education, University of Illinois) about use of screen captures of Python and Python-related application. Question was somewhat unclear, but clarified that screenshots of Python interpreter and the like are not in any way protected by PSF, though any code displayed within a shell might belong to someone else.
- November 2012. Tom Rouse <tom.rouse at aol.co.uk> inquired about nominative use of word mark and logo on a website code-python.com. No objections from TC.
- November 2012. Chris Wayne <chris.wayne at canonical.com> inquired about using Python logo for a "lens" in Unity desktop. TC granted permission.
- November 2012. Christian Malpeli <cmalpeli at gmail.com> inquires about nominative use of Python logo. TC approves it and provides clarification.
- December 2012. Our friend Jonathan Hosmer <jon at pythonforios.com> continues to provide sample registration codes for "Python N.m for iOS" to psf-members in gratitude for TC approval.
- December 2012. Kevin Mansell <kevin.mansell at controlf.co.uk> inquired about use of "Python" word mark in courses he is provided. TC explained the nominative use and authorized it inasmuch as any permission was needed to start with.
12.4 Planned for Next Month
- Followup with folks at http://www.initd.org/psycopg/ about a likely dilutive logo that the TC has noticed over time. Recently, MAL finally (i.e. because I hadn't gotten to it) followed up with Daniele Varrazzo <daniele.varrazzo at gmail.com> about this issue, and Daniele agreed to address concern.
12.5 Ongoing Projects
- PSF chair has located a European counsel to contest a trademark registration for the word 'Python' for a web hosting company which seems to use multiple trade names (but Tim Poultney CEO and Veber [http://www.veber.co.uk] seem to be main identities). They have been fairly uncooperative in informal inquiries.
- Continue to get "swag" items from various users of Python logo on physical items, including paying moderate amounts to have producers create a few extra of each thing to provide to the PSF. Any amounts that might be spent are way under the $500 discretionary amount the TC Chair has as a Director (i.e. maybe tens of dollars at a time). Obviously, swag we want is items the TC has approved as non-infringing. Such items will be distributed at conferences or other events, perhaps as "prizes" in manners TBD.
13 Associate Membership Program Report
- (see Treasurer's Report - section, "Associate Membership")
14 Marketing Material Project Report - 2012-12-19
The marketing material project aims to design, produce and ship professional quality marketing material for Python.
The first goal is to create a Python brochure which show-cases Python's application spaces, how it helps users to achieve their tasks and what its benefits are in a professional and educational setting.
14.1 Summary
The project is led by Marc-André Lemburg who is in contact with the people behind the Plone brochure created by the German Zope User Group (DZUG): Jan Ulrich Hasecke and Armin Stroß-Radschinski.
We started working on the concept a few weeks after World Plone Day in April 2010 and had several meetings and conference calls to take the idea forward.
The project has been running for more than two years now, making slow, but steady progress. It's one of those projects that take time and lots of effort to get to the finishing line.
For more details, please see the brochure support site at:
http://brochure.getpython.info/learn-more
14.2 Progress
We have been working with OpenStack, CERN and SurveyMonkey to get the approvals for the content, images and logos. Once those are processed, we're done with the content approval phase.
After an email communication problem with SurveyMonkey, we've managed to reestablish contact. Jesse and Tarek provided additional contacts at SurveyMonkey and we resent the emails to all of them using several email accounts.
They have now asked us to sign a logo usage license, which is currently underway. Hopefully, we'll get their content approval by the end of the year.
OpenStack has sent in their form yesterday. We're still waiting on CERN to get back to us.
Ad space is almost sold out. We're finalizing the last remaining reservations.
There are still a lot of the smaller reference entries available. These provide a great value for money and are especially designed to be of great benefit for the many SME Python service companies in Python land. Please see the "Sponsor Options" below for more details.
We'll run a campaign to get the reference entries sold after or close to having the content approval process finalized, using a preview PDF to attract smaller Python companies.
If you are interested in signing up as reference sponsor or know someone who might be interested, please refer them to the brochure site:
http://brochure.getpython.info/
Once we have the sponsors all signed up, we'll go to print with the brochure, probably sometime end of November, and have it distributed to the ad sponsors, reference sponsors, subscription sponsors and Python conferences, user groups, etc. via on-demand shipping.
If you are the lead of a local user group, conference, educational institution and interested in receiving boxes with the brochure delivered to you at no additional costs, please contact the PSF or our team directly via brochure at getpython.info.
14.2.1 Sponsor Options
There are 8 half-page ads available in the brochure and we want to have 30-40 reference sponsor entries as well.
All options are listed on our sponsorship page, and you can also order them online:
http://brochure.getpython.info/sponsorship
The reference sponsor entries are meant for companies providing Python services, have a fixed layout and provide a great value for money: the companies will not only be listed in 10.000+ copies of the brochure, but they will also each get a box of around 120 copies of the brochure.
14.2.2 Educational Sponsorship
In case you missed it in the last report: we have also added a new sponsor option: the educational sponsorship.
This works much like the subscription sponsorship where a company can order extra brochure copies at very reasonable prices. The difference is that companies can order extra copies for educational institutions of their choice or of the PSF's choice. The bill will be paid by the company and the boxes will go straight to the institution.
14.2.3 Please Help find Sponsors
If you know possible sponsors or are interested in sponsoring the brochure yourself, please check the available sponsorship plans we have available:
http://brochure.getpython.info/sponsorship
If you have questions, please ping me directly or write to brochure at getpython.info.
14.3 Issues
Since we'll be continuing to work on the brochure project and also continue to collect success stories, we're always interested in getting in contact with people behind interesting projects and companies using Python to do great things.
If you know such people, please contact us and consider signing up as contact scout to provide on-site help at conferences or other events:
http://brochure.getpython.info/signup/contact-scout-signup
and, if you're interested in the project, please consider signing up to our newsletter:
http://brochure.getpython.info/
Thanks !
14.4 Future plans
If the project goes well (and things look great at the moment), we'll follow up with a second edition of the brochure, Python flyers using material extracted from the brochure, translated versions of the brochure and also consider creating marketing material more targeted at specific user groups or application fields.
In the long run, we'd also like to take the idea of producing marketing material beyond printed material and develop booth setups, giveaways, CDs, etc. to support conference organizers and local user groups wishing to promote Python at their events.
15 Community Relations Report - 2012-12-19
15.1 Summary
With the PSF Community Relations we aim at creating closer bindings with the world-wide Python communities.
One of the ways we're trying to do this is by showing more presence at international Python conferences and moving the spending side from conference grants more towards signing up for sponsorships which allow us to present the PSF at the conference using the conference kits we created in the last few months and which are slowly being extended to include more versatile setups as well:
http://wiki.python.org/psf/PSF%20Conference%20Kit
Another way is to have regional PSF representatives which can help give the PSF a closer relation to local groups. We're trying to find such representatives and work out a strategy for the local representation with them.
15.2 Progress
15.2.1 Conference Kits
The conference kit for South America is now managed locally by Luciano Ramalho and Mariano Reingart. It was used at the PyCon Argentina 2012 conference and the PythonBrazil 2012.
The conference kit for North America is managed by Jesse Noller.
We will be creating more of the portable smaller popup display kits that Ewa used for PyCon ZA 2012. To reduce shipping costs, we'll have some produced in the US and some in Europe.
For more details on the kits, please have a look at the conference kit wiki page:
http://wiki.python.org/psf/PSF%20Conference%20Kit
15.2.2 Local PSF Representation
After the last PSF meeting at EuroPython, Duncan McGreggor has kindly initiated a discussion with the Indian Python community. We will be following up with this and hope to arrange one of the first regional representations there. Progress so far has been slow on this due to many other PSF activities.
15.2.3 Events Calendars
In order to make it easier for the community to find Python related events, I've setup a team of volunteers to manage two new event calendars. One for larger events and another one for smaller events:
- Python events calendar
- Python user group events calendar
The calendars are displayed on the http://pycon.org/ site and in the sidebar of http://python.org/.
Details about the calendars are available on the wiki page we have for them:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEventsCalendar
15.3 Issues
The budget the board approved for the conference kits is fully used up. I'll propose a budget position for marketing activities early next year.
Until then, I'll use my directors expense allowance to have low-cost marketing items such as flyers, stickers, etc. produced and sent to conferences.
15.4 Future plans
Have more conference kits for e.g. India, Australia and Asia.
Have more lightweight kits to enable easy adhoc setups.
Have more marketing material readily available.
16 PyCon Australia Sponsorship
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation sponsor PyCon Australia 2013 conference with an amount of $3,500 USD.
Approved, 8-0-0.
17 Grant for Matin v. Löwis for Microsoft Surface tablet
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation grant Martin v. Löwis EUR 609 to purchase a Microsoft Surface tablet to port Python to the Windows ARM processor.
Approved: 7-0-1
18 Community Service Award for Antoine Pitrou
RESOLVED, that the PSF gives a Community Service award to Antoine Pitrou for his contribution to CPython, including his work on the GIL and his work involving the PSF infrastructure.
Approved, 8-0-0.
19 Community Service Award for Stefan Krah
RESOLVED, that the PSF gives a Community Service award to Stefan Krah for his contribution to closing out PEP 3118, including being a maintainer of cdecimal.
Approved, 8-0-0.
20 Fosdem 2013 Sponsorship
RESOLVED, that the Python Software Foundation sponsor the Python Devroom at Fosdem 2013 with an amount of EUR 760.
Approved, 8-0-0.
21 Other Business
- We had discussed the management of the QBOL. It was decided that Ewa will take over invoicing of all sponsors (PSF and PyCon).
- It was decided that KBK will come up with a list of sponsors we need to follow up with regarding their outstanding balances to help clean up QBOL.
22 Adjournment
Van Lindberg adjourned the meeting at 18:49 CEST/ 12:49 EDT.