[python-advocacy] Lifting the readership of The Python Papers

[Tennessee Leeuwenburg]

Hi all,

Tennessee Leeuwenburg, Editor-In-Chief of The Python Papers (
pythonpapers.org) here.

I have been pondering the reasons for the existence of The Python Papers. I
feel like we are reasonably successfully catering to multiple audiences. Our
next issue should further cement the philosophies and organisational model
for the journal, and I'm looking for new ground to cover going forward. In
this process, I have been talking to academics, software developers, user
groups and businesses. Where is the new ground, and what should The Python
Papers be doing in order to most help Python?

There is an ongoing need to continue to serve beginning and intermediate
Python programmers. Regular sections on coding practise and articles by
programmers on their systems help to service this need.

There is a need to meet the needs of scientists and researchers. While our
academic section is still finding its feet, it is also true that the
interest in this area is increasing both from the readership and from the
academic side. Within a couple of issues, I hope to have this cemented as
well as the technical side of the magazine.

One hope for The Python Papers is that it makes a difference to people. From
what I have read based on emails to the editorial list, this has been
accomplished on a small scale, which is more rewarding than you can imagine.
That said, I am not convinced those same people are best served simply by
more of the same. Without downplaying my own feelings about the value of
TPP, the content available from the Python Success Stories, Python 411, the
various blogs etc is more important again.

Nobody can seek to know every aspect of Python, be it technical, social or
organisational. It's just too big. That said, it seems like a good thing to
continue to pursue growth in both contributors and audiences.

I am trying to make sure that I am pursuing appropriate goals as
Editor-In-Chief. The jump in readership from our last issue was amazing -- a
real stepwise gain. It's possible that this will occur again, but there is a
risk of it plateauing as we start to approach our "natural" rate of
readership within traditional audiences.

Helping the growth of Python seems to me about reaching out to
nontraditional audiences, although the community itself should (IMO) always
remain the most important readership group. For this reason, I thought I
would send an email to the advocacy list to see what audiences people can
identify, and whether they are being reached or not.

Here's my list:

a) The Python Software Foundation
b) Established Python programmers
c) Beginning Python programmers
d) Non-Python programmers
e) Businesses who might consider using Python
f) Academic researchers
g) Academic students
h) School students
i) Other students, such as those reached via OLPC
j) Government organisations who might consider using Python
k) Popular opinion (i.e. being involved with culture and wider issues)
l) Social groups (i.e. OLPC) and public good organisations

Can anyone help me identify additional audiences and distribution channels?
Are there any needs that people can think of which TPP could help to meet?

Thanks,
-Tennessee
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