[Inpycon] Python Express - Moving Forward

[Anand Chitipothu]

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 10:16 PM, vijay kumar <vnbang2003 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just a few thoughts.
>
> Firstly, I was a lead volunteer who co-ordinated all regional states in
> India for Python Month in 2013 and AFAIK, there were not more than 50
> workshops that year and I see there are 26 more workshops registered in
> Pythonexpress website for 2014. So I think you missed on the numbers on
> workshops conducted.
>
> Secondly, for your #1 on PSSI project, I don't think PSSI board is the
> decision taker.
>
> For example,PyCon India is one of the PSSI project and it is run by
> volunteers. Any important decision is discussed in mailing list and the
> decision is made based on volunteers suggestions.
> Board members involved in executing PyCon India does not imply that PyCon
> India is executed by PSSI Board. We are few individuals who are volunteers
> for PyCon India well before we became PSSI board members.
>
> Likewise, python express would also be discussed and decided. Its a
> community effort and decisions impact the entire community. I don't agree
> with the definition provided for PSSI Project.
> I volunteered for python month in 2013 where u were part of that as well.
> Even you are one of the PSSI member. We do volunteer with our own interest
> which cannot be mixed with PSSI.
>
> PSSI agreed to support financially [1] and came up with policies on
> reimbursement [2] says enough that this project was accepted by PSSI.
>
> Just to remind you, PSSI accepted pythonexpress in AGM. You had mentioned
> that you would come up with a plan on how to proceed with it which PSSI
> members are still waiting on. I remember in AGM one member volunteered for
> first 3 months and there was no follow ups happened further and I did not
> see any actions after that discussion. PSSI can only support financially
> and request volunteers to help. Efforts of running a project should be
> taken by a volunteer co-ordinator and I see that is missing with
> pythonexpress.
>
> Python month and python express is run by volunteer and I would like it to
> continue as it is without involving any individual's personal vision or
> personal interests [3][4] overtaking volunteer feedback/suggestion.
>
> it is just the matter of effort from volunteers for the whole year.
> As long as there is someone to co-ordinate all the workshops and maintain
> decorum everyone including PSSI will be fine.
>
> This same discussion is brought up in many forums in many different ways
> but have not taken project any further. Request you to look for volunteers
> to get started with things.
>
> I would have been happy to see detailed plan in email which you have kept
> on saying to all to move forward.
>

 We are getting into same discussion again and again without any progress.

It was a community project and it'll continue be a community project driven
by volunteers. As I've already mentioned I see PSSI as a legal framework
for taking sponsorships and managing large amounts of money. Everything
else is community.

Also, spending money from PSSI is very hard. It requires too much book
keeping, too much of writing your detailed plan before doing any real work.
Lot of times, it tries to design policies to stop bad people from doing bad
things instead of making it easy for good people to do things. I've tried a
lot in the part to correct that by suggesting in the mailing list, but it
could hardly make any difference.

There was a recent discussion in PSF that someone raised an issue that a
grant given by PSF much larger than what is required for a workshop. It was
a great discussion and let me quote one of the responses:

... But I believe it is very important we trust our people to as being part
> of healthy community. and that's what I love about Python community .
> Scrutinizing for just few dollars may demotivated people . Let's help
> people at our capacity and let them decide what they wann do .


That is really great. We should design things for good people. Even if
there are couple of mismanagements, that is probably okay in the grand
scheme of things.

Lets see the discussions [1], [2] and [3] to get a sense of how hard it is
to get stuff from PSSI.

[1]: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/pssi/2014-December/000294.html
[2]: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/pssi/2014-November/000263.html
[3]: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/inpycon/2014-August/008578.html

You could say, PSSI is all of us and I should try to improve that. With the
skills and interests that I have, I think I'm better suited for working on
things like Python Express.

Anand
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