Recap of PyCon 2020 Converting to Online

In early March the final steps of planning, scheduling, ordering, counts, rooming lists, shipping, and signage had just begun for PyCon 2020. Our team was working diligently to pull all the final pieces together when we began to fully realize the impact that could be expected of COVID-19. The new words in planning quickly became stop, wait, change…..what? We went from finalizing the event to evaluating contracts to determining cancellation options and potential losses.

When the final decision to cancel was announced, PyCon 2020 was only weeks away. We now had a short time to figure out what could be done to provide PyCon in a new and different way, online. The planning took on a 3 step process, here is what we did:

Assessment

The first step was to decide what content we could provide and to invite the community to subscribe to PyCon 2020 Online. A timeline was developed based on volunteer input, and communications began with speakers, presenters and sponsors on what the plan would be for submitting content. We worked with the Summit committees, as well as the selected hatchery programs, to determine if a virtual event would work for their plans. We decided on utilizing Zoom, YouTube, and the PyCon 2020 website to provide the content.

What would we could have done differently:

• Provide a more detailed set of guidelines and suggested tools to speakers and participating sponsors
• Offer AV support to speakers to assist with recordings if needed
• Set up a communication channel for speakers (Slack, Discord, etc)
• Create a more interactive way for sponsors and attendees to connect

Planning and Organizing

Next, we determined what the PyCon 2020 Online website would look like. We worked with the designer to provide new logos, and our tech team to create multiple new website pages for online content, virtual expo hall, and poster presentations. The speakers were provided a platform to upload their recordings and the AV team formatted the recordings and began uploading to PyCon 2020’s YouTube channel.

The summit committees and hatchery programs converted their programs to virtual live events and registration for the events was launched. A schedule for staff was created to participate in each live event and to review each recorded talk or tutorial for Code of Conduct monitoring.

What would we could have done differently:

• Set clearer timelines for submitting and scheduling content
• Research and provide an interactive platform for Q&A sessions with speakers
• Provide a schedule and categories of the online content
• Create a sponsor portal page for content submission deadlines
• Consider platforms for sponsor communications and interactions     

Implementation

We then felt ready to launch PyCon 2020 Online. The first email was sent to all subscribers and the first content was launched on the same day it would have been if we were in Pittsburgh. The timeframe to receive online content was spread out over a few weeks since there was little time for planning and converting to online format. We felt providing this time to speakers and sponsors to reconfigure their content to provide it virtually was important. In the end there were 5 weeks of new recordings, sponsor content, poster presentations and live events provided to the community.

What would we could have done differently:

• Reduce the number of weekly content releases
• Send the attendee survey out with the final week of content

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The biggest take away from converting PyCon 2020 from in-person to online is that a virtual conference takes just as much planning and time to pull together. A successful virtual event requires more communication with sponsors and presenters to produce a cohesive look. As a team we are pleased with the outcome of PyCon 2020 Online.

Now that some time has passed and we have been able to regroup, the planning for PyCon 2021 has begun and we will be sure to keep the community informed as plans are finalized.

Be sure to check out resources for virtual events, put together by the PSF grants program to assist in planning a virtual event.

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A message from Google to the Python community

Google is proud to support PyCon and the Python community

Even though we're spread out amongst our respective countries, cities and homes, the Python community is stronger than ever, and Google is proud to be a part of it. Google's support of the PSF is an investment in the continued existence of Python and it's ecosystem for the long-term.

We wish we could all be together in Pittsburgh—but for now, we hope you enjoy the content we've created for an online PyCon in the virtual expo hall, including talks, tutorials, and workshops, and we hope to see you next year!




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Sailing Past PyCon 2020 - Thoughts on Code and Community

Capital One has been an invaluable and generous supporter of the PSF and PyCon since 2015 and a Principal Sponsor for the last two years. They've stepped forward and made a big investment in PyCon and its community.

We chatted recently with Steven Lott, Lead Software Engineer, about what it was like for a big company like Capital One to migrate to Python 3. Here is what he had to say.

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I’ve spent some time racing sailboats, and the need to react to weather, current, and other boats is how you keep yourself moving down the course at top speed. Open source software is a similar challenge. The state of a tech-based industry shifts as quickly as the wind on a rainy day. The Python community is filled with people transforming good ideas to projects on the Python Package Index. Each time our engineers and data scientists adopt the best ideas, we’re now racing along on a new tack toward our mark.

Capital One has been open source first for several years now, and our engineers are encouraged to create open source solutions and actively contribute back to the community to spur innovation across all industries. And, as anyone who works with open source software often discovers, keeping up with the pace of change in open source software is certainly a challenge.

Lessons Learned from Migrating to Python 3

As part of this effort, I’ve spent the last year helping people take down Capital One’s old Python 2.7 sail so we can bend on the new Python 3 sails throughout the enterprise. As we’ve taken down the 2.7 sail, previous PyCon presentations have provided insights into the big-picture strategies and the small-picture technical details of how to rearrange the software without losing momentum on business initiatives. I’m deeply in debt to all the presenters who’ve talked about their migration journeys over the last few years.

It turns out that what we’re learning at the helm of the Python boat also applies to all of the boats that comprise our flotilla of software assets. A number of ratty, old sails need to come down before the wind splits them into tatters. It takes all hands on deck to responsibly meet ongoing business obligations. Meanwhile the boat’s moving and we have to remain responsive to changes on the course.

Personally, I’d been looking forward to a formal end of Python 2.7 during the PyCon sprints. It seemed like a kind of finish line where we would be beam reaching along and someone on the committee boat would sound the horn to announce this race was over and the next race would begin shortly. The lack of a formal PyCon conference doesn’t change the shape of our burndown charts, though, and we’re still trimming our sails for speed in spite of the finish line being a little hazy.

The Meaning of Open Source First

It’s no secret that Capital One sees the future of banking as real-time, data-driven, and enabled by machine learning and data science -- and Python plays a big role in that. We’re trying to share back with the community some of our insights, best practices, and broader work with Python. Other boats are making similar journeys and we can follow each other’s courses to manage shoal water, adverse currents, and wind shifts around the entrance to the bay.

As an open source first organization, Capital One has been working in the open source space for several years -- consuming and contributing code, as well as releasing its own projects. One example of an open source project that leverages PyCon’s sprints is Cloud Custodian. Cloud Custodian is an open source tool that started at Capital One in 2016 and was built in Python. It allows users to create and codify  rules for things like governance or cost optimization in cloud environments and establish unified metrics and reporting. It is an alternative to  ad-hoc scripts that can cause inconsistency and complexity across a large enterprise.

We’ve also developed a project in JavaScript called Hygieia; a single, configurable dashboard that visualizes the health of an entire software delivery pipeline.

Our Dedication to the PyCon Community

Capital One’s sponsorship of important industry conferences like PyCon is something I think is important, especially when it comes to the Python community. By sponsoring PyCon and the Python Software Foundation, we can help support, strengthen, and engage with the Python community.  The time I invested in supporting the program committee has helped me understand the state of the art and where other boats seem to be heading. We’re still supporting the virtual PyCon this year, because of the importance of this community to Capital One.

I’d invite you to stop by our booth, and get even more details about how we’re using Python but, we’re not meeting in Pittsburgh this year. Instead, feel free to comment here about your journey with Python. If you want, we can also talk about sailboat racing and cruising too. The parallels between working a boat’s technology and working with open source enterprise technology seem to be very strong to me.

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Microsoft’s Python team loves PyCon, including this year’s online version!

Microsoft returned as our top PyCon 2020 sponsor (for the 3rd year) and stepped forward to make another big investment in PyCon and its community. Microsoft not only uses Python for their own development but also offers Python as a crucial tool to empower everyone to achieve more.

I recently caught up with Dan Taylor and team to talk about how Microsoft is using Python and was excited to hear what they had to say.

PSF: What is the most valuable thing about sponsoring PyCon to your team?

Dan: PyCon is something we look forward to every single year. Our Python team at Microsoft loves to show our support for the Python community—and we love to give teams across Microsoft the chance to learn more about the Python community and bring that deep understanding back to the work we do, building tools and services for Python users.

PyCon is the largest Python conference in the world and the Python community is especially vibrant, diverse, and inclusive. We love that we can help make PyCon happen and bring the community together — and it feels good to help bring the community together in a unique, online, way this year.

Like everyone else, we are truly missing the ability to meet with Python developers in person, and we are putting all our energy into connecting with Python developers virtually. It has been fun exploring how to deliver our workshops, labs, booth demos, and even SWAG to you from our home offices while we shelter-in-place. Throughout the PyCon 2020 online event, we will be posting our virtual content on our PyCon 2020 Content Board, and our Python team will be available to chat with you on discord.

PSF: What is the team at Microsoft most excited to share with the Python community during PyCon 2020?

Dan: We’re super excited to share the improvements we’ve made for Python developers in Azure, especially our newer Linux offerings that enable you to build and deploy Python applications in the cloud at any scale.

• Now you can deploy Python web apps for free to Azure App Service on Linux using simple CLI commands, via the Python Linux plan on Azure App Service. 
• You can also build serverless Python applications and APIs in Azure Functions in Visual Studio Code, starting at zero-scale with the first million calls free. 
• If you're looking to build intelligent apps, or to manage machine learning workflows, Azure Cognitive services and Azure Machine Learning service are both easily accessible from Python.

The open source Postgres database is also very popular with many of you in the Python developer community. Which is why we are so excited that you can now build horizontally scalable PostgreSQL clusters by using Hyperscale (Citus), a built-in deployment option in our fully managed Azure Database for PostgreSQL, based on the Citus open source extension to Postgres.

We also have new goodies to share in Visual Studio Code, our free popular cross-platform editor with support for Python:

• We’ve added the ability to natively edit Jupyter notebooks allowing you to work with Python code and interactive notebooks in the same workspace.
• Especially for PyCon, our garage interns have added micro:bit and CLUE device support to our Device Simulator Express, which allows everyone to try out the new CLUE device from Adafruit without having the physical device. The CLUE has the same size and shape as the BBC micro:bit, and it has the same edge-connector on the bottom to make it compatible with existing kits. If you’re familiar with the micro:bit device, you have a clue on what we’re talking about (pun intended 😉).

PSF: Where does Python show its greatest strengths within your organization?

Dan: Microsoft is a huge organization with an incredibly diverse range of projects and an even wider range of customers. Many students (and professionals!) have their first programming experiences on our platforms, while some of the largest companies in the world run on our services.

Everyone has something they want to achieve, and we regularly see Python empowering our teams, our customers, and our users to reach their goals. The Python language has a way of hiding unnecessary complexity that welcomes new and aspiring developers, as well as those who are trained and experienced. Through increased participation, our customers and our own teams can achieve much greater things than they imagined.

PSF: Is your organization using Python in any surprising ways?

Dan: Is anything that surprising? It’s Python! After finding out that our legal team runs simulations in Python, our device teams build firmware with Python, our Bing team analyzes failures with Python, our Azure team generates documentation with Python, our security team investigates malware with Python, our Office team writes ML services in Python, numerous teams write build tools in Python, and so many more—well, there aren’t any surprises left.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to our team is that Python is flexible enough that all these teams are successful. One of Python’s greatest strengths is being a learn-once use-anywhere language, which means as our engineers invest in their own Python skills, they are able to bring value to any and every part of our organization.

PSF: What does the future of Python look like from Microsoft’s vantage point? What sorts of things do you see for the community as a whole, as well as Python, within Microsoft itself?

Dan: Wow there is so much happening with the Python community, it’s hard to know where to start. On one side we’re seeing Python being used by a huge wave of students and beginner developers across the world as their first programming language. As we go to schools and talk to students, we’re finding it’s increasingly important that we take time to keep our products simple and explain the basics (e.g. with our Python for Beginners video series). It’s important for new developers that Python stay simple and fun to use.

At the same time, usage of Python in the enterprise is growing dramatically, and this brings in a totally different set of considerations like maintainability, security, and compliance. As part of that we’re seeing increased adoption of typing to help reduce defects in large code bases, and especially recently with the migration from Python 2 to Python 3. When contributing back, the needs of large companies with hard deadlines can sometimes conflict with the needs of volunteer-led projects. We hope to continue working with the PSF and the community to bridge these gaps and to bring in new opportunities for collaboration—while retaining the ideals and freedoms that made Python what it is.

PSF: We’re thrilled that Microsoft has stepped forward again this year to make such a big investment in Python and its community. What would you like attendees to take away from your presence at PyCon?

Dan: We are invested in Python for the long term, and we want to help the Python community grow as more people learn that they too can build their own software. To help achieve that goal, we have built out great support for Python in Visual Studio Code and Python in Azure.

To learn more check out all of our workshops, labs, and demos on our PyCon 2020 Content Board and come talk to us on discord about how we can help you achieve great things with Python!

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PyLadies Auction 2020 Cancelled

With the in person cancellation of PyCon US 2020, the PyLadies Auction as we know, could not possibly have happened. Upon further investigation, we are deeply sad to announce we have decided to forgo the PyLadies Auction in its entirety for 2020.

This decision has been a difficult one. We began the PyLadies Auction at  PyCon US 2013 in Santa Clara and have held it annually since. To not be able to celebrate PyLadies in our annual tradition together is a deep loss.

2019 PyLadies Auction

Why isn’t the PyLadies Auction going virtual?

We considered running a virtual auction. However the mechanisms required to run a virtual auction have proven to be limited and not up to the quality that we expect for the PyLadies Auction. Additionally, we did not want to ask donors, or volunteers to violate social distancing practices by visiting a post office or other location for item shipments. In short, we want people to continue to flatten the curve by staying home and tending to themselves and their loved ones.  

Donors and sponsors

The success of the PyLadies Auction has always depended on the kindness and generosity of our donors. The 2020 Auction was set to inspire many with an incredible set of donations.

We want to thank the following individual and corporate donors, who already committed to donating this year: Debra Ansell, Thein Htay Oo, Mariatta Wijaya, Novetta, Zapier, Katie McLaughlin, The Beeware Project, Naomi Cedar, and Lynn Root. 

We often receive a majority of donation commitments within two weeks of PyCon . We would like to thank the donors that have consistently donated in the past. It is the coming together of the community that helps us put together such a great event year after year.
Finally, we would like to give a special thank you to our sponsors for this year: Heroku and Rebellion Defense.

What to do with donations

We are asking people to hang onto their donations until next year. We understand this can be difficult. We understand that a year can be a long time. If you need a reminder of your auction item that you were intending to submit, please email us at pycon-auction@python.org and we can set that up for you.

(From left to right) Lynn Root, Lorena Mesa, and Katie Cunningham carry a portrait of Guido van Rossum, 
donated by Capital One in 2019. Guido van Rossum smiles in the foreground.

Donate Money!

We understand that some of you will still want to support us in our endeavors. We appreciate that greatly. If you would like to donate directly to PyLadies, please visit our donation page.  Because of financial losses from PyCon, we want to encourage you to donate directly to the Python Software Foundation as an individual or as a corporate sponsor, because without the PSF and PyCon, the PyLadies auction does not exist.


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PyCon 2020 Online Launch!

Dozens of presenters and sponsors prepared content for the launch of PyCon 2020 Online!

We are pleased to present talks and tutorials by Russell Keith Magee, Marlene Mhangami, Eric Ma, and so many more under the PyCon 2020 YouTube channel! There will be new presentations and content added to the PyCon Online page weekly.

PyCon 2020 Online would not be possible without our sponsors. This year we are highlighting sponsors via the Virtual Expo Hall. If you are looking for a job or information about their tools and products, be sure to check it out!

Read the launch email for more content information.

Content will be released in batches, weekly. Check back next week to catch more recording and "exhibits" in PyCon's Virtual Expo Hall! If you would like to receive the latest PyCon 2020 Online emails, subscribe to our newsletter! They will be sent out weekly for the next 4 weeks or so.

Don't forget to share your PyCon 2020 Online experiences on Twitter using #pycon2020!

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Facebook: Building the Future Together

We’re thrilled to have the support of Facebook as a PSF and PyCon Principal Sponsor for 2020!

Facebook would like to share with PyCon 2020 Online attendees how they are innovating ways for people to connect. Additionally, Facebook is investing in augmented and virtual reality and have released several category-defining technologies and experiences.

Facebook looks forward to sharing more stories of innovation directly from the people who drive that innovation.

The following was originally posted on Facebook careers.

When you think about Facebook, what comes to mind first? Do you remember seeing a memory in your News Feed that made you smile? Or finding inspiration for a craft or hobby on Instagram? Or even experiencing an immersive virtual world for the first time with an Oculus headset?

From the first lines of code Mark Zuckerberg wrote in 2004 to the launch of News Feed in 2006 to breaking down the barriers of distance with this year’s launch of Oculus Quest, innovation has been core to what we do at Facebook. Today, billions of people rely on Facebook’s family of innovative apps, services, and products—including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Workplace, Oculus, and Portal—to build and maintain meaningful connections every day. But how will technology help people do this tomorrow?

Facebook’s teams are hard at work answering this question. Using the latest innovations in machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and other groundbreaking technologies, we are constantly improving what we build. We believe innovation is key to unlocking the endless potential in using technology to help people form deeper, more meaningful connections and do more together.

Building ways for everyone, everywhere to connect

Whether we’re helping people connect with loved ones, find info on topics they care about, or grow their businesses, it’s our goal to make sure these opportunities are available to everyone, everywhere.

For example, the WhatsApp team faces the never-ending challenge of making sure the app’s calls and messages work—and work well—regardless of a person’s location or signal strength. “When someone places a call in one part of the world and another person answers somewhere else with a different device and much lower connectivity, the quality should be good on both ends,” explains WhatsApp engineering manager Manpreet S. “As the quality gets better, our challenge grows. There’s no limit to solving it.”

“People who use Facebook come from a variety of backgrounds,” adds Daniel O., an engineering manager on our Machine Learning team. “They speak different languages, come from all types of socioeconomic backgrounds, and are differently-abled,” he explains. Daniel’s team uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help Facebook better connect people, including those who face connection barriers. For example, they’ve helped automate:

• transcribing videos and creating captions so people with hearing disabilities can understand them.
• translating post text into a language a reader can understand so people who don’t speak the same language can connect.
• using object recognition technology to provide photo descriptions and converting text into speech to help people who are visually impaired engage with content.

Features like these will only make an impact for people around the world if those people have internet access. “Many of us are simply lucky to have been born in a country where a luxury—like fast internet connection—is available to us everywhere we go,” reminds Amit F., a software engineer in our Tel Aviv office. Amit leads Facebook’s Express Wi-Fi program, which aims to bring fast, affordable, and reliable Wi-Fi connections to emerging markets and developing countries that remain unconnected.

Building new and immersive experiences

One of our biggest innovative investments has been in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Over the past year, we’ve released or announced several category-defining new technologies and experiences, including:

• Portal, our video-calling devices that have an AI-powered Smart Camera that makes you feel like you are in the same room with your friends and family even when you are far apart.
• Oculus Quest, which joins our other Oculus headsets, Go and Rift S, in allowing people to experience what it feels like to defy distance by bringing the magic of VR anywhere.
• Spark AR, our augmented reality platform that empowers a global community of creators to build and share AR experiences using our products to enhance the way we connect with art.
• Facebook Horizon, a new social virtual world coming to Oculus Quest and the Rift platform in 2020.

As we look to the future of connecting people, teams like Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) are continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible, with research projects like:

• Codec Avatars, which is developing new ways to represent people in virtual and augmented environments—a crucial precursor to making interactions feel as natural and effortless as real-life interactions.
• Brain-computer interface research, which aims to help develop non-invasive, wearable technology that allows people to communicate by simply imagining what they want to say—without ever speaking a word or typing a keystroke.

Building open sources of collaboration

Facebook’s broad reach gives our teams the opportunity to tackle open-ended problems that haven’t been solved before at a scale that hasn’t been attempted before. With our unprecedented work, we’re helping pave the path other companies and organizations use to drive forward.

Facebook’s open source program helps our teams scale their impact by providing opportunities to share ideas and solutions and collaborate with others outside of Facebook. For example, we’ve shared the design plans for our data centers, which use 100% renewable energy, to help other companies build more sustainable data centers. “The open source program at Facebook has created such an amazing global community,” explains open source engineering manager Yuzhi Z. “We get to collaborate with people at different companies to build and find the best solutions.”

Building responsibly

As we continue to find ways to bring new experiences to people, the need to innovate responsibly while protecting people on and off our platforms becomes increasingly important. “We have learned a lot of really hard lessons over the last few years,” says Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer. “And those lessons have fundamentally changed the way we develop and build new technologies. They’ve made us realize the deep responsibility we have to understand not just all the amazing good that can come from new technology, but the bad—the unintended consequences. And we have to take those considerations in mind with every new thing we build.”

Today, our Machine Learning team uses AI to proactively detect content that violates our policies, which helps reduce harmful content, like fake news and clickbait, on our platforms. Annie L., a research scientist on the Machine Learning team, explains why this is important. “My team’s goal,” she shares, “...is to provide a positive and safe experience for people around the world who come to Facebook to discover content tailored to their interests.”

Responsible innovation is also a focus at Instagram, where teams help create a safe, kind, and supportive platform by providing safety and privacy tools like offensive comment filters, ways to report online abuse, and more. Engineering manager Kyle B. works on the Instagram Well-Being team and helped build a new reporting feature for Instagram Live. “If you're watching a Live broadcast and see someone going through a difficult time, such as if they’re talking about hurting themselves, you can report it anonymously,” Kyle explains. “The person will see a pop-up message with options to talk to a help line, reach out to a friend, or get other tips and support.”

AI also powers features like Restrict and Comment Warning to help combat bullying on Instagram. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, explains, “My top priority as Head of Instagram is the well-being of the people who use our platform every day.”

Building the future

Perhaps compliance manager Micky K. best sums up our shared perspective on building the future when he says, “Everyone here wants to leave the world better than they found it.” No matter what we’re working on, our teams believe in building technologies that will help bring out the potential of people to do more together.

As we continue to evolve and make progress, we look forward to sharing more stories of innovation directly from the people who drive that innovation. And we look forward to sharing opportunities for others to join our visionary teams, work on groundbreaking new ideas and projects, and build the future—together.

Learn more about how we innovate:

• Oculus Connect 6: Introducing Hand Tracking on Oculus Quest, Facebook Horizon and More
• Day 1 of F8 2019: Building New Products and Features for a Privacy-Focused Social Platform
• Inside FRL: Research Updates and the Future of Social Connection

Originally published on Facebook careers

Stay Connected!

Learn about life at Facebook on Instagram (@FacebookLife).

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Announcing The Startup Row Lineup At PyCon 2020

Each year since 2011, PyCon has reserved a special place for early-stage startups to show off what they're working on to the Python community.

As its name might suggest, Startup Row is a row of booths for startups at PyCon. Due to the ongoing global public health crisis, Startup Row, like the rest of PyCon 2020, has gone virtual.

Before we get started, a quick note: Even in the best of times, starting and running a startup is very challenging. Founders and early employees take on significant risk and expansive workloads to build something new and get it off the ground.

Obviously, these are not the best of times. Now more than ever, early-stage startups need support. If any of these companies seem neat to you, try their products. Get in touch with the teams. Give feedback. Work for them. Become a customer or refer them to people who might find their work interesting.

We're in this together.

This Year's Startup Row Companies

We had a very competitive application process this year, and we're happy to award 8 companies a spot on Startup Row at PyCon 2020. Here they are!

Here's a little bit about each company, in their own words.

Aiko AI

NYC-based Aiko AI is challenging traditional technology and pioneering ethical solutions through the integration of artificial intelligence. With multi-national and Fortune companies as customers, we were voted "Best Artificial Intelligence Company" by US Business News 2019 Technology Elite Awards; and our products have debuted at #1 on Product Hunt.

Astroscreen

Astroscreen is a London, U.K. based startup employing machine learning models and human disinformation analysts to detect social media manipulation. Think of us as an Anti-Cambridge Analytica. We detect social media manipulation, such as automated bot networks and organized astroturfing campaigns, whether it’s from state actors, troll groups, or commercially motivated adversaries.

Deepnote

Headquartered in San Francisco, Deepnote is building a new kind of data science notebook. It is fully compatible with the Jupyter ecosystem, but adds things like real-time collaboration and versioning. We aim to automate everything that can be automated, so the data scientists can focus on their work. Hosting, hardware provisioning, data ingestion and security are all taken care off, GPUs are just a single click away and creating a full-fledged data science environments takes seconds.

Powderkeg

Powderkeg (Indianapolis) is the place to plug into tech in the center of the country. Meet up with the best and brightest at our events, get access to the digital resource hub for tech leaders outside the Valley, and get matched with community-vetted talent with top tech teams with our job-matching platform, Matches. Matches is Powderkeg's community-powered job-matching platform that leverages a robust data set to match mid-to-senior level talent with employers and their next big job opportunities. Powderkeg is based in Indianapolis, IN.

r2c

r2c is working to profoundly improve software security and reliability to safeguard human progress. In Oct 2019 we released the first alpha version of Bento, a developer tool that find bugs in Python projects and Flask-based web apps. Our analysis platform brings together program analysis authors with people who fix software security issues. We believe an emphasis on actionable results and tight feedback between developers and analysis authors will make software more reliable and secure for all. The company is based in San Francisco.

SLAppForge

SLAppForge has developed a completely serverless IDE to support the development of functions for AWS and GCP. The current minimum viable product supports Node.js & recently added Python. For the Node.js, live debugging has been added to the product which is unique for serverless functions. Typically, serverless functions do not allow traditional debugging and our technology has solved that problem. The company is based in Sri Lanka and in Mineral Bluff, Georgia.

Slide

Slide—based in Cape Town, South Africa—offers a p2p payment app modelled after Venmo to the South African market. We've also generalized our payment platform to create Slide Link, modelled after Stripe Connect, which provides a set of payment building blocks for multiple business models. A key application of Slide Link is the Pay & Connect app, which is a closed network payments app for the University of Cape Town processing approximately 200,000 transactions and dining hall entries a month.

Tonic

Tonic helps you protect your customer's data, meet regulatory requirements, and simplify your development and testing process. We do this by making a version of your most important data that is freely sharable. Using machine learning and the latest data processing techniques, Tonic creates data that looks and feels like sensitive or production data (synthetic data), but is based on an underlying model. The company has offices in Atlanta, GA and San Francisco.

PyCon Startup Row: Helping Python Startups Succeed

Startup Row is a great tradition at PyCon US: the Python Software Foundation gives early-stage startups the experience of conference sponsorship — the booth space, the conference passes, access to the PyCon jobs fair, promotion on the PyCon website and printed material, access to community events — without the cost, and with no strings attached.

Many Startup Row companies come back to PyCon as sponsors. Many founders and technical leaders at these companies come back as speakers. And many companies become part of the Python ecosystem.

The popular data science toolkit Pandas was created by Lambda Foundry, which was featured on Startup Row in 2012. Plotly, among the most widely-used data visualization tools, was featured on Startup Row at PyCon 2013.

More recent Startup Row companies include Anvil (SR'17), which gives its users the ability to create dynamic full-featured web applications using nothing but Python. FOSSA, a platform for tracking compliance with open source software licenses, and data integration company Flex.io were also part of the 2017 batch.

SRE platform Blameless launched publicly at PyCon 2018 and secured its first customers at PyCon. 2019 saw great companies like Comet.ml, Deepsource, Iterative AI, and others present on Startup Row.

Looking at Startup Row's alumni base, one is struck by its diversity. Startup Row founders come from all sorts of backgrounds, and the enormous breadth of the problems they're aiming to solve speaks to the flexibility of the Python programming language and the vibrant, resilient Python community.

Thank You's And Acknowledgements

Thank you to PyCon organizers for all the incredible work they do to bring the conference together each year. Special acknowledgements go to Betsy Waliszewski and Jackie Augustine, who've been great collaborators in helping Startup Row come together.

Thank you to the selection committee, which consisted this year of co-chairs Jason D. Rowley and Aly Sivji. They selected companies alongside three Startup Row alumni CEOs: Shea Tate Di-Donna (Zana SR'15, acq'd by Startups.co), Nate Williams (Flex.io SR'17), and Farhan Mustafa (Grafiti SR'19). Additional thanks go to entrepreneurs Graham Peck, Graham McBain, and Ben Vear for participating in the selection process. All of our votes had equal weight.

A very warm thank you goes out to IndyPy, which hosted the Startup Row pitch event at which Powderkeg earned its spot. The organizing team there, including Calvin Hendryx-Parker, MaryBeth Okerson, Carol Ganz, and Joshua Qualls were generous with their time and organizing capacity.

Thanks are owed to every company that took the time to apply. And thanks to you for being part of the Python community. The Startup Row organizing team and Startup Row companies thank you in advance for your support.

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PyCon US 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is cancelled

The PSF’s priority is the health and safety of the community and the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has made it unsafe to hold PyCon US this year.

Recently, the United States and the State of Pennsylvania have asked that large gatherings be postponed or cancelled until further notice. With that in mind, the PSF has worked to reduce financial exposure and develop a plan to provide content remotely.

What happens next?

PyCon US is an opportunity for the Python Community to come together every year to learn, network, and discuss great ideas in person. We’re all devastated that we’ll lose in-person interactions this year, but the health and safety of our attendees comes first. 

Even though the in-person event isn’t happening in 2020, our staff and volunteers are already planning to deliver several PyCon US components remotely throughout April. 

Here’s our immediate plan:

Attendees

• Registration: We will send an email by Friday, March 27th offering you a full refund, or the option to donate some or all of your registration fee, and how to join the remote content mailing list. Please allow us time to set up the registration refund process.
• Hotel/lodging: We will cancel hotel reservations booked through PyCon US’s website for you. If you booked elsewhere, please contact the booking company for cancellation details. You should be able to cancel at this time without any financial penalty. 
• Airfare/transportation: Many airlines are offering options to rebook tickets or receive vouchers without extra fees. Please see our airline cancellation resources page.

Financial aid recipients

The Financial Aid team will email you about how to receive reimbursement for nonrefundable expenses.

Speakers, Presenters, Summit & Hatchery Hosts

The organizers will send an email offering options to help you present your talks, tutorials, special events, and posters to the community, if you want to, via our publicly available PyCon US 2020 YouTube channel.

Sponsors & Startup Row Participants

Next week, we will email you an outline of digital options and next steps regarding PyCon US’s cancellation policy.

What does this cancellation mean for the Python Software Foundation?

100% of PyCon US net proceeds fund the PSF’s ongoing grant-giving and operating expenses. With PyCon US cancelled, the PSF will use cash reserves built over the years. The PSF will continue regular operations including providing PyCon talks via YouTube, maintaining core Python infrastructure and Python Package Index, the grants program, and other community support. 

Already, community members and organizations have posted tweets and sent private messages offering to donate their PyCon US registrations and sponsorships to the PSF. This amazing show of community support means that the PSF can fund ongoing programs, including online PyCon US 2020 content. We truly appreciate those that continue to step up to support the Python Software Foundation! 

How can you help?

• Become a free or supporting member of the PSF to get involved in our future
• Donate some or all of your PyCon registration when you receive our email
• Donate directly to the PSF
• Donate some or all of your company's sponsorship when you receive our email
• Ask your employer to sponsor the PSF
• Ask your employer if they match donations to 501(c)(3) non-profits, and ask for your donations to the PSF to be matched
• Sign up for the PSF’s free newsletter to stay up to date

Look out for emails from the PyCon team regarding your registration or sponsorship and next steps. 

We appreciate the community’s patience as we continue working through this situation. We’re looking forward to seeing you all in Pittsburgh at PyCon US 2021.

If you have any questions, please contact pycon-reg at python dot org.

This post is authored by the PSF Staff and Board of Directors

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March 12 Update on COVID-19

With a month until PyCon US 2020’s scheduled start, the Python Software Foundation Board and Staff are working through our options for PyCon US 2020, and will keep you updated as decisions are made.

In the meantime, remember that PyCon US will refund any tickets with no questions asked. You do not need to commit to travel to PyCon US at this point in time if you do not want to.

The Foundation is currently exploring options to re-schedule or cancel the conference. Any final decision to cancel or reschedule PyCon US will be made early enough to give you time to cancel or defer your travel plans.

We continue to monitor advice from the Federal, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, and Pittsburgh Governments, and our planning is taking this advice into account.


We’d like to explain why this decision – and any announcement – is taking time.

A decision to reschedule or cancel PyCon US needs to be made with the best interests of the international Python community in mind. First and foremost is the health and safety of everyone in the community, and the Foundation understands the risk that a large gathering like PyCon US poses to the community. It is front of mind in every discussion we are having at the moment.

On the other hand, the Foundation has a mission to support the global Python community, and does so through grants, sponsorships, and funding core infrastructure that the community relies on.
PyCon US is the majority source of the Foundation’s revenue.

Since the last time PyCon US returned a loss, the Python Software Foundation has grown and managed a cash reserve to handle the (usually unlikely) case of PyCon US not proceeding due to unforeseen circumstances. Keeping this reserve healthy allows us to plan future PyCons with confidence, while still building our support for the community.

Running a conference at PyCon US’s scale involves signing contracts with many vendors, and in most cases, cancelling contracts exposes the Foundation to penalties. If we were to cancel PyCon US now, beyond simply cancelling the event and forgoing sponsorship and ticket revenue, we may need to pay out substantial amounts of money in penalties.

Those penalties would need to be paid out of our cash reserve, so the Foundation would, for the foreseeable future, need to work on rebuilding its cash reserve instead of running the programs the community has come to expect from us.

During that period of rebuilding, another event like what we are facing this year would be a significant setback to the Foundation.

One option that would reduce our exposure to penalties would be official government advice restricting conferences in Pittsburgh, preventing PyCon US from being held.

Therefore, the Foundation is presently investigating options to reduce the long-term damage that rescheduling or cancelling PyCon US would cause to the community. We believe there are options available to us that will allow the Foundation to run as expected over the coming years.

We appreciate the patience you’re showing as we work through this difficult situation.

We will provide another update, on or before Friday March 20th.

This post is authored by the PSF Board of Directors

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March 6 Update on COVID-19

PyCon continues to closely monitor the Coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) situation.

As of March 6, PyCon 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is scheduled to take place.

As of this morning, there have been two presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. These cases are in Wayne and Delaware Counties, in eastern Pennsylvania. They are not near Pittsburgh, which is in western Pennsylvania, some 300 miles (480km) away.

At the time of writing, travel or event restrictions have not been put into place anywhere in Pennsylvania.

Our staff continues to work with sponsors, vendors, and speakers. We are proactively planning safety precautions that will be implemented onsite.

We are also working to ensure that people who cannot travel to PyCon will still be able to meaningfully participate: this includes work to convert one talk, tutorial, and sponsor track to handle remote presentations (either live or recorded) as a backup plan.

It is worth reiterating PyCon’s cancellation policy again: PyCon will refund 100% of registration fees for anyone whose travel is impacted by COVID-19, or has any concerns about traveling, especially if traveling internationally.

If at the time of PyCon you feel sick, or are worried that you might have been in contact with people who have been exposed to COVID-19, we encourage you to stay home. Your registration will be 100% refunded.

If you have any questions about this, please reach out to pycon-reg at python dot org.

Additional resources on the subject:

• Situation Summary from Pennsylvania’s Health Department: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/Pages/Coronvirus-Situation-Summary.aspx
• Health tips from Allegheny County, PA: https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Health-Department/Resources/COVID-19/Information-for-Residents.aspx
• Travel information and restrictions: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html

PyCon will continue to monitor this situation and we plan to internally reassess regularly. We will publish another update on Friday, March 13, and plan to keep you informed of our plans at least each week as we approach PyCon.

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March 2 Update on COVID-19

The coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) is a new virus that causes respiratory illness in people and can spread from person-to-person. Since PyCon US 2020 is scheduled in April, we want to give our community an update on our status and more information about our policy for attendees pertaining to COVID-19.

As of March 2, PyCon 2020 in Pittsburgh, PA is scheduled to happen.

The staff and board directors are actively watching the situation closely, as it continues to change rapidly. We plan to reassess the situation weekly and more frequently as we get closer to the event. This includes checking in with our Pittsburgh team for updates including from vendors and local authorities.

Currently, there have not been any COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania and conferences continue to happen at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. On February 28th, the Pennsylvania Department of Health stated “For the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus at this time, the immediate health risk from COVID-19 is considered low”. These evaluations from the CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health are the basis for our current decision to move forward with PyCon US 2020 as planned.

That said, we understand that the situation varies depending on where attendees live and work. PyCon will refund 100% of registration fees for anyone that has their travel impacted by COVID-19 or has any concerns about traveling, especially if traveling internationally. If at the time of PyCon you feel sick, or are worried that you might have been in contact with people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, we encourage you to stay home. Your registration will be 100% refunded. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to pycon-reg at python dot org.

Additional resources on the subject:

• Situation Summary from Pennsylvania’s Health Department: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/Pages/Coronvirus-Situation-Summary.aspx
• Update from CDC Health Alert Network: https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00428.asp
• Health tips from Allegheny County, PA: https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Health-Department/Resources/COVID-19/Information-for-Residents.aspx
• Travel information and restrictions: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html

PyCon will continue to monitor this situation and we plan to internally reassess regularly. We will publish another update on Friday, March 6, and plan to keep you informed of our plans at least each week as we approach PyCon.

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The Hatchery Returns with Nine Events!

Since its start in 2018, the PyCon US Hatchery Program has become a fundamental part of how PyCon as a conference adapts to best serve the Python community as it grows and changes with time. In keeping with that focus on innovation, the Hatchery Program itself has continued to evolve.

Initially we wanted to gauge community interest for this type of program, and in 2018 we launched our first trial program to learn more about what kind of events the community might propose. At the end of that inaugural program, we accepted the PyCon Charlas as our first Hatchery event and it has grown into a permanent track offered at PyCon US.

PyCon US 2019 presented three new hatchery programs, Mentored Sprints, the Maintainers Summit, and the Art of Python. Those events were quite different from one another, but they all foreshadowed trends we are seeing now.

For PyCon US 2020 there were a dozen proposals, which set us to thinking about how we could accommodate as many events as possible. In addition to the return of the successful offerings from last year we received several other proposals which seem to show three general directions - summits, code events, and artistic presentations. In response to those trends, we decided to tweak the structure a bit, and starting in 2020 the Hatchery will reflect those three broad areas.

While we will always be open to new and innovative proposals, this framework will allow us to better plan for coming years. Within our venue's limits to the space available, thinking in terms of these categories will make us better able to provide resources for as many events as possible. We're excited to see this year's hatchlings!

Here are the Hatchery areas and their events for 2020

The Hatchery Codes

Events where members of the community come together to teach, learn, and practice the art of coding in Python.

This year there will be three events in this area:

Mentored Sprints for Diverse Beginners

A newcomer’s introduction to contributing to an open source project. These are mentored sprints for individuals from underrepresented groups willing to start contributing to Python projects. This event will provide a supportive, friendly, and safe environment for all the attendees and partner open source projects.To achieve this goal, we are seeking to work with a number of Python projects and their maintainers interested in providing mentorship to these individuals. In return, we will provide guidance and advise on how to prepare the projects for the day and to better serve a diverse range of contributors.

To learn more about how to take part in this event see https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/mentoredsprints/.

Trans*Code Hackday

Trans*Code aims to help draw attention to trans/non-binary issues and community through a topic-focused hackday. Any person is welcomed to participate, regardless if they are from tech or not. This event is free of expectations, and free of schedule. You can come, present an idea that you have, or listen to other ideas, or just get together with other participants to explore a new technology, or brainstorm something.

For more info see https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/transcode/.

Beginners Data Workshop for Minorities

Would you like to learn to code but don’t know where to start? Learning how to code can seem like an impossible task so we’ve decided to put on a workshop to show 60 beginners how it can be done and get them excited about the world of technology! Join us on 18th April 2020 for a workshop where you’ll learn the basics of programming in Python, as well as how to use tools such as Jupyter Notebook to analyze data.

Learn more at https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/beginnersdata/.

The Hatchery Summits

There are many smaller sub-communities within the larger Python community that struggle to find a dedicated time and space to meet and discuss their issues. PyCon, as one of the largest gatherings of Python folk in the world seems like a great place to offer this option.

This year there will be four summits as part of the Hatchery:

Regional PyCon Organizers' Summit

The Regional Conference Organizers’ Summit is a place for people who run or are interested in running Python conferences to gather to share knowledge, seek advice, and work together to help build better Python conferences throughout the world. The Summit is a half-day “unconference”-style event. That means we aren’t calling for prepared presentations. Instead we’ll have moderated discussions where anyone attending can contribute: from experienced organizers offering advice, to new and interested organizers asking questions about where to start. To guide the day, we will have a set agenda, so you can prepare questions, or come along with ideas.

To learn more see https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/organizers/.

Python Trainers Summit

This summit seeks to forge connections within the trainers from all practices to formalize their community of practice and connect them with others working within education contexts. This summit will provide the space and platform for professional trainers to engage with the more formal education practices, and those educators to connect with the needs of corporate and professional development audiences.

To learn more or submit a talk proposal visit https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/trainers/.

Maintainers Summit

Python is much more than a programming language. It is a vibrant community made up of individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds. Maintainers Summit at PyCon USA is where the community comes together to discuss and build a community of practice for Python project maintainers and key contributors. Come and learn from your peers how to maintain and develop sustainable projects and thriving communities.

We are inviting Python community members to get on stage and share their insight and experience with the PyCon 2020 audience. Talk proposals from first-time speakers and Pythonistas from the underrepresented groups within the tech community are strongly encouraged.

For more details visit: https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/maintainers/.

Python Packaging Summit

The Python Packaging Summit is an event primarily to people contributing to the python packaging ecosystem, any interpreter or distribution (CPython, PyPy, Conda, and so on) to share information, discuss our shared problems, and — hopefully — come up with solutions to tackle them. These issues might be related to any of the python packaging projects, independently if it’s hosted or not under the PyPa umbrella. The Summit focuses on discussions and consensus-seeking on problems faced, and how we should solve them.

We welcome developers who maintain any of the python packaging tools, or active contributors to these tools.

If you want to tackle some problem in the world of Python packaging please visit https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/packaging/ to learn more about how to submit your topic, and sign up to attend.

The Hatchery Presents

Finally, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Python world is full of creative people, and that PyCon is a natural place for them to express that creativity. Building on the success of The Art of Python last year, this year we will have two events with an artistic flair:

The Art of Python

The event this year will be roughly 2 hours, the evening of Friday, April 17th. The first half will be composed of five 5-15 minute performances. The second half will involve creative exercises to inspire and workshopping new pieces. There are lots of performances and venues for code that creates art. However, Art of Python is a venue for technologists to create creative works from their experience of working in technology. Remember, the goal of this festival is to impart perspective about the emotional and challenging work of programming Python through the medium of entertainment.

To find out more visit https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/artofpython/.

No Signal: Python for Computational Arts

The purpose of this project is to showcase the artistic possibilities that exist when creative coders leverage Python and computer science. Making art with code is an engaging way for beginner technologists to start learning new skills, and also allows folks with existing skills to express themselves in new ways. Python has become a prominent language for scripting in game engines and 3D creation suites, graphic design, sound design, and circuitry; along with its active user community and so many additional add-on libraries, Python is an approachable tool to use for artistic purposes. We hope to give pythonistas, career computer scientists, and all patrons of the conference a chance to see exciting work and projects, and in turn find inspiration for their own projects and learning.

To find out how to submit your project go to https://us.pycon.org/2020/hatchery/computationalarts/.

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