PyCon 2019 Notes

I am adding the notes I took from the PyCon 2019 in Cleveland.

5/3/19 (Fri)

Keynote: Where do you see Python in 10 years?

Russell Keith-Magee (Beeware)

Video

TL;DR: For those who care about the Python's longevity in the web-first future, check out Beeware.

Where do you see Python in 10 years? (Subtext: what can we do today to make sure Python community stay vibrant for the next 10 years?)
Black Swan events are: A surprise event that has major effect but is easily explained (in hindsight)
Python's black swan:
- Black swan 1: everyone use a laptop (which may not be true in 10 years as mobile phones and tablets surge in popularity)
- Black swan 2: Python can stay on the server. With advent of html, many businesses are increasingly embed their business logic in the Javascript (where the code can execute on client browser).
- Black swan 3: Installation is a solved problem (it is not)
- Black swan 4: Code distribution doesn't matter (What happens if the users who wants to use your code doesn't have Python? Other languages has a way to package the code into something that can be executed)
The speaker's goal is to start a conversation about ensuring long-term viability of Python
BeeWare project: run in Python and deploy anywhere.
Lesson 1: It's not enough to just follow the rules. You have to ensure the competition is fair.
Lesson 2: Watch out for black swans!
- WASM would allow non-Javascript language to execute on javascript runtime (client side?)
Lesson 3: team support
- More than just software engineering
- Product management, team management, PSF, legal...
Lesson 4: Money make things happen.
- Expertise costs money. (Metaphor for OSS)
- Money get things done. (Relying on volunteer OSS maintainers is not sustainable)
- PyPI MOSS grant - got the stuff done in 7 month.
- R&D matters!
- Problem: how do we pay for this? OSS is a engineering models, not a business model.
Burnout: dealing with people has a lot of emotional cost.
- The hidden human cost of FLOSS can not be ignored.
Five calls to action:
- Start thinking about black swans
- Improve resourcing of maintenance and R&D efforts
- Value contributors and their contributions
- Get out your wallets! psf donations, numfocus.org, djangoproject.com
- Contribute!