2023 Python Software Foundation Board Nomination

My self-nomination statement for the 2023 Python Software Foundation (PSF) Board Election

While I’ve been involved with the Python community for more than 15 years, I only recently realized (getting over my imposter syndrome) that I, too, could contribute directly to PSF.

I became a PSF member in 2020 but only attended a PSF meeting in person for the first time during PyCon US 2023, where I was inspired to get more involved.

So this year, for the first time, I decided to answer the call from the Python Software Foundation and run for a seat on the Python Software Foundation (PSF) board.

Below you will find information about my nomination, which you can also find on the python.org website on python.org/nominations/elections/2023-python-software-foundation-board/nominees/paolo-melchiorre/

Name

Paolo Melchiorre

Previous Board Service

New board member

Employer

• 20tab (CTO)

Other Affiliations

• Python Italia (member)
• PyCon Italia (co-organizer)
• Django Software Foundation (member)
• Python Pescara (founder and organizer)
• Django Girls (coach and organizer)
• DjangoItalia group (member)
• Django Italian translations group (admin)
• Jazzband (member)

Nomination Statement

I’ve been a Python developer and member of the Python community for more than 15 years, in which I’ve contributed to various Python-based projects (e.g. Python, Plone, Django, Psycopg, Pelican) in different areas: documentation, code, project website and translation (eg. Italian). I’ve presented a lot of Python talks in meetups and conferences, including PyCon (US, IT, DE, LK), DjangoCon (US, EU), EuroPython, and others. I’ve organized a local Python meetup in my hometown in Italy, helped organize PyCon Italia, and volunteered in some Pythonic conferences. I’ve organized and participated in many sprints on Python-based frameworks (es: Zope, Plone, Django). I’ve written many articles on Python and Django and I’m a promoter of them online. I participated as a coach in DjangoGirls workshops and I’ve organized one in my city.

Each of these activities has made me grow as a developer, community member, and human being and I think serving on the PSF board can be a way to give back to the Python community what I have received.

As a member of the PSF board, I’d like to bring a different point of view, close to newcomers, who live and work in small realities and who do not speak English as their first language or do not speak it at all. I’d like to work to remove some language and cultural barriers that remain for some members of the community.

I’d like to increase collaboration with the Python community and create synergies with other sub-communities to make Python grow again in different fields eg. organizing sprints with friendly communities to discuss or work on common projects (e.g. discuss ASGI with Django, Flask, Starlette, FastAPI or DB-API with SQLAlchemy, Django ORM, SQLModel, Peewee).

Interview

I gave an interview for the Python Community News channel regarding my nomination for the PSF election.

The video and the transcript of the interview are in the article: Python Community News Interview.