Steering Council nomination: Brett Cannon

Python Help
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[Since external folks can be nominated by a core developer I’m making this topic publicly accessible to be equal/fair to those that aren’t core devs and thus can’t post to the Committers category]

Nominated by …

… myself. :grin: I had multiple people tell me they assumed I was running without cringing as they said it, so I assume that is a tacit endorsement suggesting they would have nominated me if they thought about it. :wink:

Online presence

From the perspective of the Council’s mandate

[More details in “Selected Qualifications”]

  • Maintain the quality and stability of the Python language and CPython interpreter,
    • Core developer for well over 15 years (got commit privileges in April 2003)
  • Make contributing as accessible, inclusive, and sustainable as possible,
  • Formalize and maintain the relationship between the core team and the PSF,
  • Establish appropriate decision-making processes for PEPs,
    • Fourth most prolific (co-)author of PEPs at 21 PEPs
  • Seek consensus among contributors and the core team before acting in a formal capacity,
    • I try to be a moderating voice in discussions when appropriate and direct them towards a possible conclusion
  • Act as a “court of final appeal” for decisions where all other methods have failed.
    • Been a core developer for 15 years, so I have seen Guido do this many times :wink:, I also try to help close down/move forward discussions that have reached an obvious conclusion or stalemate but people are still arguing over

Selected Qualifications

Since there’s still some open discussion about what the council will ultimately take on, I figured I would cover both the project leadership role that the steering council will definitely have based on its mandate and the language design role that some have suggested the council may take on.

Project leadership

  • Core developer for well over 15 years now (got commit privileges in April 2003, first started participating on python-dev in June 2002)
  • 2016 recipient of the Frank Willison Award for my work in managing Python’s development process
  • August 2008 recipient of the PSF Community Service Award
  • Managed the move of Python from various infrastructure solutions
    • SourceForge to Roundup
    • svn to hg
    • hg to git
  • Set up our initial bots on GitHub for automating our workflow (Bedevere and The Knights Who Say Ni)
  • Chose the Monty Python and the Holy Grail naming of bots for the project on GitHub
  • Leader of the core sprints at PyCon US for several years
  • Served on the Board of directors for the Python Software Foundation
    • Board Member, 2013-2014
    • Executive Vice President, 2007-2010
    • Vice President, 2006-2007
  • PSF Fellow since the creation of the membership level
  • Member of the PSF Conduct WG

Language design

Current employer

I work at Microsoft on the Python extension for VS Code (the project is open source) where I’m currently considered the product owner on the team (basically I advise my teammates on what Python developers want, how they typically work, manage releases, etc.). It puts me in an interesting position to be engaged with our users who range from first-time developers to seasoned Python users and what their general pain points are.

I also occasionally do API design reviews internally as well basic on-boarding into Python development for teams just starting out with Python.

Currently Microsoft provides me 20% time to work on Python (it was actually part of my hiring terms to get 20% for contributing to Python). Management is very supportive of me running for the council and will very likely give me more time to dedicate to Python to help me cope with any additional load from being on the council.

In terms of potential conflict of interest or influence, there isn’t any from my perspective. I have never been asked to focus on anything or specifically look at something by my employer; my value comes from my opinion and expertise and not from my commit privileges. If Microsoft – or any employer for that matter – were to ever try to pressure me into doing something I disagreed with as a core developer I would quit (15 years on this project outweighs my less than 4 years at Microsoft :wink:).

17 Likes
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Thank you for the example! Not that I need convincing in your case :slight_smile:

Looks like a few words are missing at the end.

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Not sure why this is in the Users category?

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I’d like to see a section about who you work for currently, and in which area/topic.

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I presume it’s so that non-committers can chime in.

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Thanks! :slight_smile:

Yep, mid-thought that didn’t finish. Basically I meant to say I try to help shut down arguments that have already been settled or reached a stalemate.

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Łukasz is right and I actually put it at the top but it’s easy to overlook: external nominees will have to post anything here so it seemed only fair to do the same. It also keeps this accessible if anyone else happened to have questions.

Done!

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I sincerely hope the Python project will be in better shape with Brett than what observed as a user of current VS Code Python project, with a very promising start but quickly become unusable (at least for some heavy users).

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Hi @VelizarVESSELINOV - What do you mean by your statement?

Python community has seen leadership and contributions from Brett for a long time. I support Brett’s nomination, and believe that Python project will be good shape with steering council with Brett as a member too.

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I could only find a single issue filed by you, @VelizarVESSELINOV involving our language server. First, my team isn’t in charge of the language server (but a sister team is), so directly holding me responsible for it is not entirely fair. But second, and more importantly, the language server isn’t even considered stable yet, and so disparaging the extension, my teammates, and my professional work over something we are previewing to help get feedback about seems quite unfair to me.

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