Steering Council Nomination: Donghee Na (2024 term)

Core Development Steering Council Nominations
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About Myself:

  • I’ve been a CPython core dev from 2020 and the 10th active core dev from 2020.
  • I am the maintainer of the pyperf project and pyperformance project, and I‘ve supported adding features for the Faster-CPython project and PEP-703 project aka free-threaded CPython.
  • I have experience supporting recent hot topics of CPython, and I know what things are needed for those projects. (free-threaded / subinterpreter/ faster-cpython)
  • This year, I set up two CPython sprints in PyCon Korea and PyCon APAC to meet APAC region Python people.

If I am elected as the Steering Council member:

  • I will provide all possible support for the successful completion of the PEP 703 project and for the faster-cpython project. Those projects will be a very important milestone in Python history for the next five years. I believe that my experience so far will be helpful in supporting these projects.
  • I will do my best to ensure the smooth progress of the C API Workgroup. The C API Workgroup is the central group that will make decisions about future C API design. Although discussions related to this are complicated, I will support making best-effort decisions at the appropriate time.
  • I will strive to gather the requirements for CPython from regions with few CPython core devs.

My Personal Profiles:

My Talks

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I hope Donghee Na gets elected to SC.

Having the opportunity to conduct sprints with CPython Core developers at PyCon KR and APAC was a rare and valuable experience. As a local organizer and the only PSF Director in Asia, I express my gratitude.

To speak more concretely, I have always felt a certain lack during the 10 years of hosting PyCon in Korea. Why are there so few Python contributors in Korea? I love Python and want to spread it further, and the community culture is positive. I’ve continuously hosted PyCon Korea with the hope of getting more people to use Python. This led to companies adopting Python and the emergence of contributors on various projects. I felt that just using Python without giving back was minimal. However, my affection for Python kept me going. I thought someone would eventually step up.

A few years later, I learned something by chance. At PyCon Korea 2019, Carol Willing was a keynote speaker. I was grateful for her willingness to help. It was then that she met Donghee, a meeting that led him to become a Python core committer. I also heard that Pradyun Gedam, now a committer, was there at that time. Hearing this story later, I was profoundly moved. As you know, running a conference or a community is challenging. These personal stories have inspired me to continue my work.

Returning to the point, Donghee eventually became a colleague at the same company after moving through several others. I continued with PyCon Korea, and he kept contributing to Python until we met by chance. “Ah, I’ve finally made some changes,” I realized. That event was not just a fleeting moment. And I realized that I need to create more such opportunities.

Therefore, I asked Donghee to organize sprints at PyCon Korea and PyCon APAC. He agreed, even spending his personal leave and covering the costs. I believe this will eventually lead to more contributors in Asia. Personally, I hope to see more contributors from various regions. Only then can we truly represent more areas and achieve more opinions and improvements.

Lastly, if other CPython Core devs have interests in organizing CPython sprints in the APAC region for local contributors, we will happily welcome and support you!

Thank you.

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