Steering Council Nomination: Mariatta (2025 term)

Core Development Steering Council Nominations
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I’m nominating myself for Python Steering Council 2025 term.

Who am I

I have unique skill set which include technical skills with almost 20 years of experience in tech industry, worldwide public and keynote speaker, and community leader. My expertise and specialty are in community leadership with focus on improving diversity and inclusion of underrepresented group members in tech.

You can read/listen to several interviews that I’ve given in the past to learn about my perspectives about the Python community, open source, and about diversity and inclusion.

URLs:

For my contributions to Python, I’ve received the Community Service Award from Python Software Foundation. I’ve also been nominated twice for
Google Open Source Peer Bonus program. I’m a PSF Fellow member since 2020. In honor of Ada Lovelace Day in 2020, my story was shared on GitHub ReadME project.

My work and contributions as Core Dev

  • Core developer since 2017
  • I’ve been the main maintainer of the GitHub bots like miss-islington, bedevere, and blurb-it.
  • I authored PEP 581 and PEP 588 which kickstarted the migration from bpo to GitHub Issues.
  • I care about Python documentation and translations. I’m currently a member of the Python Docs Editorial Board. I’ve sponsored a couple docs-related PEPs.
  • Organized the Diataxis workshop, and the online core devs sprint 2020.
  • Co-chaired Python Language Summit 2019-2022 with Łukasz.

My work and contributions as Python Community Leader

PyCon US conference chair 2023-2024.

As the conference chair (now retired), I took it upon myself to ensure the continued success of PyCon US: not only by simply making sure it happens, but also by introducing impactful changes and improvements to PyCon US, improving the experience of attendees, encouraging participation, and doing active outreach to new community members.

PyLadies Advisor and PyLadies Conference co-chair 2023-present

As a longtime member and leader in the PyLadies community, I’ve been advising and helping other PyLadies members and to further grow the PyLadies community worldwide.
As one of the conference organizers, along with the rest of the team, we put a lot of effort in ensuring a successful first PyLadies conference that is inclusive and accessible to all speakers and attendees.

PyPodcats: Hidden Figures of Python Podcast series

I’m one of the co-hosts of the PyPodcats, a podcast series aiming to highlight the stories from underrepresented group members of the Python community. Please read our blog post to learn more, and listen to our episodes at Episodes

Relationship with PSF and Python Community

I’ve had the privilege and opportunity of working very closely with PSF staff and infrastructure team members in various capacities, and have built positive relationship with The PSF.

Goals

Diversity, Inclusion, and Outreach

We’ve made some progress in improving diversity within Python core team, but progress has been slow. There was a gap of 23 men (and 3 years) between the last two women who got promoted to core team. I would like for us to understand this challenge and to work towards improving the situation.

With my experience as a community leader and track record in building diverse and inclusive communities (as seen above), I will be able to further help improve the diversity of Python core team.

I also want to support the effort in having more contributors and core team members from outside of North America and Europe. It is important that we have representation from all different perspectives of Python community in the core team.

I believe that we could do better outreach to the wider community, ensuring that news and decisions about Python reach the global and diverse community.

Python Documentation Translations

Translations of Python documentation is really important. I’m glad to see the existing work in translating documentation, and I have deep appreciation for those who has contributed to documentation translations. I’d like to help facilitate continued effort in Python Docs official translations and to have closer collaboration with translator coordinators.

Employment status

I have a long career of almost 20 years in the tech industry, having worked at various tech companies. Right now I am self-employed as software consultant, and I have my own company called CMD Limes (pronounced “command limes”).

Past nomination statements and endorsements

Past endorsements by Python community can be read in the above threads.

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