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The year ahead: Django contributions

Woah, I’m a Django Software Foundation (DSF) board member! This post is the start of a new series, one post a week* for 2024, where I’ll be sharing my journey in the Django universe and on the DSF board specifically.

It’s officially official, the DSF has two new board members.

Why I’m doing this

I stand by my personal statement for the DSF board nominations. Django as a project and community has solid foundations but is way behind of where it could be. The trajectory isn’t looking good either, with very appealing competition in the Python world, elsewhere in open source, and even from SaaS approaches. It’s still a decent framework for people expecting “batteries included”, but expectations are shifting and the project needs to catch up. The governance and marketing side of the project also needs a big overhaul.

Well – it’s not a need per se, but there’s too much potential with cool people in the community and room for even more cool people new to tech or open source. So let’s build a great team, and while we’re at it, might as well build a better framework!

Why I’m writing about this

As an elected board member, I think transparency and accountability are important. We want active board members who serve Django’s interests, I want to be one of those, and if I’m not up for the challenge I’d rather give other people the chance.

I’m also doing this because when asking friends and colleagues what they’d want from the DSF, way too many of them didn’t feel like they knew enough to comment. So regular blogging will be a great no-nonsense way to make the DSF’s operations and Django contributions generally more accessible.

What to expect

This will be a weekly series of blog posts, not week notes. I might write and share notes in addition, but expect a proper post, with proper interesting information on a specific topic. There’ll be 52 of them, but they might not be on the exact week (this second post is a few weeks late). In general terms, I’ll write about:

  • My experience as a board member, and in the Django community more widely.
  • Thought pieces on governance in open source, community activation, and other leadership challenges.
  • Specific projects I get to work on. For example from the accessibility team, the board, DjangoCon, Django Girls.
  • Plans for the future of Django, and how I’m working to make them happen.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of specific posts I’m planning to write:

  • Onboarding as a DSF board member
  • How the DSF board operates
  • KPIs for the Django Software Foundation
  • Thoughts on DSF working groups
  • Django 2023 annual report
  • Django timeline: 20 years of Django
  • The future of Django: my roadmap for 2024
  • Organizing a community-wide roadmap workshop
  • Organizing a community-wide retrospective
  • We need to talk about Jazzband
  • Django Developers 2023 survey results
  • Talks I’d like to see at DjangoCon Europe 2024
  • Djangonaut Space as a navigator
  • Django: a decade behind in front-end development (and what to do about it)
  • Why the Django admin needs rebuilding
  • State of Django accessibility
  • Licensing, trademarks, and AI in Django
  • Django’s carbon footprint
  • Running Google Summer of Code 2024 for Django
  • Google Season of Docs 2024 for Django
  • Outreachy 2024: project ideas for Django
  • Ten years of Django Girls
  • Django 6.0: what can we do
  • Diversity in the Django community
  • Growing Django contributors 10x
  • Please don’t say Django is boring
  • We need more Django accessibility teammates
  • A developer relations team for Django
  • Awesome Django contributors
  • A data-driven review of Django websites
  • Popular topics in Django developers discussions
  • Django finances, and how to spend them
  • djangoproject.com needs a CMS
  • How the DSF social media working group operates

Thank you

It feels appropriate to end this introduction to the series and start this year of contributions with thanks to the people who helped in getting this started.

Thank you Tom Carrick for getting me more formally involved with Django development as part of the accessibility team. Thank you Tom, Sarah, and Sage for helping me navigate the Django contributor universe.

And thank you to the 46 DSF individual members who voted for me in the DSF 2024 board election (16 as first choice !?!). I’m very happy to take on this challenge with the platform those people have given me.