03 Jul 2021, 17:32 p.m.

Some Novel Python Packaging/Distribution/Inspection/Installation Projects

People who program in Python have an easier time hearing about package-related tools that have been around for a while and that are under the banner of the Python Packaging Authority, or that are commercially …

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03 Jul 2021, 16:45 p.m.

Researching The Leadership Gap for Legacy Projects

I've given a lot of conference talks recently. As part of the PyCon US Maintainers' Summit in May, I delivered an eight-minute talk, "Researching the leadership gap for legacy projects". The video is now available, …

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02 Jul 2021, 12:56 p.m.

A Comedy Memory

I'm having trouble getting started on things I ought to do today, so here's a story I think I've never told here before. In early 2011, I travelled to San Francisco for work, and one …

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01 Jul 2021, 12:58 p.m.

Software Bill of Materials & the US Federal Government

In February, the United States's President Biden signed an executive order on the US's supply chains; he followed this up with an EO in May specifically concentrating on improving cybersecurity. To quote Tidelift's summary, "in …

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18 Jun 2021, 22:05 p.m.

Monday Will Be Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day

A few months ago, in my talk "What Would Open Source Look Like If It Were Healthy?", I told a story of an overwhelmed open source software maintainer. Every solstice is a Responsibility Amnesty Day, …

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07 Jun 2021, 17:28 p.m.

Sidestepping the PR Bottleneck: Four Non-Dev Ways To Support Your Upstreams

This is the textual version of my June 7 2021 online talk at Upstream Live: "Sidestepping the PR Bottleneck: Four Non-Dev Ways To Support Your Upstreams", 23 minutes. Video is now up. Intro Hi, I’m …

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06 Jun 2021, 16:30 p.m.

New History of AIDS Activism

I'm looking forward to reading Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman for the same reason I love Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the …

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22 May 2021, 19:25 p.m.

If You Give A Speech You Care About, Post A Transcript

When I give a keynote address at a conference, I sometimes commission* and post a transcript or a near-transcript afterwards (example). And sometimes I do this for non-keynote speeches (example); this year I decided to …

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19 May 2021, 16:49 p.m.

Upcoming Talks Plus Stand-up Comedy

In May and June I'll perform some comedy and I'll speak on open source management and investment! WisCon is going to be online this year, and on Saturday, May 29th, 7pm CDT/8pm EDT, I'll serve …

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17 May 2021, 23:11 p.m.

Willis and Cho

I meant to mention here that some months ago? I reread Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. So, I have a strong memory of having read Doomsday Book previously, back when I lived in Berkeley. In particular …

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