ikding/pycon_2019

Notes from PyCon 2019 @ Cleveland

PyCon 2019 Notes

I am adding the notes I took from the PyCon 2019 in Cleveland.

5/3/19 (Fri)

Keynote: Where do you see Python in 10 years?

Russell Keith-Magee (Beeware)

Video

TL;DR: For those who care about the Python's longevity in the web-first future, check out Beeware.

• Where do you see Python in 10 years? (Subtext: what can we do today to make sure Python community stay vibrant for the next 10 years?)
• Black Swan events are: A surprise event that has major effect but is easily explained (in hindsight)
• Python's black swan:
  • Black swan 1: everyone use a laptop (which may not be true in 10 years as mobile phones and tablets surge in popularity)
  • Black swan 2: Python can stay on the server. With advent of html, many businesses are increasingly embed their business logic in the Javascript (where the code can execute on client browser).
  • Black swan 3: Installation is a solved problem (it is not)
  • Black swan 4: Code distribution doesn't matter (What happens if the users who wants to use your code doesn't have Python? Other languages has a way to package the code into something that can be executed)
• The speaker's goal is to start a conversation about ensuring long-term viability of Python
• BeeWare project: run in Python and deploy anywhere.
• Lesson 1: It's not enough to just follow the rules. You have to ensure the competition is fair.
• Lesson 2: Watch out for black swans!
  • WASM would allow non-Javascript language to execute on javascript runtime (client side?)
• Lesson 3: team support
  • More than just software engineering
  • Product management, team management, PSF, legal...
• Lesson 4: Money make things happen.
  • Expertise costs money. (Metaphor for OSS)
  • Money get things done. (Relying on volunteer OSS maintainers is not sustainable)
  • PyPI MOSS grant - got the stuff done in 7 month.
  • R&D matters!
  • Problem: how do we pay for this? OSS is a engineering models, not a business model.
• Burnout: dealing with people has a lot of emotional cost.
  • The hidden human cost of FLOSS can not be ignored.
• Five calls to action:
  • Start thinking about black swans
  • Improve resourcing of maintenance and R&D efforts
  • Value contributors and their contributions
  • Get out your wallets! psf donations, numfocus.org, djangoproject.com
  • Contribute!

Fighting Climate Change with Python

Matthew Gordon, Kairos Aerospace

Video

Lessons learned from building a community of Python users among thousands of analysts

I-Kang Ding, Ariel M'ndange-Pfupfu, Marina Sergeeva, Capital One

Video

This is my talk :)

Type hinting (and mypy)

Bernat Gabor, Bloomberg

Video, Slide

Put down the deep learning: When not to use neural networks and what to do instead

Rachael Tatman, Kaggle

Video, Slide

Measuring Model Fairness

J. Henry Hinnefeld, Civis Analytics

Video, Slide