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October 25, 2024

Comedy (tomorrow Oct. 26), research, & advice

Tech comedy on Oct. 26th for US election defense, lessons learned from working on Python packaging, and tips for maintainers.

Hi, newsletter subscribers! Thanks for being interested in Changeset Consulting and my open source project management work and writing.

Most urgently, tomorrow, October 26th, I’m performing in a tech comedy fundraiser to benefit US election defense.

Today I'll share that, plus useful writing and pointers for open source maintainers.

(For hyperlinks & an image, view as HTML or see the archived version on the web at https://buttondown.email/Changeset/archive/ .)

Comedy for a good cause

(A) Stand-up to Protect Voters & Voting, October 26th @8pm ET: A tech comedy event to benefit US election defense. standupstandup.tech
I’m performing stand-up comedy online as a US election defense fundraiser.

No matter how you feel about the upcoming US election, I’m guessing you want the votes counted fairly. Thus: I’m raising money for the Election Protection Hotline by doing tech comedy tomorrow, online, at 8pm Eastern Time US. You can pitch in from anywhere in the world. More info.

PyCon US keynote

I gave the final keynote at PyCon US 2024, “Untold stories from six years working on Python packaging.” Video and transcript, slides, and reference links are up. I told five stories, sang two songs, got a lot of laughs and some tears, and said “this is a blank slide partly so I don't name names”.

The line many people took away: “Infrastructure is how we care for each other at scale.”

Other recent writing of mine

  • Double standards & volunteer behavior: Should we have the same standard for everyone's behavior in a volunteer group? Should “they’ve contributed a lot” make a difference? I say: sort of, less with assessment and more with reaction.

  • Changelogs and release notes: We'd all benefit from restoring the distinction between a detailed changelog and brief release notes, but that's hard to do if a project relies solely on GitHub as its communication platform.

  • Model UX Research & Design Docs for Command-Line Open Source: Newly available research reports and design guidance, and a user research HOWTO, that you can pick up and reuse. And why you’d want to.

  • Make Room for Big News: We live in volatile times, and breaking news may interrupt your workshops and meetings. You can plan ahead to respond better.

News, offers, and thoughts from others

  • SparkleShare’s maintainer stepping away thoughtfully. If you’re also considering closing down your project, you’re eligible for a free one-hour consulting call with The Wind Down.

  • Django Software Foundation has changed its membership criteria to recognize “a much broader range of contributions to Django”. Worth attention from other groups trying to think about who should have a vote.

  • Ten years ago, SwiftOnSecurity wrote a cybersecurity parable, “A Story About Jessica” — still resonant today.

  • Contribution experience reports: Antonin Delpeuch is “starting to document my own experience when contributing to other projects”. I’ve read several of these sorts of reports by FLOSS novices, so it’s particularly useful to read ones from a more experienced perspective.

Thanks

Best wishes, as always.

I have some upcoming availability to give virtual talks (including stand-up comedy) and to coach open source maintainers, leads, and managers.

If you'd like to ask for my availability for your projects, or invite me to speak, please reply to this mail or contact me in the Fediverse -- I'm on Mastodon as @brainwane@social.coop.

-Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset Consulting

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