2025-09-10 –, Room A
In 1729, Jonathan Swift presented an elegant and well thought-out solution to the problem of homelessness and poverty plaguing Ireland. He argued that his solution would result in a much more productive and fulfilling society. While not many could digest the meat of his proposal, it was still effective in exposing a widening gap of social inequality and abuse.
Is it possible that Swift's proposal can be applied within our technosphere? Did he provide us with a recipe for success, or at least little nuggets of wisdom to chew on?
Many attending this conference may be keenly aware of the dichotomy between open source and big tech. There is a relationship that always seems to be at risk of imploding. Should we be encouraging new (and existing) engineers to participate in open source, in spite of this tenuous relationship? If this topic whets your appetite, you'll definitely want to come to see what's cooking.
It is a melancholy object to those who walk through these great tech landscapes, or travel in the Interwebs, when they see the apps, the websites, and repositories crowded with open source developers, followed by three, four, or six contributors, all with no jobs, and importuning every passenger for a job reference. These developers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time stroling to beg for sponsors for their helpless projects, who, as they grow more complex, turn into some rugpull SaaS app, or leave their dear open licenses, to work for the Pretender in Seattle, or sell themselves to the Bay.
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of contributors in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of open source maintainers, is in the present state of the tech industry, a very great grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these developers sound and useful members of the technosphere, would deserve so well of the public, as to have their NFT set up as a preserver of the Internet.
In my past lives, I've enjoyed playing guitar and bass, kicking a soccer ball, or playing an occasional video game. In my career, I've been an editor at a non-profit, taught as a pre-school teacher, managed payroll for a professional baseball team, and worked as an analyst/project manager for HR systems. More recently, I've been working as a software engineer for a little over a year at a company called BCM One.
I also code Python by night, which is what happens when there's not enough time during the day to poke around and break things. In the past couple of years, I've presented several talks/tutorials at PyCon US, DjangoCon US, Python Web Conference, North Bay Python, PyGotham, PyOhio, and others. Sometimes I neglect/blog on my website Python By Night, and start (or abandon) too many side projects.