PyCaribbean, Come for the Language, Stay for the Culture

PyCaribbean is more than Python, it is people, culture, and  spending  time together. Lead organizer Leonardo Jimenez wants attendees to feel like they are home when they are at PyCaribbean. “That sense of belonging and creating a bond helps the community members feel that they have a community that will support them and they can share their experience and knowledge with,” Jimenez explains.



After receiving an invite to speak at PyCaribbean 2017, which  I was unable to attend, I intentionally saved the date for 2018  . Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, hosted PyCaribbean this year.   Now, before we continue, let’s kick off this blog post the right way. Hit play, then continue reading.

Kicking off @PyCaribbean!!!! pic.twitter.com/6TCreSGCUv

— Jackie Kazil (@JackieKazil) February 17, 2018

Welcome to PyCaribbean 2018! Hosting some 280 Pythonistas from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Bermuda, all across the Dominican Republic, and more the conference boasted 50 more attendees than 2017 when it was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. PyCaribbean is one of the earliest Python conferences started in Latin America and has since iinspired other Latin American countries to host their own Python conferences.



“The community is getting bigger and stronger [over] time,” said Jimenez “[Community members] show more interest to learn new things, get more practice and experience.”



The PyCaribbean organizers scheduled a wide  ariety of talks that were aimed at all levels  in both English and Spanish. One of this year’s speakers, Ordanis Sanchez, gave a talk on getting started in Python. As noted by attendee Rebecca Conley, this was Ordains’ first conference talk in English!

Just go out, find an issue, and make a PR! @PyCaribbean @OrdaniSanchez did a great job delivering an important message in his first talk in English! pic.twitter.com/ShMbFb2Pbq

— Rebecca Conley (@rlconley) February 18, 2018

Every conference I attend, I like to focus on a handful of take aways to share. One talk that I especially enjoyed was by Felipe Hoffa, a developer advocate from Google. Hoffa’s research concluded that not all text used in submitting an issue to a code repository will lead have the same closure rates. I learned that starting a ticket with the phrase, “I get the following...,” will have the highest probability of closure.

Most common ways to start an issue.... “I get the following” closes the most issues. pic.twitter.com/rlfjW5xb93

— Jackie Kazil (@JackieKazil) February 18, 2018

For me, the best part about this year has to be the founding of Pyladies Santo Domingo! Natacha De la Rosa and Samantha Valdez met at PyCaribbean, and they have a slick website and super CUTE logo!!!!! Swoon!!!

PyCaribbean is already making plans for next year. The possible locations sound amazing, but what doesn’t sound amazing in the Caribbean? The organizers are currently waiting on confirmation from the location before announcing. I assure you that when it is announced, it will not disappoint. Their hopes are to firstly have 400 attendees next year, secondly more participants from a variety of Caribbean countries, and lastly to create a board with different members of the Caribbean community. If you are interested, reach out to Jimenez <leonardo@pycaribbean.com.



Like with most conferences in the Python community, PyCaribbean is volunteer run. Thank you to the 40 volunteers who made PyCaribbean a success and who continue to foster community in their own cities in the Dominican Republic and beyond!

Thanks to the #PyCaribbean volunteers for a great conference! pic.twitter.com/bZoh8Opv4B

— Cristian Medina (@tryexceptpass) February 18, 2018

And that’s a wrap, or at least until next year’s PyCaribbean!

.@Pycon we need to up out entertainment / music game... between @pyconcz and @PyCaribbean, I feel like we are missing a core element. Today’s closing performance @PyCaribbean... pic.twitter.com/MabvnONI08

— Jackie Kazil (@JackieKazil) February 18, 2018

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Unconference Day at CubaConf

Note: This is the third post on my trip in April to Havana, Cuba to attend the International Open Software Convention, CubaConf.

The second day of CubaConf, structured as an unconference, was equally as lively as the first. In an unconference, the audience actively participates by proposing topics and then voting on which ones will be presented. This was especially effective as a way of conforming to the conference’s purpose to explore ways in which open software can be most effectively used in poorer nations, like Cuba, and how it can contribute to development. I was impressed by the number of audience members who came prepared to give a talk and who lined up at the front of the room to pitch their ideas. The suggestions were recorded on a white board, and at the end of the session we voted for the agenda.

Proposed unconference topics

Before moving on to the unconference talks, we heard an already scheduled keynote. Etiene Dalcol, a Brazilian software engineer, told us of her experiences and observations within the tech scene in Brazil. 

Early on in her career, Dalcol created a web framework, Sailor, in ten days. She said that although it was lousy, people began to contribute and to request more features, indicating their thirst for local grown tech. Sailor is now quite improved and popular, and will be participating for its second time in Google’s Summer of Code.

Dalcol then talked about her experiences working on the programming language, Lua. She used the history of Lua to illustrate what she sees as a hindrance to tech development in Latin America. Lua, created in 1993 in Brazil, was never marketed in Brazil. In fact, it wasn’t until 2015 that the first Portuguese language book on Lua was published. According to Dalcol, this type of suppression of local efforts contributes to a belief, prevalent even among Brazilian engineers, that Silicon Valley tech is superior. 

Etiene Dalcol

To combat this situation, her advice for Latin American developers is to stay true to their own unique perspectives and needs; to develop software that will solve local problems and to offer products that reflect their own cultures–to do what can’t be done anywhere else. In fact, according to Dalcol, this approach will produce software that will in turn be of benefit to other cultures. She cited advice she had found useful as a musician--don't play Chopin to Europeans; rather offer them what you know but they don't.

Dalcol also spoke of her experiences as a woman in tech, a theme that was addressed head-on later in the conference in its final keynote on women in open source (more on this later). 

Dalcol’s advice was clearly reflected in many of the afternoon’s unconference talks. We heard from participants about projects that were actively benefiting their communities. 

One such talk, by a developer from Costa Rica, was about the use of Open Street Map. OSM allows collaborators to create interactive maps geared to specific purposes. Examples included Ecuador’s rapid mapping of areas of damage caused by the devastating earthquake that had just happened April 26. By the following Sunday,  just five days after the quake, nine cities had been completely mapped, providing crucial information for emergency responders, survivors, and reconstruction workers.

Other OSM projects discussed included a public transport map in Nicaragua and a map of  humanitarian services in Costa Rica. There have even been open street mapping parties in Indonesia to develop useful maps. The speaker invited participants to join his open source mapping workshop to be held the next day.

Open Street Mappers

Another day two talk, by Tony Wasserman on evaluating technology for business needs was well-received by many who had entrepreneurial intent and appreciated a run-down of the factors that lead businesses to adopt some software products over others.

At day’s end, we gathered in the main room for Lightning Talks and announcements. It was clear that the day had generated a great deal of excitement that would carry over to the next day’s sprints and to projects that would continue beyond the conference.

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.

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CubaConf, Day 1

This is the second in a series of posts on my trip in April to Havana, Cuba to attend CubaConf, an International Conference on Free Software. 

Day one of CubaConf started out with a bit of confusion. A last minute change of venue was necessary due to some bureaucratic red tape surrounding the government controlled Palacio del Segundo Cabo. Luckily, a short walk across the Plaza de Armas, the Colegia San Geronimo was available and happy to step in to provide meeting rooms for the approximately 180 speakers and attendees. And in spite of the spotty internet service that plagues the island, difficulties in communicating the change did not prevent the conference from starting smoothly and nearly on schedule. The organizers, including Pablo Mestre, a member of the PSF-Cuba workgroup, deserve much credit for their smooth handling of the situation.



Preliminary announcements and welcoming remarks revealed that speakers and attendees came from 17 different countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Turkey, Uruguay, United States, and Venezuela. Sponsors, including the PSF, were mentioned and thanked. 

The keynote by Hamlet López García, a social psychologist from the Cuban Institute of Cultural Research at Juan Marinello, explored the relationship between free software and Cuba’s politics and culture. 

Hamlet López García

López' main thesis, (citing Richard Stallman), was that technologies develop as social processes and are shaped by cultural values. In this way, the general principles of the Cuban revolution can be seen to be in harmony with those of free software. The further adoption and use of free software, according to López, is leading to more democratic access to knowledge and opportunity, not just in Cuba, but globally. This opening talk was enthusiastically received and set a positive tone for the rest of the day.



Once the conference broke into three tracks, I attended a talk by Jacob Appelbaum on the TOR network and the importance of anonymity. Appelbaum explained the ways in which the TOR network was designed to ensure four types of freedom: it's decentralized, encrypted, distributed, and unlike other internet networks, meta-data free (i.e., it does not collect or aggregate meta-data).

Additional talks occurring on day one shared speakers' experiences using open source for projects such as collaborative mapping and creating an online payment system, as well as more theoretical topics such as web development and encryption. Former PSF Director, David Mertz, gave a talk on teaching Python to Data Scientists, a topic that he will reprise in Portland at PyCon's education summit at the end of this month. Talks were given in either English or Spanish, with simultaneous translation provided by one of several bilingual volunteers. 

Another talk worth singling out was a provocative talk by  Heather Marsh on the illusory nature of the power that users assume to derive from the internet. According to Marsh, such internet features as "thought bubbles" and "noise" pose obstacles to collaboration and to challenging the "Ponzi schemes of power." These ideas are more fully presented in Marsh's book, Binding Chaos.

At the end of the day, a tired, but excited crowd posed for a group photo before walking down the block to the conference dinner of Cuban food, mojitos, and beer.  (And by the way, beer costs about $1 per can/bottle--I almost didn't come home.)

CubaConf end of Day 1

Outside the Colegia San Geronimo

I would love to hear from readers. Please send feedback, comments, or blog ideas to me at msushi@gnosis.cx.

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