Interview with Pycon Personality Steve Holden Python Software Foundation Chair and PyCon Planner
Personally I think paying it forward is a more viable way to ensure that open source initiatives succeed, says Steve Holden, Chairman, Python Software Foundation.
Steve Holden
PyCon, organized by volunteers in the Python community, brings together the community that uses and develops the open-source Python programming language. PyCon 2011 will be held in on March 7-17, at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia.
PyCon planner, Steve Holden, takes a few moments out of his day to discuss how he began is involvement with PyCon, what he does "in real life", and challenges of planning a conference as well as the future of PyCon.
Linux Pro Magazine: Can you tell us a little about you and your role with the PyCon? How long you have worked on this event?
Steve Holden: I went to the International Python Conference and saw that it was run primarily for people with established businesses and plenty of money. When Guido van Rossum, inventor of Python, announced that he was starting a conferences list I joined up and waited for things to appear. And waited. And waited.
LPM: Since most event planners in the FOSS community are volunteers, what is your day job?
SH: I run Holden Web, LLC. We specialise in systems design and implementation and in training. I have recently moved to Portland, and from that base we will be attempting to attract conferences and other technical events there, as well as running events in other cities through a new business called The Open Bastion.
LPM: How did you get involved in FOSS? What was your first Open Source/Linux distribution and when? What do you use now and why?
SH: I have been involved with UNIX and Linux for a long time - my first UNIX installation was a PDP-11/23 running the Seventh Edition. I bought a GNU t-shirt in the late 1970s at a UK UNIX User Group meeting, as the effort seemed worth supporting.
Holden's complete answers to these as well as the full interview can be found here.
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