pyOpenSci Blog on pyOpenSci

Generative AI and open source: what PyCon US 2026 taught us about the path forward

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0600

This post is Part 4 of a 4-part series on pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2026. Part 1 covers community and connection. Part 2 covers the Maintainer Summit. Part 3 covers the sprints.

Generative AI and open source: what the community is wrestling with

Generative AI was a dominant theme at PyCon US 2026 — prominent enough to have its own dedicated conference track for the first time. But for pyOpenSci, the conversation wasn’t about machine learning applications or what AI can build. It was about something more immediate: what generative AI tools are doing to open source communities themselves.

It started with one contributor and now we fill the room: pyOpenSci sprints at PyCon US 2026

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0600

This post is Part 3 of a 4-part series on pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2026. Part 1 covers community and connection. Part 2 covers the Maintainer Summit.

This year marked our fourth sprint at PyCon US. If you want to really understand what pyOpenSci is about, our sprints are the place to look.

Sprints at PyCon US 2026 — dozens of open source projects welcoming contributors on Monday and Tuesday.

When we held our very first sprint at PyCon US 2023 in Salt Lake City, it was my first time running a formal sprint. I missed the introductions to the sprints and pyOpenSci was not well known in the broader Python community–yet. One person showed up. Read more about that first PyCon experience. This year, ~20 people showed up throughout the day. That arc — from a single contributor to a buzzing room of people at round tables — tells you everything about our community.

Tools Track, GenAI Bof and Roundtables: This year's PyCon US Maintainer Summit was something special

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

This post is Part 2 of a 4-part series on pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2026. Part 1 covers community, connection, and what comes next.

I first attended the PyCon US Maintainer Summit five years ago as a speaker. I’m still here — now as a co-organizer. This year felt like a milestone for many different reasons.

Maintainer Summit co-organizers Inessa Pawson, Leah Wasser, and Mariatta Wijaya.

Building the summit: a year-round labor of love

What most people don’t realize is that organizing the PyCon US Maintainer Summit is a year-round effort. We start thinking about the next one almost as soon as the last one wraps — collecting participant feedback, reflecting on what worked, and thinking about what to change.

PyCon US 2026: Community, connection, and what comes next

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Times are hard right now. Communities like pyOpenSci matter more than ever. We saw it at PyCon US this year — the political strain, the GenAI hype cycle and anxiety, the rapid changes reshaping open source. People are tired. People are frustrated. But here’s what else we saw: people still showing up. Still connecting. Still supporting each other.

When things get hard, when the ground shifts beneath us, we need each other more than ever. We need spaces to connect, to learn together, to solve challenging problems as a community. PyCon reminded me why I love this work so much.

Ship It Cohort One: What We Built, What We Learned, and What's Next

Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Python packaging can be overwhelming — standards and tools evolve quickly, and the terminology is technical. To address these challenges, pyOpenSci recently launched Ship It: Python Packaging in the Generative AI Era. This 10-day asynchronous course connects university researchers and learners with open source experts, guiding them through the process of transforming code into a published, tested, and documented package — while weaving in a framework for using generative AI thoughtfully. The curriculum is informed by our community-driven resources, including the pyOpenSci Python packaging guide and our beginner-friendly packaging tutorials.

Building Resilience: pyOpenSci in 2026

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0700

The world has changed

I’m not going to sugarcoat it—2025 was hard.

Watching organizations like the Python Software Foundation turn down million-dollar National Science Foundation (NSF) grants because DEIA work was no longer supported made something painfully clear: the funding landscape that has grounded so many of us is no longer reliable.

At the same time, Generative AI fundamentally changed how open source work happens. Maintainers found themselves reviewing more code than ever—much of it machine-generated—while navigating ethical questions about authorship and responsibility they didn’t sign up to solve on their own.

CyNetDiff: A Python Library for Accelerated Implementation of Network Diffusion Models

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Network diffusion models study how information and epidemics spread over social networks, and have garnered increasing interest in recent years. Two of the most widely used models are the independent cascade (IC) and linear threshold (LT) models. These models simulate spread through a network by starting with a set of seed nodes that are designated as “active”, and all other nodes are “inactive”. Then, in each iteration, some inactive nodes become active, and the iterations continue until no other nodes can be activated.

Navigating LLMs in Open Source: pyOpenSci's New Peer Review Policy

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0700

authors: Leah Wasser, Jed Brown, Carter Rhea, Ellie Abrahams, Carol Willing, Stefan van der Walt, Eliot Robson

Generative AI meets scientific open source

Some developers believe that using Generative AI products increases efficiency. However, in scientific open source, speed isn’t everything—transparency, quality, and community trust are just as important as understanding the environmental impacts of using large language models in our everyday work. Similarly, ethical questions arise when tools may benefit some communities while harming others.

Why We Choose What We Choose

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0600

A primary focus at pyOpenSci, one of our petals of support, is selecting packaging tools that work well for our users and work well together. We use our curated selection of tooling in our packaging guide, in our online tutorials, and in our trainings. We don’t require the use of any of our selected tools to submit a package to our peer review program but we will suggest them if the package authors ask for help trying to clean up or adopt new workflows.

From Surviving to Thriving: A Convening to Reclaim and Sustain Open Science Communities

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Authors: Kari L. Jordan, Erin Becker, Daniela Saderi, Vanessa Fairhurst, Patricia Herterich, Noam Ross, Yanina Bellini Saibene, Leah Wasser, Yo Yehudi

‘Black Forest: waterfall’ by rboed is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Open science has transformed how research is conducted, shared, and reused. Yet the organisations at the heart of this transformation are often left vulnerable, underfunded, and disconnected from one another. To move from simply surviving to truly thriving, five leading open science organisations -- The Carpentries, OLS, rOpenSci, pyOpenSci, and PREreview) -- are convening to chart a collective path forward. We are so grateful to The Navigation Fund for supporting this work, and invite our communities to review the full proposal online.

What’s New in pyOpenSci: September Updates + Community Shoutouts

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0600

The summer was full of connection, collaboration, and momentum in the pyOpenSci community. Whether you joined us at SciPy, submitted a package for review, or just lurked, we’re so grateful you’re here!

Here’s what’s been happening 👇

Succession is Success: pyOpenSci's Executive Council Transition Marks Organizational Maturity

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 -0600

When an organization successfully navigates its first leadership transition, it’s a milestone worth celebrating. It demonstrates that the structures, processes, and culture you’ve built are strong enough to endure beyond any single individual. We’ve seen these transitions happening in our Editorial Board over the past 3 years. Today, we’re proud to announce pyOpenSci’s first Executive Council transition—a sign of our organization’s growth and maturity.

As founding Executive Council Chair Tracy Teal transitions from her leadership role after three transformative years, we’re excited to welcome Karen Cranston as our new Executive Council Chair and April Johnson as a new Executive Council member. This transition represents not just changing leadership, but the successful maturation of pyOpenSci as an organization.

Meet Mandy Moore, pyOpenSci’s new Communications and Community Lead!

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Meet Mandy Moore, pyOpenSci’s new Communications and Community Lead!

We’re thrilled to introduce Mandy Moore as our new Communications and Community Lead at pyOpenSci!

Mandy joins us in a part-time role focused on growing and supporting our community through clear, engaging, and inclusive communication. She’s already helping us shape how we show up across platforms, whether that’s through newsletters, social posts, blogs, or behind-the-scenes strategy. Her work is helping us highlight not just what we do at pyOpenSci, but who we’re doing it for.

Listening, learning, and building together: what we heard at our SciPy 2025 BoF

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 -0600

At SciPy 2025 in July, pyOpenSci hosted a Birds of a Feather session focused on packaging challenges in research software.

Rather than giving another talk or demo, we created a space to listen. Building on themes from our earlier blog about the social side of packaging, we invited folks into a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session centered on one big question:

Highlights from SciPy 2025: Building Community, Code, and Culture

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0600

SciPy 2025 was one for the books, and for pyOpenSci, it was a powerful reminder of how far our community has come and how much energy we bring when we show up together.

This year, more than 15 members of the pyOpenSci community participated in the conference. We hosted a workshop, facilitated a BoF session with over 60 participants, gave talks, and filled the hallway track with laughter, advice, and real conversations about scientific Python pain points and the future of research software. We also led a community sprint where contributors opened over 30 issues and pull requests—an incredible showing of collaboration across experience levels.

pyOpenSci at SciPy 2025 - science, Python and Community

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0600

pyOpenSci at SciPy 2025: Community, Contribution, and Packaging Know-How

We’re heading to SciPy 2025 in Tacoma, Washington, and we couldn’t be more excited to connect with the incredible scientific Python community in person! This year, we’re showing up with tutorials, conversations, and community-driven events designed to support open science and lower the barrier to contributing to open source.

Here’s how you can connect with us throughout the conference:

Learn Packaging with pyOpenSci (Tutorial)

pyOpenSc is back this year, teaching a hands-on tutorial on Python packaging for scientific software. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to strengthen your skills, this session is for you. You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to create Python packages that are shareable, reusable, and aligned with scientific best practices.

pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2025 - Python, Packaging and Community

Tue, 06 May 2025 00:00:00 -0600

TL;DR

We’re excited to get back to PyCon US this year!
Join us for the Maintainers Summit, community events, and the Packaging Summit. At the end of each meeting, we will hold beginner-friendly sprints.
Join us in our beginner-friendly sprints on Monday / Tuesday following the conference.
Last year’s recap: Read about pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2024

PyCon US Maintainers Summit: Co-hosted by pyOpenSci

I’m thrilled to be a second-time organizer of the PyCon US Maintainers Summit alongside long-time organizer Inessa Pawson and Python Steering Council alum and past PyCon chair Mariatta Wijaya. This annual event brings maintainers, contributors, and community leaders together to share challenges and strategies in maintaining and sustaining open source software.

Reaffirming pyOpenSci's Commitment to Inclusion

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0600

During challenging times, it’s critical to pause and reflect on who we are, what we care about, and why our work matters. Since its inception, pyOpenSci, a global community fiscally sponsored in the U.S., has been committed to actively building an inclusive, welcoming, open source community of practice that supports better, more open science. Our Code of Conduct reinforces our values, as does the thought that we put into the events that we run, the accessible resources that we develop, and the work that we do to make our peer review program inclusive and creating Python software easier.

Contribute to Open Source Software: It's More Than just Code

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0600

When you think about contributing to open source, you might assume the biggest hurdle for newcomers is technical–learning Git, using GitHub, and/or writing code. Most contribute to open source guides focus on technical skills. But for many new contributors, the challenge isn’t only technical—it’s social too.

Receiving open feedback on your contributions in the form of code review, whether code or documentation, creates anxiety for many.

How to Secure Your Python Packages When Publishing to PyPI

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Is your PyPI publication workflow secure?

We can learn a lot from the Python package breach involving Ultralytics. This breach highlighted the importance of making our PyPI publishing workflows for Python packages more secure.

In this breach, hackers exploited a GitHub Actions workflow to inject malicious code into a Python package. This package was then published to PyPI. The outcome: users who downloaded the package unknowingly allowed their machines to be hijacked for Bitcoin mining.

Building Momentum for the Future: Reflections on Our First Open Science Festival Week

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Our inaugural fall festival was a great success!

Three years ago, I envisioned an online event where our community could come together to celebrate open source and open science, share knowledge, and learn new skills. Last month, that vision became reality with pyOpenSci’s first-ever Fall Festival, held from October 28 to November 1. The event brought together 64 participants from over 15 countries—a global mix of researchers, developers, educators, and Python enthusiasts.

2024: A Transformative Year for pyOpenSci

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

In 2024, pyOpenSci’s vibrant community led efforts to make open source science more accessible, inclusive, and equitable for all. We empowered the broader community to create, contribute to, and discover better software through beginner-friendly training events, collaborative tutorials, and software peer review.

Looking back, I’m inspired and humbled by what we’ve achieved together:

QuadratiK: Collection of Methods Constructed using Kernel-Based Quadratic Distances

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

QuadratiK provides a suite of methods based on kernel-based quadratic distances, and hence the name!

QuadratiK contains several goodness of Fit (GoF) tests such as normality tests and two and k-sample tests. It also includes tests for uniformity on the d-dimensional sphere, a clustering algorithm using Poisson kernel densities, and algorithms for generating random samples from PKBD. QuadratiK offers graphical functions that enhance user experience by facilitating the validation, visualization, and interpretation of clustering results. Furthermore, it provides methods for meaningful analyses and reproducible inference across diverse fields. A dashboard application with a user-friendly interface is also a part of QuadratiK to enhance accessibility for practitioners beyond the domain of statistical sciences.

CLOSED pyOpenSci is hiring a Communications Lead

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 00:00:00 -0700

We are no longer accepting applications for this position. Thank you for your interest.

Last Updated: {{ page.last_modified}}

About the role

pyOpenSci seeks a talented Writer and Social Media Specialist to enhance our communications and engagement with the scientific Python community. This position involves crafting engaging content highlighting our online learning content, tutorials, events, and package ecosystem for our social media channels, newsletters, and blog to keep our community informed and inspired. It also involved reviewing and editing educational content. This is an excellent opportunity for someone passionate about open science and skilled in clear, impactful communication. The position requires 10-15 hours per week at a rate of 25-40$/hour based on experience, with the flexibility of remote, part-time work. There is some flexibility in this position week-to-week based on pyOpenSci’s deadlines. This is a non-regular, part-time, remote, non-exempt position. This position will report to the pyOpenSci Executive Director. Applicants must be eligible for employment in the United States.

The Human Dimension to Clean, Distributable, and Documented Data Science Code

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0600

This post was originally posted on Eric’s blog in support of the 2024 pyOpenSci Open Science Fall Festival.

## Introduction

Since 2016 (8 years now!), I’ve been advocating for data scientists to apply basic software development practices in their work. This means making sure that one’s work is well-documented – and thus easily understandable, working in a way that is portable across machines – and thus easily accessible, making sure that one’s code is modular – and thus easy to reuse, and ensuring that one’s code is well-tested – and thus reliable. (Table 1) In this post, we’ll dive deeper into why it is crucial for making your work impactful to consider the psychology of people who read, install, and use your work. We’ll explore the “why” behind the “what” that will be covered in the upcoming pyOpenSci training course. This training course will be teaching you a lot of valuable skills - the “what to do” - and I’d like to help reinforce the “why” behind all of these. By understanding the reasoning and motivation behind these practices, you’ll be better equipped to apply them effectively and adapt them to your specific needs in data science projects.

pyOpenSci celebrates Inessa Pawson

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0600

pyOpenSci Celebrates Inessa

Today, I want to take a moment to celebrate a devoted pyOpenSci community member, colleague, and friend, Inessa, who was just awarded the NumFOCUS Community Leadership award. In my opinion, no one is more deserving of recognition for their contributions and dedication to the open source community. Inessa’s day job at OpenTeams is devoted to open source, where she serves as the Open Source Program Manager. But her open source work extends far beyond her professional role!

A Blueprint for the Future: pyOpenSci's Sustainability Model

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Introduction

Funding is critical to the success of any nonprofit organization. In this blog post, I’ll outline pyOpenSci’s sustainability plan. We define sustainability as building a diverse funding “portfolio” that includes grants and internally generated revenue sources to support our mission, growth, and core activities.

How funding has propelled pyOpenSci forward

Funding from Sloan Foundation catalyzed pyOpenSci’s growth by enabling me to dedicate full-time effort to growing the organization’s impact in September 2022. This full-time commitment, paired with support from a fiscal sponsor, catalyzed pyOpenSci’s recent growth and success.

It's Been a Long Short Road: The Monumental Past 2 Years of pyOpenSci

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0600

It’s been two years since I started working full-time on pyOpenSci

I have been working full-time building pyOpenSci for two years now, thanks to funding from the Sloan Foundation and CZI (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative). pyOpenSci has come SO FAR in two years.

It’s time to take a breath and celebrate everything the pyOpenSci community has accomplished. Before we move on to the next big thing—our pyOpenSci Fall Festival (more on that below)—I want to take a moment to reflect on:

pyOpenSci @ SciPy 2024 - Python Packaging Tutorials, Talks and Community :heart:

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0600

TL;DR

pyOpenSci lead 3 incredibly successful events at SciPy this year: A tutorial, a talk and a 1.5 day sprint.
During our SciPy 2024 meeting sprint we had over 35 GitHub issues and pull requests submitted by XX new contributors.
Our tutorial had over 30 attendees. Almost all of the learners had never created a Python package before, and most of them were successful creating their first Python package.
I thoroughly enjoyed connecting with new and old colleagues and friends.

pyOpenSci’s fourth year attending SciPy - my experience

This year was my fourth time attending the annual SciPy meeting—a meeting organized by NumFocus that celebrates the scientific Python ecosystem. My first experience was in 2019, where we held the very first pyOpenSci Birds of a Feather (BoF) session.

pyOpenSci Community News: August 2024

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0600

pyOpenSci community news

As the pyOpenSci community has continued to grow, we wanted to dedicate at least one newsletter issue a month to sharing conversations, contributions, and news related to our diverse and vibrant community! This month we’re celebrating everyone who’s participated in a pyOpenSci sprint, sharing the exciting news around the Spanish translation of our Python Packaging Guide, and elevating a discussion from GitHub around the use of Hatch for Python package creation.

pyOpenSci beginner-friendly sprints at PyCon US 2024

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0600

pyOpenSci’s approach to beginner-friendly sprints

In previous posts, I talked about:

Here, I will share with you what we have learned at pyOpenSci through holding beginner-friendly sprints over the past two years. Specifically, I want to explore the varied motivations and barriers associated with contributions to open source, and how pyOpenSci is addressing them.

automata: Simulation and manipulation

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Automata are abstract machines used to represent models of computation, and are a central object of study in theoretical computer science. Given an input string of characters over a fixed alphabet, these machines either accept or reject the string. A language corresponding to an automaton is the set of all strings it accepts. Three important families of automata in increasing order of generality are the following:

Finite-state automata
Pushdown automata
Turing machines

The automata package facilitates working with these families by allowing simulation of reading input and higher-level manipulation of the corresponding languages using specialized algorithms. For an overview on automata theory, see this Wikipedia article, and for a more comprehensive introduction to each of these topics, see these lecture notes.

pyOpenSci's Guide to SciPy

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0600

See you at SciPy!

SciPy 2024 is just around the corner. We can’t wait to see you there! We’re pulling together our pyOpenSci Guide to SciPy, similar to the guide we did for PyCon 2024, and wanted to give you a preview of some of the tutorials and talks being given by pyOpenSci Community members!

Tutorials

Interactive data visualizations with Bokeh (in 2024)

Along with Timo Metzger and Bryan Van de Ven, pyOpenSci community member Pavithra Eswaramoorthy will be covering everything you need to know to create beautiful and powerful interactive plots from scratch using Bokeh’s latest features. Starting with a quick introduction of Bokeh’s core concepts, the team will cover creating and customizing simple static plots like line and bar charts before introducing layers of interactivity, creating specialized plotting features like geographic maps, contour plots, Mathematical Text, and discussing new additions to Bokeh like ImageStacks. By the end, you will be able to create a complete interactive dashboard using Bokeh.

Get Involved with pyOpenSci

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0600

The pyOpenSci mission

Founded in 2018 by our Executive Director, Leah Wasser, pyOpenSci builds diverse community that supports free and open Python tools for processing scientific data. We also build technical skills needed to contribute to open source and that support open science. While a diverse, inclusive community is at our core, radiating out from it are the three petals–how we accomplish our community goals–of pyOpenSci. These are:

Promote pyOpenSci online and in-person

pyOpenSci is active on both LinkedIn and Fosstodon, and you’re welcome to tag us on social media, as well as to reach out with questions! We also have a series of brand assets and guidelines if you need a copy of our logo, information on our fonts, and/or access to various illustrations we use.

Friends don't let friends package alone- my Python packaging talk at PyCon 2024

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Python packaging and community: my first talk at PyCon US 2024

This year I gave my first talk in the PyCon US main track! For context, PyCon US is a big meeting—with over 2,700 registrations this year—a record for the event! My talk was about my experiences navigating the packaging ecosystem from a few perspectives:

Teaching scientists how to share their code,
As a maintainer of a smaller Python package—stravalib and
Founder and Executive Director of a non profit organization - pyOpenSci - which strives to support scientists in tackling the world’s greatest challenges using open software and workflows.

The irony of these three different perspectives is that the challenges that users face in each category are similar! Below I explore my experiences pulling together the talk.

SLEPLET: Slepian Scale-Discretised Wavelets in Python

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0600

SLEPLET is a Python package for the construction of Slepian wavelets in the spherical and manifold (via meshes) settings. In contrast to other codes, SLEPLET handles any spherical region as well as the general manifold setting. The API is documented and easily extendible, designed in an object-orientated manner. Upon installation, SLEPLET comes with two command line interfaces - sphere and mesh - that allow one to easily generate plots on the sphere and a set of meshes using plotly. Whilst these scripts are the primary intended use, SLEPLET may be used directly to generate the Slepian coefficients in the spherical/manifold setting and use methods to convert these into real space for visualisation or other intended purposes. The construction of the sifting convolution was required to create Slepian wavelets. As a result, there are also many examples of functions on the sphere in harmonic space (rather than Slepian) that were used to demonstrate its effectiveness. SLEPLET has been used in the development of several papers.

pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2024 - Python packaging and community

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 -0600

TL;DR

pyOpenSci had a strong presence at PyCon US this year. I hope this continues for years to come! We held an open space, helped run the Maintainers Summit (lead by Inessa Pawson for 5 years and counting), gave a talk on Python packaging and ran a 1 day sprint where over 16 people contributed to our efforts.
pyOpenSci’s theme this year for PyConUS was people first: people first when trying to make technical concepts easier to understand, people first when trying to write good tutorials or documentation and people first when you are trying to solve the world’s hardest problems.
Giving a talk on packaging at pyConUS triggered every ounce of the imposter in me. But in the end it was a rewarding experience. Having friends in the audience made a world of difference. It was calming to focus on people who I know support both me and this vibrant organization. Friends really should never let friends…package…or use Python…or do anything technical…alone.

Another year, another incredible PyCon

Wow! I wasn’t sure it would be possible to top last year’s PyCon US 2023 experience in Salt Lake City, but this year’s PyConUS 2024 was even better. People are learning about pyOpenSci. The community is excited to support our mission to help scientists create better software and make their science more open and reproducible so they can tackle the world’s greatest challenges.

pyOpenSci Newsletter: June 2024

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 -0600

PyCon was incredible!

We feel so incredibly fortunate to have connected with so many of you at PyCon US! While we’re still recovering from a week of summits, talks, and sprints, we wanted to share this sentiment from our Executive Director and Founder, Leah Wasser, which she shared on her Fosstodon account:

Save the Date: pyOpenSci's 2024 Open Science Fall Festival

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 -0600

You’re invited: pyOpenSci’s Open Science Fall Festival 2024

Happening ~~September 28–29th, 2024,~~ October 28th through November 1st, 2024, the pyOpenSci Open Science Fall Festival will be held entirely online, and be a fantastic opportunity to bring together members of the Python community that create open source, open science tools with the members of the Python community who use these tools. In building this festival, our focus is on a grassroots, community-led event with some big unconference vibes.

Volunteers needed: pyOpenSci Editorial Board

Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Join the pyOpenSci Editorial Board

We’re currently in need of editors with domain expertise in climatology and/or energy, and also accepting applications from all scientific domains

Thanks to the efforts of our incredible team of volunteers, pyOpenSci is growing! As a result, we’re currently seeing a large number of package submissions to our open peer review process. In order to continue supporting scientists in the development of open source scientific software, we’re looking to add volunteer editors to our Editorial Board.

The pyOpenSci Guide to PyCon 2024

Tue, 14 May 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Connect with the pyOpenSci community at PyCon US 2024!

We know there are a million things to do and see while at PyCon US 2024 in beautiful Pittsburgh this weekend, so we wanted to compile a list of every talk, keynote, summit, and panel where you can expect to meet some of the fantastic pyOpenSci community members as well as hear from some friends of pyOpenSci!

Friday, May 17th

11:00–4:30 PM: Maintainers Summit

Room 402, David L. Lawrence Convention Center
The Maintainers Summit, organized by Inessa Pawson, Chris Rose, Kara Sowles, and Leah Wasser, is where the Python community comes together to discuss and foster best practices on how to develop sustainable projects and nurture thriving communities. Check out the video below about what to expect at this year’s Maintainers Summit produced by PyCon US 2024 Conference Chair Mariatta Wijaya:

pyOpenSci Newsletter: May 2024

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0600

Spring is in the Air

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, spring seems to have finally sprung. It’s a lovely time of year, filled with growth, opportunity, and new beginnings. And for all of us here in the pyOpenSci it’s brought new packages, new opportunities, and new projects that we can’t wait to share with you!

pyOpenSci’s first workshop was a success!

Thank you to everyone who made our first workshop such a fun experience!

On Thursday, April 25th, pyOpenSci held its first-ever workshop, titled: Build Your First Python Package!. With eight countries represented, we had 28 learners create and install their first Python package using Hatch, all in the course of three hours.

rdata: Read R datasets from Python

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0600

In the last years Python has solidified itself as the main language for data science and machine learning. However, the R programming language is also a widely used language in statistics, offering thousands of specialized software packages in this field. As it is common in the R community, many of these packages include accompanying data, often stored as R objects in the .rds and .rda formats.

This variety of datasets is normally inaccessible directly from Python programs. Instead, programmers typically have to open the data in R and manually convert it to another format, such as CSV, which can be understood by Python libraries. This process requires an R interpreter, it is not fast, nor easy, and may even be impossible to do without information loss. In particular, for nested structures and complex or custom R types there is no common file exchange format for Python and R that can be used to this purpose.

pyOpenSci launches open, accessible, online educational trainings for scientists

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0600

The three petals of pyOpenSci

pyOpenSci was founded with the mission to build diverse community that supports free and open Python tools for processing scientific data. We also build the technical skills needed to contribute to open source and that support open science. While a diverse, inclusive community is at our core, radiating out from it are the three petals–how we accomplish our community goals–of pyOpenSci. Those are: open peer review, community partnerships, and training and open educational resources.

pyOpenSci Newsletter: April 2024

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0600

To 200 and beyond!

This past month, pyOpenSci reached a major milestone: 200 contributors! We have a diverse and vibrant community of Pythonistas, and are thrilled that 200 (and counting) wonderful people have contributed to pyOpenSci. Will you be next? Learn more about getting involved.

Launched: editor spotlight

pyOpenSci editors are volunteers who fulfill a critical role within pyOpenSci. Editors lead the open peer review process for three to four Python packages a year, and also weigh in on group editorial decisions. With everything they do for pyOpenSci, we wanted to celebrate them! In March we kicked off our pyOpenSci editor spotlight, where every Wednesday we share a short interview with one of our editors. You can catch up with previous spotlights, and stay tuned for more, on both our Fosstodon and LinkedIn pages.

pyOpenSci Newsletter: March 2024

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Welcome, AstroPy

pyOpenSci has officially partnered with the AstroPy Project through our Community Partnership program. AstroPy is a Community Python Library for Astronomy, and the AstroPy Project is a community effort to develop a single core package for Astronomy in Python, while also fostering interoperability between Python astronomy packages. We’re thrilled to be partnering with the AstroPy project, and can’t wait to share more!

pyOpenSci adds an extra layer of community-specific review to our established open peer review process. This allows domain-specific scientific Python communities to vet affiliated tools through our robust peer review process. Communities then don’t have to develop and maintain their own review processes and software guidelines.

CZI Funds pyOpenSci

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0700

A bright 2024 is ahead for pyOpenSci

We are thrilled to announce that pyOpenSci has received 2 years of funding to cover core operations from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). These CZI funds will be used to continue critical pyOpenSci work that:

supports Python open source maintainers in developing the usable and maintainable scientific software the enables open science;
helps scientists navigate a complex Python packaging ecosystem;
diversifies the scientific Python open source community.

Open science builds trust and enables more people to participate

Open and reproducible science builds trust and accelerates research and discovery. Open science supports scientific research that is both transparent and reusable. Free and open source software is critical to open science as it ensures that the analyses of research data are broadly accessible. To build truly open research workflows, scientists need to use free and open source software (FOSS). FOSS removes the barriers that licenses and other fees may create making diverse participation more accessible.

👋 Hello, world! Greetings from the new pyOS Community Manager

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Chicago, cats, and community

I’m thrilled to be joining pyOpenSci (pyOS) as the Community Manager, and bringing my experiences as a researcher, educator, and developer advocate to support the creation and maintenance of free and open Python tools for processing scientific data. I’ve spent most of my adult life building online communities, from video games to programming to data science, and it’s exciting to see so many familiar faces in my first weeks at pyOS.

pyOpenSci Python packaging discussion at the Research Software Engineering meeting 2023

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0600

Intro

In October 2023, the United States Research Software Engineering (US-RSE), funded by the Sloan foundation, held its very first ever meeting.

I attended this meeting and lead a community session around our peer review process and Python packaging. Key TL&DR takeaways were:

Many RSE’s use Python (the show of hands in the main conference room on day 2 suggested 60-70% of them use it in their daily work)
Most feel like the packaging ecosystem can be confusing to navigate given there are numerous ways of creating a Python package
RSE’s are using a suite of different packaging tools and approaches in their Python work.

The good news take away is that the exact pain points described to me at this meeting are the ones that pyOpenSci is taking on. We are currently working on an end-to-end packaging tutorial that hopefully will shed light on and demystify a complex but vibrant ecosystem of Python packaging tools and options.

CLOSED: pyOpenSci is Hiring a Community Manager

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0600

IMPORTANT: we are no longer accepting applications for this position. Thank you for your interest.

Job Posting: pyOpenSci Community Manager

pyOpenSci is accepting applications for a Community Manager. The Community Manager supports growth and development of an inclusive pyOpenSci community. Our vibrant community is dedicated to supporting high quality Python open source software that drives open science.

Shark Attacks and Open Science - pyOpenSci @ SciPy 2023 Meeting

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0600

Shark attack - pyOpenSci at SciPy

I was so excited for SciPy this year.

I wanted to spread the word about pyOpenSci’s core mission - supporting the scientific open source Python community. I wanted to get more people involved.

pyOpenSci represents everything that matters most to me:

🌱 Community & People
🎓 Education
🔓 Open Science and Open Source
🌈 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Unplanned is often best

I am not used to going into a meeting with no specific plans and obligations. While pyOpenSci didn’t get a talk or a community session / BoF this year, we did get a lightning talk! It was a randomized selection, and I threw my name into the bucket (literally) with fingers crossed that i’d get a lightning talk.

My First Time Attending PyCon - A Tale of Sprints and Python Packaging

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0600

How it all went down - PyCON US 2023, Salt Lake City, Utah

This year was my first time attending pyCon US! I was intimidated to attend such a big Python meeting. For years i’ve attended science meetings such as AGU (American Geophysical Union), ESRI (GIS) users conferences and ESA (Ecological Society of America). I’ve been to and lead data science hackathons and been to the annual SciPy meeting. But i’ve never been to a pure tech conference.

Sorry This Talk Doesn't Have any ChatGPT in It: pyOpenSci peer review of Crowsetta

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0600

pyCon 2023 US -David Nicholson Lightning Talk on pyOpenSci Peer Review

David Nicholson, our pyOpenSci Editor in Chief, gave a fantastic lightning talk this year at pyCon US 2023. This year’s pyCon was held in Salt Lake City, Utah in April. David braved the expansive keynote room stage - talking to a gigantic room full of Pythonistas. He spoke about his experience going through our scientific Python software peer review process.

Demystifying the Python packaging ecosystem

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0600

A guide to make Python packaging easier for scientists

I’ve spent the last few months working on creating a Python packaging guide. This guide seeks to help those creating new scientific Python packages select a packaging tool and workflow. This guide also supports the pyOpenSci peer review process.

Below, I provide a brief overview of our content development process given the packaging tool guide chapter has been published! Yay!

TL;DR

There are a few key takeaways from this post:

What Makes a Python Open Source Package Healthy? A Conversation on Twitter.

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0700

Part 3/3: Blog series on package health

This blog post is part 3 of a 3 part series on open source package health. The series was inspired by a conversation held on twitter. This blog post is not a comprehensive perspective on what pyOpenSci plans to track as an organization. Rather it’s a summary of thoughts collect during the conversation on twitter that we can use to inform our final metrics.

In this post, I’ll summarize a conversation that was held on twitter that gaged what the community thought about metrics to track the health of scientific Python open source packages.

Packages and open source software, a few terms to clarify

When I say Python package or Python open source software, I’m referring to a tool that anyone can install to use in their Python environment.
When I say open source or free and open source software I’m referring to Python tools that are free to download and and their code is openly available for anyone to see (open source).

What is package health anyway?

There are many different ways to think about and evaluate open source Python package health.

Why Python package health metrics are a priority for pyOpenSci and other open source communities

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0700

Part 2/3: Blog series on package health

This blog is the second in a 3 part series. In the previous blog post, I discussed why the health of (Python) open source packages should matter to you as a scientist (and as a person who values and uses free and open source tools in your workflow). In this post, I’ll talk more about why collecting metrics are critical to both program development success and to the success of open source tools. I’ll wrap up this series with a discussion on what types of package metrics pyOpenSci should be collecting around the free and open source Python packages that you use..NOTE: all of this is in the context of a conversation on Twitter. It is not a comprehensive perspective on the final metrics that pyOpenSci plans to collect.

Metrics are critical to the development of any program

I’ve created a few open science focused programs now from the ground up. One at NEON and another at CU Boulder. When building a new program, one of the first things that I do (after defining the mission and goals) is to define the metrics that constitute success.

Why should Python open source package health matter to scientists? (and to you!)

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0600

Part 1/3: Blog series on package health

This blog post is part 1 of a 3 part series on open source package health. The series was inspired by a conversation held on twitter. This blog post is not a comprehensive perspective on what pyOpenSci plans to track as an organization. Rather it’s a summary of thoughts collect during the conversation on twitter that we can use to inform our final metrics.

pyOpenSci Editorial Process - New Editor in Chief and a Call For Editors

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0600

An update on pyOpenSci’s review process

Hey there! I just wanted to update everyone about where pyOpenSci is with its peer review process. We are currently hard at work updating our peer review guides to streamline the peer review process. For the next 2 months (October & November 2022) we will prioritize setting up an editorial board to support new reviews as they come in.

With that below you will find a few updates.

Big Changes for pyOpenSci: an update from the new Executive Director, Leah Wasser

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0600

pyOpenSci is now an independent community organization

I am thrilled to announce that pyOpenSci is now a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives! This means that pyOpenSci now serves the community of scientific Python users and open source software maintainers. pyOpenSci is not affiliated with any specific organization. I (Leah) will now be devoting ALL of my (work :grin: ) time to the pyOpenSci project full time as the official Executive Director.

MovingPandas: Data Structures and Methods for Movement Data Analysis

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0600

Movement data is everywhere: from tracking apps that record human or vehicle movement to ecologists monitoring wildlife behavior. Movement data analysis is challenging since movement data combines time series and spatial data analyses questions. Existing spatial analysis libraries, such as GeoPandas, are great at handling spatial data but they don’t support moving objects.

MovingPandas aims to fill the gap of missing tools for exploring movement data. It provides data structures and methods for dealing with data of moving objects. MovingPandas has been accepted by pyOpenSci as part of its ecosystem in March 2020.

PyOpenSci at AGU 2019: Join Us

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0700

Hey all! I’m a part of the pyOpenSci Leadership team and Director of the Earth Analytics Education Initiative at Earth Lab, University of Colorado, Boulder. There are several open source software events that you may want to consider if you plan to be at AGU 2019 this year in San Francisco. Please join us to learn more about pyOpenSci and to help shape what pyOpenSci becomes.

All are welcome!!

pyOpenSci Ignite Talk: Tuesday Dec 10, 2019 8am in Moscone West - 2010, L2

I will giving an invited ignite talk: pyOpenSci Promoting Open Source Python Software To Support Open Reproducible Science. This talk is a part of a larger open source software initiative organized by pyOpenSci collaborators Leonardo Uieda and Lindsey Heagy.

Pandera: A Statistical Data Validation Toolkit for Pandas

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0700

Modern data engineering and analysis workflows will often involve using data manipulation libraries, which, in the Python universe, would be tools like pandas. One problem you may have encountered with this powerful data manipulation tool is that the dataframe can be an opaque object that’s hard to reason about in terms of its contents, data types, and other properties.

One tool that may help you with this problem is pandera, which was accepted by pyOpenSci as part of its ecosystem of packages on September 2019. Pandera provides a flexible and expressive data validation toolkit that helps users make statistical assertions about pandas data structures.

Welcome to the pyOpenSci Blog!

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00:00 -0600

Welcome To PyOpenSci!

This is just a short post to let everyone know that we are starting a community blog post. Here we will write about many things including:

Packages that have gone through the review process.
Challenges that PyOpenSci is confronting in the open source Python community
Activities and events going on

and more.

Stay tuned for more in the upcoming months!

clean-hugo theme: blog formatting and shortcode reference

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 -0700

This post is a living reference for the clean-hugo theme. Every shortcode and content-formatting option available in the theme is demonstrated here with a working example and the code that produces it. Use this post to test that a theme change has not broken existing content, and as a copy-paste resource when writing new blog posts.

Figures

The figure shortcode renders images with optional captions and automatic WebP support. It generates a <picture> element with a WebP <source> and a fallback <img>. If a .webp file exists alongside the source image, modern browsers use it automatically.

pyOpenSci Blog on pyOpenSci

Generative AI and open source: what PyCon US 2026 taught us about the path forward

Generative AI and open source: what the community is wrestling with

It started with one contributor and now we fill the room: pyOpenSci sprints at PyCon US 2026

Tools Track, GenAI Bof and Roundtables: This year's PyCon US Maintainer Summit was something special

Building the summit: a year-round labor of love

PyCon US 2026: Community, connection, and what comes next

Ship It Cohort One: What We Built, What We Learned, and What's Next

Building Resilience: pyOpenSci in 2026

The world has changed

CyNetDiff: A Python Library for Accelerated Implementation of Network Diffusion Models

Navigating LLMs in Open Source: pyOpenSci's New Peer Review Policy

Generative AI meets scientific open source

Why We Choose What We Choose

From Surviving to Thriving: A Convening to Reclaim and Sustain Open Science Communities

What’s New in pyOpenSci: September Updates + Community Shoutouts

Succession is Success: pyOpenSci's Executive Council Transition Marks Organizational Maturity

Meet Mandy Moore, pyOpenSci’s new Communications and Community Lead!

Meet Mandy Moore, pyOpenSci’s new Communications and Community Lead!

Listening, learning, and building together: what we heard at our SciPy 2025 BoF

Highlights from SciPy 2025: Building Community, Code, and Culture

pyOpenSci at SciPy 2025 - science, Python and Community

pyOpenSci at SciPy 2025: Community, Contribution, and Packaging Know-How

Learn Packaging with pyOpenSci (Tutorial)

pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2025 - Python, Packaging and Community

PyCon US Maintainers Summit: Co-hosted by pyOpenSci

Reaffirming pyOpenSci's Commitment to Inclusion

Contribute to Open Source Software: It's More Than just Code

Beyond code: the social side of open source

How to Secure Your Python Packages When Publishing to PyPI

Is your PyPI publication workflow secure?

Building Momentum for the Future: Reflections on Our First Open Science Festival Week

Our inaugural fall festival was a great success!

2024: A Transformative Year for pyOpenSci

Introduction

QuadratiK: Collection of Methods Constructed using Kernel-Based Quadratic Distances

Introduction

CLOSED pyOpenSci is hiring a Communications Lead

CLOSED Job: writer & social media specialist

About the role

The Human Dimension to Clean, Distributable, and Documented Data Science Code

pyOpenSci celebrates Inessa Pawson

pyOpenSci Celebrates Inessa

A Blueprint for the Future: pyOpenSci's Sustainability Model

Introduction

How funding has propelled pyOpenSci forward

It's Been a Long Short Road: The Monumental Past 2 Years of pyOpenSci

It’s been two years since I started working full-time on pyOpenSci

pyOpenSci @ SciPy 2024 - Python Packaging Tutorials, Talks and Community :heart:

pyOpenSci’s fourth year attending SciPy - my experience

pyOpenSci Community News: August 2024

pyOpenSci community news

pyOpenSci beginner-friendly sprints at PyCon US 2024

pyOpenSci’s approach to beginner-friendly sprints

automata: Simulation and manipulation

pyOpenSci's Guide to SciPy

See you at SciPy!

Tutorials

Interactive data visualizations with Bokeh (in 2024)

Get Involved with pyOpenSci

The pyOpenSci mission

Promote pyOpenSci online and in-person

Friends don't let friends package alone- my Python packaging talk at PyCon 2024

Python packaging and community: my first talk at PyCon US 2024

SLEPLET: Slepian Scale-Discretised Wavelets in Python

pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2024 - Python packaging and community

Another year, another incredible PyCon

pyOpenSci Newsletter: June 2024

PyCon was incredible!

Save the Date: pyOpenSci's 2024 Open Science Fall Festival

You’re invited: pyOpenSci’s Open Science Fall Festival 2024

Volunteers needed: pyOpenSci Editorial Board

Join the pyOpenSci Editorial Board

We’re currently in need of editors with domain expertise in climatology and/or energy, and also accepting applications from all scientific domains

The pyOpenSci Guide to PyCon 2024

Connect with the pyOpenSci community at PyCon US 2024!

Friday, May 17th

11:00–4:30 PM: Maintainers Summit

pyOpenSci Newsletter: May 2024

Spring is in the Air