Django

This year it was hard to decide, and we wanted to also show who else got nominated, because they also deserve recognition, so it took a bit longer than we expected. The Django Software Foundation Board is pleased to announce that the 2024 Malcolm ... [More] Tredinnick Memorial Prize has been awarded to Rachell Calhoun. Rachell Calhoun is an influential figure within the Django community, well known for being cheerful and always willing to help others. She consistently empowers folks behind the scenes. Rachell got her start in the Django community through a Django Girls Seoul event. Being an educator, she started organizing Django Girls Seoul events. Her contributions to Django Girls Seoul and Django Girls Grand Rapids exemplify her commitment to sharing knowledge, spreading Django and lifting others up. Rachell is now a trustee for Django Girls +, contributing to its mission of helping women and other underrepresented groups around the world learn programming with Django. In 2022, Rachell co-founded Djangonaut Space, an initiative designed to support new contributors to the Django ecosystem, encouraging leadership and growth. Rachell’s willingness to help people achieve their goals and celebrate their achievements has been imprinted in Djangonaut Space’s culture. Rachell and Djangonaut Space have done a stellar job on helping people become contributors and Django community members. Her commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion extends beyond her organizational work; she has volunteered at multiple DjangoCon US events, bringing her welcoming and inclusive spirit to the community. A long-time volunteer and speaker at DjangoCon US and DjangoCon Europe from 2016 to 2024, she has shared her expertise and insights on various topics related to Django and web development. Rachell has contributed to Django for many years, she has been instrumental in creating spaces where people of all backgrounds can thrive, making her a beloved and respected member of the global Django ecosystem. Some quotes from the thirteen people who nominated Rachell had this to say about her: Rachell advocates for others constantly through sponsorship, inclusivity, and connection. She is extremely empathic and seeks to not only welcome others in, but to actively bring them into the group. She has been one of the core members of Djangonaut Space which has done a lot for bringing new contributors into the Django community. This program has done a lot to excite and energize the Django community and Rachell is one of the major reasons why. --Throughout her career she's been involved in Django Girls starting about a decade ago in South Korea. She was a major organizer of the Grand Rapids, MI branch, before moving into the trustee role she occupies now. Rachell is one of my favorite people and she's been doing an excellent job at growing Django and helping others feel more welcome here. Rachell is an excellent choice for the Malcolm Tredinnick 2024 award! — Tim Shilling Rachell is an extremely skillful leader who is always nurturing newcomers into leaders. She has been pivotal to my experience with the Djangonaut Space Program.I started out as a nervous Djangonaut who didn’t schedule my 1:1s until Rachell checked in with me and made sure I knew the program was a safe space to discuss anything. When I joined the program organizers as a Navigator Coordinator, I was initially much more of a follower. Rachell knew to step back while continuing to provide her support, so I could step into the leadership role and get my job done. Rachell shows people that she believes in them. She does this in a friendly, gentle, and encouraging manner. She never forces anyone to make decisions that they don’t feel comfortable with. The community is really lucky to have Rachell. — Lilian Rachell Calhoun, one of the organizers and founders of Djangonaut Space, has been an open, supportive, and educational help on my Django journey. Her contributions to the Djangonaut Space program are invaluable—a program I hold quite dearly as a cornerstone of my technical interactions and growth. Rachell's ideals of nurturing and guiding have shone through the program, for which I am grateful. Encouraging wonderful conversations, organizing and fostering mentorship, and being a great person! I believe Rachell is an embodiment of the Malcolm Tredinnick spirit and am confident that should she win the prize, she would go on to create more impact for the Django community and the world at large. — Emmanuel Katchy Other nominations for this year included: Anna Makarudze, Fundraising Coordinator at Django Girls+ Foundation, chair of the first DjangoCon Africa, previously served the DSF board as president. Benjamin Balder Bach, chair of the DSF social media working group, organizer of Django Day Copenhagen for many years. Black Python Devs, community founded by Jay Miller, to increase diversity and inclusion of typically underrepresented people. Bhuvnesh Sharma, co-chair of the DSF social media working group, and co-founded and organized Django India. Carlton Gibson, previously a Django fellow, co-host of Django Chat, volunteers in DjangoCon Europe and provides useful advice in forum and discord. Christoph Bulter, active helper of the official and unofficial Django Discord. Django Girls+, a non-profit organization and a community that empowers and helps women to organize free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support. Django Discord moderators and helpers, which are moderating the discord and provide help to keep the place welcoming and inclusive to everyone. Daniel Moran, active contributor in various open-source projects, including django-tasks-scheduler. He is an administrator of the Django Commons organization. Ester Beltrami, PyCon Italia and Django London organizer, is also a volunteer and a speaker in events such as EuroPython or DjangoCon Europe. Felipe de Morais, co-founder of AfroPython, participant of Djangonaut Space program, organized and advised multiple Django Girls workshops across Brazil and Chile. Jake Howard, speaker and contributor to Django, known for his work around background tasks. Matt Westcott, frequent speaker and lead the development of Wagtail. Russel Keith-Magee, python core contributor and previously Django core contributor and also served in the DSF board as President. Ryan Cheley, django contributor and mentor (navigator) in Djangonaut Space program. Simon Charette, long-time django contributor, previously member of the Django 5.x steering council Sheena O’Connell, frequent speaker and DjangoCon Africa organizer. Tom Carrick, Django Accessibility team creator and member, django contributor for many years and mentor (navigator) in Djangonaut Space program. Tim Schilling, DEFNA secretary, DjangoCon Us organizer and co-founder of Djangonaut Space. Will Vincent, former board member of the DSF, co-host of Django Chat and co-writer of Django News. Each year we receive many nominations, and it is always hard to pick the winner. This year, as always, we received many nominations for the Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize with some being nominated multiple times. Some have been nominated in multiple years. If your nominee didn’t make it this year, you can always nominate them again next year. Malcolm would be very proud of the legacy he has fostered in our community! Congratulations Rachell on the well-deserved honor! [Less]

The DjangoCon Europe 2026 call for organizers is now over. We’re elated to report we received three viable proposals, a clear improvement over recent years. We’ll let the successful team decide when and how to make their announcement, but in the ... [More] meantime – thank you to everyone who took part in this process ❤️ We’re elated to have such a strong community in Europe. And for now, look forward to DjangoCon Europe 2025 in Dublin, Ireland! 🍀 What about 2027? We’re not ready to plan that yet, but if you’re interested in organizing – take a moment to add your name and email to our DjangoCon Europe 2027 expression of interest form. We’ll make sure to reach out once the time is right. [Less]

The DSF is once again partnering with JetBrains to run the 2024 Django Developers Survey 🌈 Please take a moment to fill it out! It should only take about 10 minutes to complete. It’s an important metric of Django usage, and is immensely helpful to ... [More] guide future technical and community decisions. Take the survey The survey will be open until December 21st, 2024. After the survey is over, we will publish the aggregated results. JetBrains will also randomly choose 10 winners (from those who complete the survey in its entirety with meaningful answers), who will each receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a local equivalent. How you can help Once you’ve done the survey, take a moment to re-share on socials? And with your communities. The more diverse the answers, the better the results for all of us. Here are the relevant posts to boost: on Reddit /r/django on Twitter / X @djangoproject on Mastodon @[email protected] on LinkedIn Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this community effort, and thank you to JetBrains for their consistent support over the years! Oh and – any feedback? Please share it on our forum thread or the dedicated survey feedback form. [Less]

The DSF is once again partnering with JetBrains to run the 2024 Django Developers Survey 🌈 Please take a moment to fill it out! It should only take about 10 minutes to complete. It’s an important metric of Django usage, and is immensely helpful to ... [More] guide future technical and community decisions. Take the survey The survey will be open until December 21st, 2024. After the survey is over, we will publish the aggregated results. JetBrains will also randomly choose 10 winners (from those who complete the survey in its entirety with meaningful answers), who will each receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a local equivalent. How you can help Take a moment to re-share the survey on socials, and with your respective communities? The more diverse the answers, the better the results for all of us. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this community effort, and thank you to JetBrains for their consistent support over the years! [Less]

Today, we’re announcing early elections for the Django Software Foundation Steering Council over the 6.x Django release cycle. Elected members will be on the Steering Council for two years, from the end of those elections in December, until April ... [More] 2027 with the scheduled start of the Django 7.x release cycle. Why we have early elections The DSF Board of Directors previously shared Django’s technical governance challenges, and opportunities. Now that the Board elections are completed, we’re ready to proceed with this other, separate election, following existing processes. We will want a Steering Council who strives  to meet the group’s intended goals: To safeguard big decisions that affect Django projects at a fundamental level. To help shepherd the project’s future direction. We expect the new Steering Council will take on those known challenges, resolve those questions of technical leadership, and update Django’s technical governance. They will have the full support of the Board of Directors to address this threat to Django’s future. And the Board will also be more decisive in intervening, should similar issues keep arising. Elections timeline Here are the important dates of the Steering Council elections, subject to change: 2024-11-21: announcement & opening of voter registration 2024-11-26 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth): voter registration closes 2024-11-27: opening of Steering Council candidates registration 2024-12-04 23:59 AoE: candidates registration closes (one week gap per defined processes) 2024-12-10: voting starts 2024–12-17 23:59 AoE: voting ends 2024-12-18: results ratification by DSF Board of Directors 2024-12-19: results announcement Voter registration If you’re an Individual Member of the Django Software Foundation, you’re already registered to vote. There’s nothing further for you to do. If you aren’t, consider nominating yourself for individual membership. Once approved, you will be registered to vote for this election. Alternatively, for members of our community who want to vote in this election but don’t want to become Individual Members, you can register to vote from now until 2024-11-26 23:59 Anywhere on Earth, use our form: Django 6.x Steering Council Voter Registration. Candidate registration If you’re interested, don’t wait until formal candidate registration. You can already fill in our 6.x Steering Council expression of interest form. At the end of the form, select “I would like what my submissions to this form to be used as part of my candidate registration for the elections”. Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest Voting Once voting opens, those eligible to vote in this election will receive information on how to vote via email. Please check for an email with the subject line “6.x Steering Council elections voting”. Voting will be open until 23:59 on December 17, 2024 Anywhere on Earth. — Any questions? Ask on our dedicated forum discussion thread, or reach out via email to foundation\@djangoproject.com. [Less]

Today, we’re announcing early elections for the Django Software Foundation Steering Council over the 6.x Django release cycle. Elected members will be on the Steering Council for two years, from the end of those elections in December, until April ... [More] 2027 with the scheduled start of the Django 7.x release cycle. Why we have early elections The DSF Board of Directors previously shared Django’s technical governance challenges, and opportunities. Now that the Board elections are completed, we’re ready to proceed with this other, separate election, following existing processes. We will want a Steering Council who strives  to meet the group’s intended goals: To safeguard big decisions that affect Django projects at a fundamental level. To help shepherd the project’s future direction. We expect the new Steering Council will take on those known challenges, resolve those questions of technical leadership, and update Django’s technical governance. They will have the full support of the Board of Directors to address this threat to Django’s future. And the Board will also be more decisive in intervening, should similar issues keep arising. Elections timeline Here are the important dates of the Steering Council elections, subject to change: 2024-11-21: announcement & opening of voter registration 2024-11-26 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth): voter registration closes 2024-11-27: opening of Steering Council candidates registration 2024-12-04 23:59 AoE: candidates registration closes (one week gap per defined processes) 2024-12-10: voting starts 2024–12-17 23:59 AoE: voting ends 2024-12-18: results ratification by DSF Board of Directors 2024-12-19: results announcement Voter registration If you’re an Individual Member of the Django Software Foundation, you’re already registered to vote. There’s nothing further for you to do. If you aren’t, consider nominating yourself for individual membership. Once approved, you will be registered to vote for this election. Alternatively, for members of our community who want to vote in this election but don’t want to become Individual Members, you can register to vote from now until 2024-11-26 23:59 Anywhere on Earth, use our form: Django 6.x Steering Council Voter Registration. Candidate registration If you’re interested, don’t wait until formal candidate registration. You can already fill in our 6.x Steering Council expression of interest form. At the end of the form, select “I would like what my submissions to this form to be used as part of my candidate registration for the elections”. Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest Voting Once voting opens, those eligible to vote in this election will receive information on how to vote via email. Please check for an email with the subject line “6.x Steering Council elections voting”. Voting will be open until 23:59 on December 17, 2024 Anywhere on Earth. — Any questions? Ask on our dedicated forum discussion thread, or reach out via email to [email protected]. And while you’re here – take a moment to fill our Django Developers Survey? [Less]

The 2025 DSF Board Election has closed, and the following candidates have been elected: Abigail Gbadago Jeff Triplett Paolo Melchiorre Tom Carrick They will all serve two years for their term. Directors elected for the 2024 DSF Board, Jacob, Sarah ... [More] , and Thibaud are continuing with one year left to serve on the board. Therefore, the combined 2025 DSF Board of Directors are: Jacob Kaplan-Moss Sarah Abderemane Thibaud Colas Abigail Gbadago* Jeff Triplett* Paolo Melchiorre* Tom Carrick* Elected to a two (2) year term Congratulations to our winners, and a huge thank you to our departing board members Çağıl Uluşahin Sonmez, Chaim Kirby, Kátia Yoshime Nakamura, Katie McLaughlin. Thank you again to everyone who nominated themselves. Even if you were not successful, you gave our community the chance to make their voices heard in who they wanted to represent them. [Less]

The 2025 DSF Board Election has closed, and the following candidates have been elected: Abigail Gbadago Jeff Triplett Paolo Melchiorre Tom Carrick They will all serve two years for their term. Directors elected for the 2024 DSF Board, Jacob, Sarah ... [More] , and Thibaud are continuing with one year left to serve on the board. Therefore, the combined 2025 DSF Board of Directors are: Jacob Kaplan-Moss Sarah Abderemane Thibaud Colas Abigail Gbadago* Jeff Triplett* Paolo Melchiorre* Tom Carrick* * Elected to a two (2) year term Congratulations to our winners, and a huge thank you to our departing board members Çağıl Uluşahin Sonmez, Chaim Kirby, Kátia Yoshime Nakamura, Katie McLaughlin. Thank you again to everyone who nominated themselves. Even if you were not successful, you gave our community the chance to make their voices heard in who they wanted to represent them. Please join us in celebrating this news on the forum thread: 2025 DSF Board Election Results or on social media (@djangopproject on X, @[email protected] on Mastodon, Django Software Foundation on LinkedIn). [Less]

As of October 29th, two of four members of the Django Software Foundation Steering Council have resigned from their role, with their intentions being to trigger an election of the Steering Council earlier than otherwise scheduled, per our established ... [More] governance processes. To our departing members, Simon and Adam, thank you for your contributions to Django and its governance ❤️. The framework and our community owes a lot to your dedication, and we’re confident our community will join us in celebrating your past contributions – and look forward to learning about your future endeavors in the Django ecosystem. And thanks to the remaining members, James and Andrew, for their service over the years. Our governance challenges Governance in open source is hard, and community-driven open source even more so. We’re proud that Django’s original two Benevolent Dictators For Life (BDFLs) both retired from the role and turned things over to community governance ten years ago now. The BDFL model can provide  excellent technical governance, but also has its flaws. So the  mantle of technical governance then went on to the Core Developers and the Technical Board (renamed to Steering Council) was introduced. However, time has revealed flaws in the Steering Council’s governance model and operations. The Steering Council was able to provide decision-making – tiebreaking when the developer community couldn’t lead to consensus – but didn’t provide more forward-looking leadership or vision. Disagreements over how – or if – the Steering Council should approach this part of leadership led us to the current situation, with no functioning technical governance as of a few weeks ago. Even before those recent events, those flaws were also a common source of frustration for our contributors, and a source of concern for Django users who (rightly or not) might have expectations of Django’s direction – such as the publication of a “roadmap” for Django development. The Django Software Foundation Board of Directors is and was aware of those issues, and recently made attempts to have the Steering Council rectify them, in coordination with other established community members. The DSF Board has tried to be hands-off when it comes to technical leadership, but in retrospect we should have been getting involved sooner, or more decisively. The lack of technical leadership is an existential threat to Django – a slow moving one, but a threat nonetheless. It’s our responsibility to address this threat. Where we’re heading We now need new Steering Council members. But we also need governance reform. There’s a lot about the Steering Council that is good and might only need minimal changes. However, the overall question of the Steering Council’s remit, and how it approaches technical leadership for the Django community, needs to be resolved. We’re going to hold early elections of the Steering Council, as soon as we’ve completed the ongoing 2025 DSF Board elections. Those elections will follow existing processes, and we will want a Steering Council who strives  to meet the group’s intended goals: To safeguard big decisions that affect Django projects at a fundamental level. To help shepherd the project’s future direction. We expect the new Steering Council will take on those known challenges, resolve those questions of technical leadership, and update Django’s technical governance. They will have the full support of the Board of Directors to address this threat to Django’s future. And the Board will also be more decisive in intervening, should similar issues keep arising. How you can help We need contributors willing to take on those challenges and help our community come out ahead. It’s a big role, impactful but demanding. And there are strict, often annoying eligibility rules for the Steering Council. To help you help us, we’ve set up a form: Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest. If you’re interested in stepping up to shepherd Django’s technical direction, fill in our expression of interest form. We’ll let you know whether or not you meet those eligibility rules, take the guesswork out of the way. You get to focus on your motivation for taking on this kind of high-purpose, high-reward governance role. And once the elections start and we get to candidate registrations, we’ll be able to reuse details submitted here (if you want to) so the process is smoother for everyone. Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest How everyone can help Those elections will be crucial for the future of Django, and will be decided thanks to the vote of our Django Software Foundation Individual Members. If you know people who contribute to ​​the DSF’s mission but aren’t Individual Members already -- use our form to nominate them as Individual Members, so they’re eligible to vote. If you’re that person, do nominate yourself. We consider all contributions towards our mission: advancing and promoting Django, protecting the framework’s long-term viability, and advancing the state of the art in web development. Any questions? Comment on our forum thread, Discussion thread for “Django’s technical governance challenges, and opportunities” blog post, or reach out via email to [email protected]. [Less]

As of October 29th, two of four members of the Django Software Foundation Steering Council have resigned from their role, with their intentions being to trigger an election of the Steering Council earlier than otherwise scheduled, per our established ... [More] governance processes. To our departing members, Simon and Adam, thank you for your contributions to Django and its governance ❤️. The framework and our community owes a lot to your dedication, and we’re confident our community will join us in celebrating your past contributions – and look forward to learning about your future endeavors in the Django ecosystem. And thanks to the remaining members, James and Andrew, for their service over the years. Our governance challenges Governance in open source is hard, and community-driven open source even more so. We’re proud that Django’s original two Benevolent Dictators For Life (BDFLs) both retired from the role and turned things over to community governance ten years ago now. The BDFL model can provide  excellent technical governance, but also has its flaws. So the  mantle of technical governance then went on to the Core Developers and the Technical Board (renamed to Steering Council) was introduced. However, time has revealed flaws in the Steering Council’s governance model and operations. The Steering Council was able to provide decision-making – tiebreaking when the developer community couldn’t lead to consensus – but didn’t provide more forward-looking leadership or vision. Disagreements over how – or if – the Steering Council should approach this part of leadership led us to the current situation, with no functioning technical governance as of a few weeks ago. Even before those recent events, those flaws were also a common source of frustration for our contributors, and a source of concern for Django users who (rightly or not) might have expectations of Django’s direction – such as the publication of a “roadmap” for Django development. The Django Software Foundation Board of Directors is and was aware of those issues, and recently made attempts to have the Steering Council rectify them, in coordination with other established community members. The DSF Board has tried to be hands-off when it comes to technical leadership, but in retrospect we should have been getting involved sooner, or more decisively. The lack of technical leadership is an existential threat to Django – a slow moving one, but a threat nonetheless. It’s our responsibility to address this threat. Where we’re heading We now need new Steering Council members. But we also need governance reform. There’s a lot about the Steering Council that is good and might only need minimal changes. However, the overall question of the Steering Council’s remit, and how it approaches technical leadership for the Django community, needs to be resolved. We’re going to hold early elections of the Steering Council, as soon as we’ve completed the ongoing 2025 DSF Board elections. Those elections will follow existing processes, and we will want a Steering Council who strives  to meet the group’s intended goals: To safeguard big decisions that affect Django projects at a fundamental level. To help shepherd the project’s future direction. We expect the new Steering Council will take on those known challenges, resolve those questions of technical leadership, and update Django’s technical governance. They will have the full support of the Board of Directors to address this threat to Django’s future. And the Board will also be more decisive in intervening, should similar issues keep arising. How you can help We need contributors willing to take on those challenges and help our community come out ahead. It’s a big role, impactful but demanding. And there are strict, often annoying eligibility rules for the Steering Council. To help you help us, we’ve set up a form: Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest. If you’re interested in stepping up to shepherd Django’s technical direction, fill in our expression of interest form. We’ll let you know whether or not you meet those eligibility rules, take the guesswork out of the way. You get to focus on your motivation for taking on this kind of high-purpose, high-reward governance role. Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest How everyone can help Those elections will be crucial for the future of Django, and will be decided thanks to the vote of our Django Software Foundation Individual Members. If you know people who contribute to ​​the DSF’s mission but aren’t Individual Members already -- use our form to nominate them as Individual Members, so they’re eligible to vote. If you’re that person, do nominate yourself. We consider all contributions towards our mission: advancing and promoting Django, protecting the framework’s long-term viability, and advancing the state of the art in web development. Any questions? Reach out via email to [email protected]. [Less]