Talks¶

Here are some of the talks that I have given, (with slides/video/audio, when available)

2024¶

Current Challenges in Free Software and Open Source Development¶

Bay Area Drupal Camp, Oakland, CA. October 2024

Current Challenges in Free Software and Open Source Development

Abstract:

License laundering as a service: the intersection of large language models and pyramid schemes.
Oil and water: the effort and expectation differences of mixing paid and volunteer work.
Pay the piper: relicensing trends in commercially supported source-available projects.

License laundering as a service: the intersection of large language models and pyramid schemes.

GitHub Copilot, and other large language models for code completion trained on publicly available software with no regard for the licenses of that software, acts as a license laundering cudgel that denigrates the work of open source developers who have contributed their code under a legal framework for how their code can be used. If their code was contributed under a copyleft license, like GPL (v2 or v3), the expectation is that no user of their code will ever lose the ability to modify their code. If it was contributed under a permissive license, like BSD (2 or 3 clause) or MIT, the expectation was that inclusion of their code would result in an attribution to the project they contributed to. Tools like GitHub Copilot makes all of those expectation of the original authors of the code null and void, enabling theft of their work, all in the name of making it "easier" for other programmers.

Oil and water: the effort and expectation differences of mixing paid and volunteer work.

Popular collaboratively developed software can attract a mixture of monetarily compensated development as well as the hobbyist unpaid labor that nourished the software in its nascency. "Business critical gift economies" don't exist, but projects and their participants vary on a spectrum from those two opposite poles, and positions shift over time. Paradoxically, this tension can be both productive and detrimental at the same time, depending on the perspective of those involved.

Pay the piper: relicensing trends in commercially supported source-available projects.>

With increasing frequency, previously open source software projects backed by a commercial entity are shifting away from traditional licenses. Recent examples include Sentry, Terraform, Redis, and CockroachDB. Why are they doing that and what are affected users and developers doing in response.

( video )

( slides )

2021¶

Internal Tech Talk on WebDash¶

Bloomberg, San Francisco, CA. January 2021

“That WASMjs-tic”

Co-presented with Itay Dafna

Abstract: Dash running on Flask running in Python running in web assembly (WASM) running in the web browser via JavaScript. Client-server communication without a (real) server.

As the primary author, Itay wrote up the blog post version of the talk, so please read Introducing WebDash for the full details, where you can see my drawings. See also WebDash on GitHub.

2020¶

JupyterCon 2020 Lightning Talks¶

co-organizer and co-MC with Tracy Teal

Girl Geek Dinner - Bloomberg¶

San Francisco, CA. February 2020

Panelist on “How to Thrive in Open Source Communities” (starts 12 minutes in).

( video )

2019¶

PyData NYC 2019 Lightning talks¶

New York, NY. November 2019

co-MC with Anthony Scopatz

PyCon Taiwan 2019 keynote¶

Pycon TW, Taipei, Taiwan. September 2019

“Programming Language Tourism: Leave Python and see the world!”

Abstract: Programming languages are places. The idea of abandoning the convenience and familiarity of your primary coding language might seem anything from tedious and inconvenient to scary and stressful. But, switching to an alternative other than your primary development language – especially when such a challenge is not a requirement – can be both fun and productive. You will likely grow your abilities as a developer and gain new perspective that is currently beyond your reach.

Let’s push out of our comfort zone together to leave Python and voyage to a different language! We will go into details about why and how we can do that, along with some possible destinations. Upon our return, we will see – and appreciate – Python in a different light. Plus, we can use the justifications for our departure to entice and welcome folks from other language communities to visit us in the land of the snake.

( slides )

SciPy 2019 Lightning talks¶

SciPy, Austin, TX. July 2019

co-MC with Anthony Scopatz

( video: Wednesday ) ( video: Thursday ) ( video: Friday )

.

2018¶

Terraforming Jupyter: Changing JupyterLab to suit your needs¶

JupyterCon, New York, NY. August 2018

Co-presented with Stephanie Stattel

( abstract ) ( code )

Interview with Paco Nathan at JupyterCon 2018¶

JupyterCon, New York, NY. August 2018

SciPy 2018 Lightning talks¶

SciPy, Austin, TX. July 2018

co-MC with Anthony Scopatz

( video: Wednesday ) ( video: Thursday ) ( video: Friday )

A Conversation with Project Jupyter Steering Council Members Jason Grout & Paul Ivanov¶

Bloomberg, San Francisco, CA. June 2018

A piece put together by our colleagues at Bloomberg to accompany the 2017 ACM Software System award.

2017¶

Jupyter: Kernels, Protocols, and the IPython Reference Implementation¶

JupyterCon, New York, NY. August 2017

Co-presented with Matthias Bussonnier

( abstract )

SciPy 2017 Lightning talks¶

SciPy, Austin, TX. July 2017

co-MC with Anthony Scopatz

( video: Wednesday ) ( video: Thursday ) ( video: Friday )

2016¶

What is backend development?¶

Disqus, San Francisco, CA. January 2016

Talk for SF City Arts and Technology High School students visiting Disqus Inc for the day. I live-coded a simple commenting system using Flask.

2015¶

How IPython, and you can, too¶

Neustar Research, San Francisco, CA. March 2015

A command-line driven talk about all of the useful things in IPython before you even get to the notebook interface. Here’s a tweet from an attendee of that talk:

2014¶

Putting the v in IPython: vim-ipython and ipython-vimception¶

SciPy, Austin, TX. July 2014

A talk about vim-ipython, bipython, and ipython-vimception.

( slides ) ( abstract )

The IPython Protocol: Frontends and Kernels¶

PyData Silicon Valley 2014, Menlo Park, CA, May 2014

A talk that I gave with Thomas Kluyver, where I covered the protocol and frontend portions, and he covered a demo of the currently available kernels.

( slides )

2013¶

Cython - The Speed of C within the convenience of Python¶

Guest lecture in AY 250: Python Computing for Data Science, UC Berkeley, November 2013

( slides )

Whetting your appetite (capstone lecture for 3 day bootcamp)¶

Python Boot Camp, Berkeley, CA. August 2013

simple web scraper, sqlite, email, and some Flask: (Aug 28, 2013): Access files at http://www.pythonbootcamp.info/schedule

Making people do animal vocalizations: so here’s the bit where I first get the idea to make people moo (because they were typing and giving me a thumbs up would have made them stop typing). And shortly after this point is where I actually make them moo the first time. And make them meow after that.

A Portrait of One Scientist as a Graduate Student¶

SciPy, Austin, TX. June 2013

In this talk, I will focus on the how of reproducible research. I will focus on specific tools and techniques I have found invaluable in doing research in a reproducible manner. In particular, I will cover the following general topics (with specific examples in parentheses): version control and code provenance (git), code verification (test driven development, nosetests), data integrity (sha1, md5, git-annex), seed saving ( random seed retention ) distribution of datasets (mirroring, git-annex, metalinks), light-weight analysis capture ( ttyrec, ipython notebook)

( slides )

A Portrait of One Scientist as a Graduate Student¶

SIAM CSE 2013, Boston, MA. February 2013

Reproducibility and Computationally Intensive, Data-driven Research mini-symposium

( slides )

2012¶

Introduction to IPython and the IPython Notebook¶

UC Berkeley Python Bootcamp, August 20th, 2012

tutorial notebook: ( view ) ( download ).

breakout notebook: ( view ) ( download )

Development 2: Testing and Debugging (with philosophical remarks)¶

UC Berkeley Python Bootcamp, August 22nd, 2012

Matplotlib, beyond the basics¶

Astronomy 250, Python Computing for Data Science, UC Berkeley, January 2012.

Emerging victorious from the onslaught of the beginning of the semester in January 2012, including a nasty cold with a fever of 104 F, I delivered a guest lecture on matplotlib where I start off by saying how ” I’m a little doped up”, and about 25 minutes into it end up blurting out ” I’m totally high right now!” - which is awesome since it was recorded and captured for posterity.

( video )