Lending Pythonistas

Too often I hear people bemoaning their inability to change the world, so I wanted to bring Kiva, and specifically the Pythonistas team, to your attention because if you have even a modest amount of money to spare you can put it to use again and again to help worthy enterprises, typically closely allied with their local community.

I started lending money through Kiva a while ago, and more recently joined its Pythonistas team. I suggested starting such a team shortly after I joined Kiva, but it took Anna Martelli's energy to actually get it off the ground, and I received my invitation a couple of months ago - thanks, Anna! If you decide you want to become a "Kiva Pythonista" all you have to do is follow this link.

Even as a Kiva Pythonista you still decide to whom you want to lend money, you simply say you want your loans to be counted as a part of the Pythonista effort. The enterprises you will fund are typically far from hi-tech: here are some of the groups I am currently funding to give you some idea of the kinds of activity you can support.

Secretarial Services in Uganda
Second-Hand Clothing in Guatemala
Fish Retailing in Senegal
Cattle Farming in Azerbaijan
A Grocery Store in Cambodia
Animal Rearing in Tajikistan
A General Store in Togo
A Cooperative Bank in Bolivia

This came to mind because I got an email this morning reminding me that I had received repayments of $150, and so I am just about to use the Kiva site to lend those repaid funds to new borrowers, keeping my money actively at work. And now I can do it as a Pythonista!

Biggest PyCon Ever Starts March 14

It now appears definite that this year's PyCon is going to be a monster. As of nine o'clock this morning there were 755 registrations, after the usual spike at the end of the Early Bird period.

Murphy's law dictated that registrants started experiencing problems with credit-card payments in the last 36 hours of Early Bird due to problems with the third-party processing service. Right now there are over 100 pending credit-card registrations! If you experienced a problem and did not manage to complete your registration, fear not—you will be charged the Early Bird price if your registration was started in the right time frame but you could not complete it due to site problems.

I'm buzzed about this conference. The tutorials are getting packed—several, including my own, are nearing the 50 mark—and there are still over three weeks to go. I believe this is going to be the largest-ever gathering of Pythonistas in the world. Be there, or be a four-sided regular geometrical shape.

I'm thinking about trying to do some audio interviews while I'm there. Who would you most like to hear from? You can see the sign-up list (excepting those who requested no publicity) here.