We have been made aware of a possible controversy around a recent interview given by some of the on-site team organizers from the ACPySS (Python San Sebastian) to the “Python en español” podcast.
In one section of the interview, addressing ways of improving the Python community, one of the organizers, Manuel Graña, makes statements which can be interpreted in many ways, one of those interpretations being that he feels that DjangoGirls and similar groups are different than the rest of the Python community.
We have addressed this issue with the ACPySS to find out what was really meant with the statements.
It turned out that the statements used in the interview were, unfortunately, very poorly worded. Manuel wanted to raise the valid question why we need separate organizations to address interests of different groups in the community instead of trying to get the community at large to welcome everyone in the same way.
The ACPySS organizers and specifically Manuel himself are very sorry for the misinterpretations and would like to apologize to everyone who felt offended by the podcast.
EuroPython has always been a very open minded conference and we’ve always supported activities which help grow the community, reach out to new community members and help them feel comfortable within the Python community.
We will strive to pay more attention to possible misinterpretations in the future, to avoid unnecessarily offending people.
For EuroPython 2015 we are already in negotiations with DjangoGirls for a workgroup, with the Raspberry Pi Education program and have reached out to PyLadies to participate as well. More exciting news on this is coming soon.
At the same time, we would like to emphasize that everyone working hard to make EuroPython happen is doing this based on good intentions. Just like we ask the attendees to be nice to each other, we also expect the EuroPython organizers to be treated with the same underlying respect and assumption of having good intentions.
Please all remember that we are one Python community and we should act as such, regardless of backgrounds, views, affiliations or motivations. If we want to move Python forward, we have to do this together.
Best Regards,
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EuroPython Society
EuroPython 2015 Team