Christopher Neugebauer

Semi-personal commentary:

The NSF's terms were quite perverse – even ignoring the clear ethical fuckery they demanded.

"Promoting a diverse and international Python community" is written into our IRS-registered mission. Accepting the NSF's terms would have meant using funds in a fashion contrary to the mission that gives us a non-profit status in the US, and explaining that to the IRS in four years time would have been a heck of a time.

https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-funding-statement.html

The PSF has withdrawn a $1.5 million proposal to US government grant program

In January 2025, the PSF submitted a proposal to the US government National Science Foundation under the Safety, Security, and Privacy of Op...

Oct 27 at 3:23pmWeb
Show threadChristopher NeugebauerOct 27

Being a charitable nonprofit in the US means committing to an actual ethical position that's written into the mission, and being on the board of such a nonprofit means committing to those ethical positions. Even (especially?) when there's money on the line that advances some other part of the mission.

That's what makes you a charity.

Show threadgrechawOct 27
@chrisjrn There are clearly massive numbers of ethical technologists. I wonder what organized message we could all pull off together...
Show threadChristopher NeugebauerOct 27
@grechaw I gave a whole talk about this last month! It is less optimistic than I would like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsbUzGailCw
"The Death of Consequences" - Christopher Neugebauer (PyCon AU 2025)

YouTube
Show threadgrechawOct 27
@chrisjrn as I head off to work with Open Tofu, and having recently migrated off Vault, yes I'll have to view the rest of this. It's already less optimistic!
Show threadgrechawOct 28

@chrisjrn this is a great talk.

Of course I was thinking about action in the face of terrifying fascists, but your talk is more refreshingly real than this American Nightmare.

I always have to balance my desire
to Get Out with the wish for software to be better. Looking forward to a time when I can volunteer my time, not chase the wage.