Steve Holden, a staunch proponent of open source and one of the leading folks in the community surrounding the Python open source programming language. And guess what? He lives in Portland now, too.

When it comes to describing the Portland tech scene—and I’ll admit I’m more guilty of this than most—it’s championed as the de facto hub of the open source community. I mean, OSCON and Open Source Bridge are held here. Our open source user group activity is off the charts. And, tired or not, we’ll always play the Linus Torvalds card.

But there’s still more to be done. And last night, someone challenged the entire town to do more. Who? Steve Holden, a staunch proponent of open source and one of the leading folks in the community surrounding the Python open source programming language. And guess what? He lives in Portland now, too.



Who is Holden exactly? Well.

In 2003 Steve Holden founded and chaired [one of] the first Python community conference, establishing PyCon as the premier event for Pythonistas in North America. Steve again chaired PyCon in 2004 and 2005. Steve is the author of Python Web Programming, and a frequent blogger and contributor to the Python newsgroup, comp.lang.python. He has served on the Python Software Foundation’s Board of Directors since 2004. Steve provides consulting and training services through his company, Holden Web.

So last night, Steve gathered folks together from the open source community, politics, education, and health care for a little meet and greet. A number of local startups were represented as were the Portland Development Commission and the City of Portland.

While the gathering was a chance for Steve to meet folks in the community, it was also a really interesting pre-cursor to the impact he may have in Portland. He was clearly connecting dots. Putting different folks in the room who should be talking.

But it was also a call to action. It was Steve’s chance to tell all the folks in the room that he had heard that Portland was supposedly the epicenter of the open source movement. And that he was here in town now to experience that. And to help move that forward.

If this initial foray was any indication, I can’t wait to see what he’s able to accomplish around here.

For more information and insight, visit Steve Holden’s blog. You can follow him on Twitter as @holdenweb or follow his latest pursuit @theopenbastion.

(Image courtesy Kirby Urner. Used under Creative Commons)

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