For the last year, Thibaud Colas and I have had a weekly DSF co-working session — we get on a video call and spend an hour quietly working together on DSF things. It's worked well to help us carve out time to work on DSF initiatives, so we'd like to expand into an open-to-everyone weekly "office hours" format.

These will be Wednesdays at 6PM UTC (convert to other time zones). (Yes, that means the first one will be in just about 4 hours, short notice I know, so maybe mark it down for next week.)

All you need to do is bring something DSF-related to work on. This is intentionally broad, as long as it's vaguly DSF-related you're welcome to come. It's not a general-purpose Django coding session (you're welcome to be writing code but it should be related the DSF, e.g. working on djangoproject.com or something.)

This week and next, we'll probably be focusing on nominations for the DSF Board -- nominations close October 25th.

For now, we're deliberately not publishing the video call information publicly — we're a bit worried about spammers and scammers. So if you want to join, you'll need to contact the board, or someone on the board, to get the info. You can use the DSF contact form, and anyone's welcome to contact me directly: — email jacob@djangoproject.com, Signal jacobian.01, or @jacob@jacobian.org on Mastodon.

(Yes, this introduces some friction which is at odds with the "everyone's welcome" ethos. If/when we figure out a better way to moderate these calls, we'll change this.)

I look forward to seeing you there!

(Thanks to Jeff Triplett — he's been holding similar office hours for some time and we were inspired by watching that work out so well.)

We at the Django Software Foundation are pleased to share that Sentry, alongside other partners, has launched the Open Source Pledge — an initiative designed to address sustainability challenges in open source.

The Open Source Pledge is a commitment for member companies to pay OSS maintainers meaningfully for their work. When maintainers are adequately supported, they can better sustain their projects, ensuring the growth, stability, and security of the broader ecosystem.

The sustainability challenge in the Django community

In our community and OSS at large, the challenge is real and significant. Django packages are often maintained by small teams or even individuals, often unpaid. As the demands on these projects grow, so too does the pressure on the maintainers. And without financial support, maintainers often move on without a clear succession plan. The potential failure of these projects not only impacts the developers involved but also the thousands of companies and millions of users who rely on these critical pieces of infrastructure.

Here are a few assorted examples from Django packages in the top 10 by download counts:

• Is DRF still considered alive?, Moving REST framework forward
• Lots of open PRs with no feedback or action
• Recruiting maintainers
• We need more roadies in jazzband

The case for joining the pledge

We need companies to pay maintainers, or the 15,000 packages in Django's ecosystem will be at risk. By joining the Open Source Pledge, you are investing in the stability, security, and growth of the entire tech ecosystem.

The Open Source Pledge is simple but impactful: member companies commit a minimum of $2,000 per year, per developer on staff, to support open source maintainers. Additionally, companies are encouraged to publish an annual report detailing their payments, creating transparency and accountability within the community.

If you're interested in joining the Open Source Pledge or learning more about the sustainability issues facing OSS, please visit the initiative’s page. Together, we can build a stronger, more sustainable open source future. And if you believe in this cause, we encourage you to share this post to help broaden awareness and inspire further commitments from peers and partners.

Today we've issued the 5.1.2 bugfix release.

The release package and checksums are available from our downloads page, as well as from the Python Package Index. The PGP key ID used for this release is Natalia Bidart: 2EE82A8D9470983E.

Nominations are open for the 2025 Django Software Foundation Board of Directors.

In 2023 we introduced a staggered term for directors. Of our 7 directors, there are 4 positions currently open, with each position serving for two years.

Decisions around the 2025 officer roles will be made during the meeting of the new board. You don’t need to specify which position you are nominating for.

As you know, the Board guides the direction of the marketing, governance and outreach activities of the Django community. We provide funding, resources, and guidance to Django events on a global level. Further we provide support to the Django community with an established Code of Conduct and make decisions and enforcement recommendations for violations. We work with our corporate and individual members to raise funds to help support our great community.

In order for our community to continue to grow and advance the Django Web framework, we need your help. The Board of Directors consists of seven volunteers who are elected to two year terms. This is an excellent opportunity to help advance Django. We can’t do it without volunteers, such as yourself. Anyone including current Board members, DSF Members, or the public at large can apply to the Board. It is open to all.

2025 DSF Board Nomination Form

If you are interested in helping to support the development of Django we’d enjoy receiving your application for the Board of Directors. Please fill out the 2025 DSF Board Nomination form by 23:59 on October 25, 2024 Anywhere on Earth to be considered.

If you have any questions about applying, the work, or the process in general please don’t hesitate to reach out via email to foundation@djangoproject.com.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to working with you in 2025.

The 2024 DSF Board of Directors.