Adding blogpost about the psf grant in English (#56)

Author: YurelyCamacho

content/blog/psf-scicookie/index-en.md

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+---
+title: "PSF funding open source projects development: SciCookie"
+slug: psf-funding-open-source-projects-development-scicookie
+date: 2023-09-22
+author: Anavelyz Perez, Yurely Camacho
+tags: [psf, osl, scicookie, grant, community, collaboration, development]
+categories: [open source, software development, python]
+
+draft: false
+usePageBundles: true
+thumbnail: "/header.svg"
+featureImage: "/header.svg"
+---
+
+
+<!-- # PSF funding open source projects development: SciCookie -->
+<!-- **By Anavelyz Perez & Yurely Camacho** -->
+
+In this article, we will share our experience in applying for and
+executing a Python Software Foundation (PSF) grant on behalf of Open
+Science Labs (OSL), submitted between January and February 2023. The
+proposal was submitted to contribute to the development and maintenance
+of SciCookie, a Python tool within the [OSL incubation
+projects](https://opensciencelabs.org/programs/incubator/).
+
+We'll begin by introducing SciCookie, highlighting its key features and
+aspects that might interest you. Then, we'll go over the grant
+application process and share our reflections on the experience, along
+with the lessons we learned.
+
+## What is SciCookie?
+
+As we mentioned at the beginning, SciCookie is a Python tool designed to
+provide a Python project template. Its main goals are to simplify the
+process of creating your projects and save you a considerable amount of
+time because, according to your needs and planning, it gives you a
+starting point for the configuration of your project. SciCookie provides
+several tools that are as up-to-date as possible and adheres to
+community standards.
+
+SciCookie is mainly based on PyOpenSci recommendations regarding the
+tools, libraries, best practices and workflows employed by the
+significant Python scientific groups. The elements we mention are listed
+as options, which means that you can adapt various approaches in your
+project, through a text interface (TUI) provided by SciCookie.
+
+SciCookie is available from [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/scicookie/)
+and [conda](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/scicookie). You can also
+visit its repository at
+[GitHub](https://github.com/osl-incubator/scicookie).
+
+Now that you know a bit about this project, let's tell you about PSF and
+how it supports the Python community.
+
+## What is PSF and how does it support the Python community?
+
+The Python Software Foundation (PSF)  is an organization dedicated to
+the advancement and improvement of open source technologies. Its mission
+is to promote, protect and advance the Python programming language. In
+addition, it supports and facilitates the development/growth of the
+Python developers community; a diverse and international community.
+
+Among the programs that PSF promotes to achieve its mission, there is a
+*Grants Program*, where proposals for projects related to the
+development of Python, technologies associated with this programming
+language and educational resources, are welcome. Since the creation of
+the program, PSF has supported several interesting projects, you can
+click [here](https://www.python.org/psf/records/board/resolutions/) to
+see the list or have a clearer notion of the proposals, and maybe you
+will be encouraged to apply with new projects or ideas.
+
+You should know that the PSF in the grants program evaluates a number of
+aspects in each proposal, including the usefulness of the project and
+the impact on the Python community. In case you want to know more, we
+recommend you visit the space that PSF has on its website for the
+[grants program](https://www.python.org/psf/grants/).
+
+So far, we have given you a brief overview of the main aspects of the
+two parties involved: SciCookie and PSF. We will continue by telling you
+about the grant application, what motivated us, the arranging and
+assigning tasks.
+
+## What was the grant application process like?
+
+The PSF grant application process was a long and challenging, but also
+very rewarding. It began with careful planning and research. We studied
+the needs of the scientific community and found a project that could
+help meet those needs. In other words, we build on a strong case for the
+grant.
+
+We were studying the different projects within the Open Science Labs
+incubation program; where there are a series of approaches and
+technologies implemented, including Python projects associated with
+DevOps, Data Science, and scientific projects. The option that was best
+suited to apply for the grant in our case was SciCookie; because it is a
+very useful tool and is focused on helping the Python community.
+
+After completing the planning and research, we began the formal
+application process. This included completing an online form and
+submitting a detailed proposal. The proposal contains a project
+description, timeline, budget and impact section. In our case and in
+order to review each aspect carefully, we produced a [file with the
+responses](https://github.com/OpenScienceLabs/grant-proposals/blob/96263f736e7f36eb22a3dd1baa16376fd1782e98/psf_proposal.md)
+[1] and filled in the budget scheme (template provided by the PSF).  
+This process was done under the advice of the OSL Steering Council.
+
+In addition to the above, a series of issues were created and edited in
+the project repository, in order to be clear about the activities to be
+carried out and the time it would take to develop them in case the
+proposal was approved.
+
+Once we had submitted our proposal, we had to wait some months for a
+decision. It was a period of great uncertainty, but finally we received
+the news that our proposal had been accepted!
+
+## How was the workflow?
+
+With the PSF grant, we were able to start developing and maintaining
+SciCookie part-time. We worked with some community developers to add new
+features, improve documentation and fix bugs. This included the creation
+of a [user
+guide](https://github.com/osl-incubator/scicookie/blob/main/docs/guide.md)
+to help enthusiasts and developers to use SciCookie.
+
+In terms of task specification, as we described in the previous section,
+a series of issues were generated in the project repository, and each
+one of us handled some of the issues on a weekly basis via Pull Requests
+(PRs). These were approved by members of the Open Science Labs team, who
+were also on hand throughout the execution of the proposal.
+
+Being a bit more specific about the follow-up, we had from an initial
+meeting where we discussed the fundamental aspects of the project and
+set up what was necessary to carry it out, to weekly meetings to present
+our progress, to check if we had any obstacles or doubts that did not
+allow us to move forward. Likewise, each PR was reviewed and if there
+were any observations, we had feedback on this.
+
+In summary, we can tell you that it was quite a dynamic workflow, where
+a friendly space was built and allowed us to learn a lot.
+
+![Flujo de trabajo](workflow.png)
+
+> We would like to take this opportunity to thank [Ivan
+> Ogasawara](https://github.com/xmnlab) and to [Ever
+> Vino](https://github.com/EverVino), for their time and dedication.
+> Both are active members of OSL and members of the steering council;
+> they were there to support us and clarify our questions.
+
+Here we tell you about our experience and the collaboration phase.
+
+## How was our learning process?
+
+SciCookie provided us, for the first time, with the opportunity to make
+such a significant contribution to an open science and open source
+project. It also allowed us to acquire new knowledge about some aspects
+and technologies linked to the Python programming language, since at
+that time, our knowledge was more oriented to the use of libraries,
+objects, loops, among others.
+
+About this learning process we can tell you that we did not know many
+things and it was necessary to learn along the way, sometimes this was a
+bit challenging but, in general, very profitable. Among the anecdotes
+that we rescued is that, a couple of times, we "exploded" the code and
+we didn't know why; the cause was that we didn't know the exact use of
+single or double quotes, double braces, spaces or tabs within the
+template. But then we were able to move forward and we even made
+improvements in the workflow of the project.
+
+Regarding the latter, we can certainly tell you that learning curves are
+always steep. At the beginning you see everything uphill, but when you
+are familiar with the technology and the tools, everything becomes
+easier. Daring is always the first step.
+
+On the other hand, if you are interested in collaborating on open source
+projects, it is vital to have basic knowledge of Git and GitHub version
+control tools, and to understand their essential commands such as git
+pull, git push, git rebase, git log, git stash, among others. You may
+also need knowledge of conda and poetry. We also learned a bit of jinja2
+and make, and reviewed knowledge of function creation, conditional
+evaluation, GitHub workflow, documentation aspects and some of the
+technologies associated with it.
+
+In summary, the experience of applying for and executing a PSF grant was
+a valuable experience. We learned a lot about the process, how to
+develop and maintain a Python tool, what structure a Python library or
+package project should have, and how to build a community around an open
+source project. We are also grateful for the support of the PSF, which
+has allowed us to make a contribution to SciCookie. We feel satisfied
+with the work we have done and are excited about the future of this
+tool.
+
+To all that we have told you, we add an invitation to collaborate on
+open source or open science projects and, if you have already done so,
+we encourage you to continue to do so. We were often motivated by seeing
+our PRs being approved, we shared feelings of achievement and new
+challenges and, most importantly, we were applying what open source
+promotes: small collaborations make big changes and add to the projects,
+achieving good and useful results.
+
+After all this, you may wonder about the barriers to collaboration. We
+dedicate the following lines to describe what we rescued from our
+experience.
+
+## Can you find barriers to collaboration?
+
+The progress of your contributions depends on you. It is vital to ask
+questions and not get bogged down by doubts. Often there is someone who
+can show you that the problem you thought was big was simply a small
+one, perhaps the code didn't work because it was single quotes instead
+of double quotes, for example.
+
+From the OSL community we can highlight that it focuses on creating
+friendly, opportunity-filled spaces where you can share and acquire new
+knowledge, eliminating barriers and discrimination. Perhaps you can find
+these same characteristics in other open science and/or open source
+projects.
+
+That's why we want to invite you again to support and join the diverse
+Python and open source community. It's an excellent experience and the
+fact of contributing to something that can be useful to other people is
+quite satisfying.
+
+In general, collaborating on open source projects is a great way to
+improve your programming skills, you also have the opportunity to work
+with other developers and learn from them, get feedback on your work. If
+you want to support or boost your project, the first thing to do is to
+get started. Many communities are open to new contributions and
+innovative ideas.
+
+Leave us your comments if you want to know more about what we have told
+you in this space :D
+
+[1] **Additional note**: SciCookie originally went by the name of
+cookiecutter-python and then renamed to osl-python-template.
+
+<small size="0">Graphic elements of the cover were extracted from [Work
+illustrations by Storyset](https://storyset.com/work), and then edited
+to conform to the article.</small>