mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Director of Engineering at Canonical. Django core developer.
An investigation into LLMs in the service of software documentation processes, by my colleague Sally Makin: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-server-gazette-issue-11-ai-bots-shall-eat-my-docs/75029
This is an outstanding example of thoughtful research, that deserves to be read for its methodology and rigorous approach as much as for its conclusions.
I was included in Open UK's New Year Honours list for "UK leadership in open technology": https://openuk.uk/honours/
It's really the icing on the cake to be recognised for doing things that give me such a lot of pleasure and fulfilment in the first place.
Thank you @openuk@hachyderm.io.
I've published https://vurt.eu/articles/on-safety/ - my perspective on safety for attendees at African Python community events.
I wrote it because I was troubled by some of the responses I have heard to the idea of a DjangoCon Africa -https://2023.djangocon.africa - in a country such as Tanzania.
It's right that questions about safety should be asked. But when they're asked, they must be answered consistently and fairly - and not used to damage or undermine African open-source software communities.
Many thanks to @carlton@chaos.social for organising and hosting a superb inaugural edition of the Django on the Med development sprints in Palafrugell, Catalonia #djangoonthemed.
I'm going to be at the Django development sprint in October in Palafrugell, Spain: https://www.djangomed.eu.
I used to go every year to a sprint, but this will be the first time in a long time. I'm very pleased that carlton@chaos.social and @paulox@fosstodon.org have decided to restart this valuable Django tradition.
@paulox@fosstodon.org and @carlton@chaos.social have started something of real value that's going to grow and endure https://www.paulox.net/2025/10/12/my-django-on-the-med-2025/
I'm running an engineering leadership workshop at PyCon NL this week: https://pycon-nl.org/talks/2025/12.
If your work requires you to transform, drive, elevate or otherwise influence engineering practice at scale, this session could have some tangible and immediately applicable value for you.
My colleague Sharon Koech has written an excellent retrospective of her year as a technical author at Canonical https://substack.com/home/post/p-181747703, full of ambition and adventure and effort that makes a difference in work.
Thank you @pycon_nl@mastodon.social for another excellent PyCon Netherlands!
DjangoCon Africa is on Mastodon now: @djangoconafrica@fosstodon.org