The PyData Ecosystem
Question: I have read about PyData in a few places (e.g. [here](http://pydata.org/)),
but I am still confused about this term really means.

Is PyData an official entity? (e.g. is there a foundation that owns/supports
[PyData.org](http://pydata.org/)?). Is it just a conference? Or is it mostly a
term used loosely to refer to a list of Python packages?

Also what packages are considered the core part of the PyData ecosystem? Is it
just any package that can be used to work with data? (that would be quite
generic). Some packages that I have found are typically associated with PyData
are:

  * [Numpy](http://www.numpy.org/)
  * [Scipy](http://www.scipy.org/)
  * [Pandas](http://pandas.pydata.org/)
  * [Scikit-Learn](http://scikit-learn.org/stable/)
  * [NLTK](http://nltk.org/)
  * [PyMC](https://github.com/pymc-devs/pymc)
  * [Numba](http://numba.pydata.org/)
  * [Blaze](https://github.com/ContinuumIO/blaze)

Is this list consistent with the group of packages typically associated with
PyData ? Or are there any important omissions?

Finally, to what extent does the PyData ecosystem support **Python 3.x**? Is
it safe to assume that most of the PyData ecosystem is compatible with Python
3.x? If not, what packages do not support it yet?


Answer: PyData is a series of conferences, organized by
[NUMFocus](http://numfocus.org/), a non-profit group that supports open source
scientific software. Throughout the year, they hold conferences in Silicon
Valley, Boston, NYC, and most recently London. Many of the conference
organizers are located in Austin, TX at the [Continuum
Analytics](http://continuum.io/) company co-founded by Travis Oliphant and
Peter Wang. Leah Silen is the main organizer for all the conferences, yet they
also recruit local volunteer organizers to help with much of the logistics per
event and myself volunteering time to work on their website.

PyData also refers to the community that is focused on primarily using Python
for data analysis (more business focused than SciPy, which is organized by
Enthought and leans more towards academic applications). There is much overlap
between the two communities, however you'll find more financial related topics
at PyData.

PyData also refers to the packages you listed. In addition many of the
individuals in the community use iPython notebooks to demonstrate usage of the
listed packages. Continuum Analytics has
[Anaconda](https://store.continuum.io/cshop/anaconda/) available for
installation, which is a all in one type of installation, which includes [100+
of the most popular Python
packages](http://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/pkgs.html) for science, math,
engineering, data analysis. It currently supports Python 2.7, but you can get
[compatibility with Python
3.3](http://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/pkgs.html#python-3-3-available-through-
conda) using the Conda add-on.

