September 6 will be both the [PANDA Project’s](http://pandaproject.net/) one-year anniversary, as well as my last day as a full-time developer. The PANDA project aims to make basic data analysis quick and easy for news organizations, and make data sharing simple.
To celebrate the end of primary development, we’ve spent the last few weeks on spit-and-polish tasks. We released version 1.0.1 to address [bugs](http://panda.readthedocs.org/en/1.0.1/index.html#id2) found in 1.0.0, updated the documentation, and created a series of three quick, one-minute videos to persuade you why you should get a PANDA right now.
The Videos
Welcome to PANDA:
Welcome to PANDA! from PANDA Project on Vimeo.
Using PANDA to search for names:
Using PANDA to search for names from PANDA Project on Vimeo.
Subscribing to search results in PANDA:
Subscribing to search results in PANDA from PANDA Project on Vimeo.
What’s Next?
Although primary development is wrapping up, this isn’t the end for PANDA. From the beginning, we’ve designed a project which can survive without a developer dedicated to it. I will continue to answer questions and act as a sort of [BDFL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_for_Life) for the code for the foreseeable future. We also expect to have at least one more blog post and to be present in full force at [NICAR 2013](http://www.ire.org/events-and-training/event/315/) (PANDA suit notwithstanding).
Here’s what you should do now:
– [Read about PANDA](http://pandaproject.net/)
– [Ask us questions](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/panda-project-users)
– [Install it today](http://panda.readthedocs.org/en/1.0.1/production.html)
Thanks for the Help
The PANDA Project would like to thank the following organizations and individuals who have contributed their time, money, code and inspiration to us.
– The Knight Foundation
– Investigative Reporters and Editors / University of Missouri
– The Chicago Tribune
– Niran Babalola
– David Eads
– Justin Edwards
– Matt Hampel
– Nolan Hicks
– Elise Hu
– Darnell Little
– Sharon Machlis
– Tom Meagher
– Dane Springmeyer
– Jonathan Stray
– Pandas, for the inspiration
We would also like to thank the developers of all the open-source software we rely on and without which PANDA would not be possible.
Christopher Groskopf is the lead developer on PANDA Project and a former developer on the Chicago Tribune’s News Applications Team. He is also the creator of django-boundaryservice, csvkit, and Hack Tyler. His residence is in flux, but you can find him on Twitter regardless of his present whereabouts: @onyxfish.