Karen Tracey
Karen has been working with Django since late 2006, when she set out to put a web front-end on her crossword puzzle database. She was impressed by the framework and its community and began answering questions on the django-users mailing list and helping out with ticket triage and bug fixes. She became a Django core committer in September 2008 and continues to enjoy helping users, participating in local sprints, and contributing to Django’s development. She is the author of Django 1.1 Testing and Debugging, published by Packt Publishing in April, 2010.
Before getting involved with Django, Karen worked for several years in the computer industry on various software products centered on communications protocols and middleware. She received a PhD in Electrical/Computer Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, where her graduate research focused on distributed operating systems.
Karen is also a crossword puzzle constructor; she has published around 100 puzzles in The New York Times and other national newspapers. Outside of puzzles and Django work Karen enjoys volunteering with Alley Cats and Angels, a local cat rescue organization dedicated to improving the lives and reducing the population of homeless cats in the Triangle area.
2025
DjangoCon Europe 2025 Highlights
Three Cakti recently attended DjangoCon Europe 2025 in Dublin and it was a wonderful experience! It was great to see and chat with various Django community members we usually only see once or twice a year. Beyond that, we were most impressed by the consistently high quality of the talks throughout all three days of the conference. It was a pleasure to listen to so many excellent presentations, including the lightning talks at the end of each day. Here are some of our favorite talks.
Cakti Share Their Favorite Tools For Streamlined Workflows
Let’s jump into it!
At Caktus, we’re always looking for tools that help us streamline our workflows, increase productivity, and make our day-to-day tasks more efficient. Whether you’re managing projects, writing code, or debugging, the right tools can make all the difference. Here are some of our favorite tools that we love using to get the job done!
Choosing a Voice for Speech Synthesis
Recently we’ve been adding read-aloud support to a Django website. The tech stack for this site is Django with a bit of jQuery on the front end. The website is used exclusively in the United States, its content is offered in English and Spanish, and the read-aloud support is wanted for forms on the site. So where the site offered, for example:
2024
Reflections on DjangoCon US 2024: Highlights, Takeaways, and Community Connections
DjangoCon 2024 was a resounding success for the community, with attendees from all over the world gathering to learn about the latest developments in Django and to connect with the Django community. Caktus was well-represented at the conference, with six of our team members attending. In this blog post, we share our experiences at DjangoCon 2024, including our favorite talks, the people we met, and the things we learned. We also offer some tips for future attendees on how to get the most out of DjangoCon.
2015
Beyond PEP 8 by Raymond Hettinger (PyCon 2015 Must-See Talk: 2/6)
Part two of six in our PyCon 2015 Must-See Series, a weekly highlight of talks our staff enjoyed at PyCon.
I think everyone who codes in any language and uses any automated PEP-8 or linter sort of code checker should watch this talk. Unfortunately to go into any detail on what I learned (or really was reminded of) would ruin the effect of actually watching the talk. I’d encourage everyone to watch it. I came away from the talk wanting to figure out a way to incorporate its lesson into our Caktus development practices.