PyCon 2010 Financial Aid Application Deadline 12/22/2009

A quick reminder that the deadline for submitting a financial aid application for PyCon 2010 is today! Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions.

PyCon 2010 Financial Aid Application Deadline Extended

The PyCon 2010 organizing committee has decided to extend the deadline for financial aid applications to December 22, 2009. If you or anyone you know is interested in attending but cannot afford it, we may be able to help. There are two financial aid funds available: the PSF Grant and the Financial Assistance Grant for Women.

PSF Grant

The PSF Grant is open to anyone and can help cover:

• registration for PyCon
• hotel room at the conference hotel
• flight or other transportation

Financial Assistance Grant for Women

The Financial Assistance Grant for Women is geared specifically toward helping women who are interested in using Python in their research, school work, careers or other avenues. It includes help with:

• registration for PyCon
• tutorials at PyCon
• hotel room at the conference hotel
• flight or other transportation

Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 22, 2009.

PyCon press release #1

World's Largest Python Conference Comes to Atlanta

ATLANTA - December 18, 2009

The Django Pony made her sparkly public debut. The infamous Beards of PyCon were captured on film. Guido van Rossum announced the beginning of his gradual retirement as Python's Benevolent Dictator for life - then kidnapped the Django Pony. Backseat language drivers were threatened with the terribl(y silly) fate of being Van Lindberg'd.

PyCon 2009 drew nearly a thousand Python programmers from around the world, representing projects on all seven continents - including Antarctica! They gathered for serious learning, discussion, and strategizing... and for not-so-serious fun. PyCon 2010, the eighth annual conference of the Python programming community, promises even more on all counts: more talks, more education, more creativity; more work and more play.

Interest in PyCon is growing along with the use of the Python language itself. This year alone has seen a 50% increase in the number of talk proposals submitted by community members, and the organizers have added an unprecedented fifth track to the conference schedule. The conference will include 95 regular talks and panels, covering everything from language basics to deep-space astronomy to robotic submarines. PyCon also offers 32 half-day tutorials, Open Space sessions, special keynotes, Lightning Talks, development sprints, an exhibit hall, and a hands-on lab - countless opportunities for attendees to learn. This year, PyCon also introduces poster sessions for detailed, personal examination of a variety of topics with subject matter experts.

Python's growth has been partially driven by an explosion in new implementations of the language. The IronPython and Jython implementations make Python a perfect tool for .NET and Java environments, respectively, gaining full-scale use of those platforms' existing capabilities and libraries while retaining Python's ease, elegance, and dynamism. Other implementations, like Stackless and Google's Unladen-Swallow, focus on improving Python execution speed. Finally, the Pynie and PyPy implementations bring Python programs to all-new experimental execution environments. All these implementations will be examined in several PyCon talks and in PyCon's Python Language Summit and Virtual Machine Summit.

PyCon 2010 will take place February 17 to 25 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference is organized and run by volunteer Python programmers; the users' perspective governs everything from talk selection to conference cost, making an exceptionally worthwhile conference. Registration is open now, and early-bird registration discounts apply through January 6.

About Python

Python is an open-source, dynamically typed, object-oriented programming language that can be used in nearly the entire range of technology applications. It offers an easy learning curve and access to a vast array of libraries. With implementations available for all common operating systems as well as the Java and .NET platforms, Python can be used on virtually any system in existence. Python's power and versatility have made it one of the world's most popular programming languages, currently ranked #7 in the TIOBE index. Like other open-source, dynamic languages, it offers rapid productivity and a vigorous developer community; at the same time, Python's clarity and reliability give confidence to enterprise users.

About PyCon

Presented by the Python Software Foundation and sponsored by Google, the world’s largest Python conference brings together a diverse group of developers, enthusiasts, and organizations to explore new challenges, launch new businesses and forge new connections within the Python community. PyCon provides attendees with the opportunity to delve into the dynamic programming language relied upon by institutions from MIT and NASA to Cisco and Walt Disney. PyCon helps people learn new tools and techniques, present their own projects, and meet other Python fans. Press passes to the conference are available for members of the press who would like to witness PyCon in person.

PyCon: http://us.pycon.org
Python language website: http://python.org
Python Software Foundation: http://www.python.org/psf/
TIOBE Index: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/tiobe_index

See PyCon 2010 press releases at http://us.pycon.org/2010/about/press/

PyCon 2010 Financial Assistance Grant for Women

Financial aid for PyCon 2010 has just gotten even better. Because of some very generous donations from the community, we are adding a second grant fund called the Financial Assistance Grant for Women. This fund is geared specifically toward helping women who are interested in using Python in their research, school work, careers or other avenues. It includes help with:

• registration
• tutorials
• lodging
• transportation

The existing Python Software Foundation Grant will continue to be funded at the same level and can provide assistance for:

• registration
• lodging
• transportation

Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 18, 2009.

PyCon 2010 Financial Aid Available

As the financial aid coordinator for PyCon 2010, I'm pleased to announce that the Python Software Foundation has created a fund to help people attend PyCon 2010. If you're interested in attending but cannot afford it, we may be able to help. Financial aid can help cover:

• Your registration for PyCon
• Your hotel room at the conference hotel
• Your flight or other transportation

Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 18, 2009.

Registration for PyCon 2010 is open!

Registration for PyCon 2010 is open! You should register for PyCon 2010 here (and don't forget to make your hotel reservations here).

We are doing a number of things this year to make this the biggest and best PyCon ever. To start with, there is more PyCon to love. We will be having five separate tracks of talks, covering everything from Python in space to Python on Wall Street. There should be something for everyone.

Interested in Java? You can see how to extend Java applications with Jython or how the military is using Jython to model real-world battlefield scenarios.

Interested in .NET? You can learn about what Microsoft is doing to support IronPython in their tools or how to use Silverlight to run applications in your browser.

Are you a scientist or do you need to crunch big data? Python is being used to crunch data from telescopes and for natural language processing with Hadoop. You can also brush up on algorithmic optimization, agent-based modeling of systems, and scientific workflow management.

If you do web-based development, you may be interested in handling geospatial data in TurboGears and in Pylons. If Django is more your flavor, you may be interested in using Pinax to speed up development, internationalizing your Django project, or even using Django in non-standard ways.

I could just list the other 81 talks that have been accepted for PyCon, but that would make this post too long. We have talks about deployment, data structures and algorithms, compilers, Python internals, NoSQL databases, concurrency, cloud computing and distributed systems.... No matter what your interest, PyCon probably has it. Until we get the schedule updated on us.pycon.org, you can view the schedule here. Which talks do you want to see?

PyCon is more than just talks, though. We have a full schedule of 32 tutorials providing in-depth training on a range of different problems:

• Just starting in with Python? We have a two day training course for learning Python from the ground up.
  
• Working in application development? You can learn more about building applications with the Enthought Tool Suite, rapid application development with Dabo, or GUI programming with wxPython.
• Get up to speed on web development in Django, TurboGears (including sessions on working with SQLAlchemy) and BFG.
  
• Go deep into IronPython development, testing your code (including testing your web applications), and implementing compilers and domain specific languages in Python.

Again, there are too many tutorials to list every one - but you can sign up for them when you register for PyCon.

Finally, I am excited about the poster sessions that will be presented at PyCon. For those who don't know what poster sessions are, they are a chance to present your work, your project, or just something interesting to all the attendees at PyCon. The call for poster sessions is still open, so there is still a chance for you to present at PyCon.

PyCon registration open

PyCon registration has opened!

Registering early gets you early-bird registration rates, guarantees you the tutorials you want (here's the tutorial schedule), and helps the PyCon volunteers plan better.

We'll see you in Atlanta! Spread the word!

PyCon poster session deadline: Nov. 30

The deadline for PyCon poster proposals is coming up soon - November 30!

Poster Sessions are a new PyCon feature for 2010. Poster sessions provide an alternative presentation mechanism that facilitates more one-on-one communication between the presenter and the audience. Poster sessions are particularly suited for topics of interest to a subset of the community, and we anticipate these sessions will provide an "incubator" for further discussions.

More information about the what, how, when, and why of poster sessions is at http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/posters/cfp/.

Behind the Scenes at PyCon - Part I : Dessert Selection

Last week I met Van (PyCon Chair) and Ewa (PyCon Coordination Angel) in Atlanta to get more familiar with the Hyatt Regency floor plan and the sponsor coordination issues that I am responsible for this year.  While I was there I got to participate in some behind the scenes meetings.  I will blog about these issues in the following weeks.

I will start with one of the really fun tasks - meeting the Hyatt Sous Chef ,who will be working on PyCon with us, and sampling the various choices for salads, entrees and desserts.

I remember the 'good ol days' when we ate box lunches in DC that consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, apple and a cookie.  So, I am still blown away while sitting down to plan a nice catered lunch menu.  WOW!  1000 Python developers dining together in a huge banquet room.  It is amazing how far PyCon has come - and I hope PyCon attendees appreciate how well they are treated for their registration investment - and the effort by the community volunteers that goes into all the coordination and details.  If you have NEVER been to PyCon or haven't been to one in years ... you don't want to miss 2010.

The photo was taken when we were presented the dessert choices by the Hyatt's Pastry Chef. Each of us at the sampling was served one of these beautiful plates - with coffee.  The upper left was a Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake (Van's favorite).  The upper right was a fresh-fruit pastry tart that was D-lite-ful.  And lower left was a strawberry shortcake parfait.  I enjoyed the chance to sit around with other Pythoners and sample the treats and debate the choices.

The Pastry Chef earned many +1 kudos from us by writing "Welcome Python Software" in chocolate on the plates.  It was amusing when the Sous Chef alerted him to the simple fact that writing on 1000+ plates would require overtime, followed by the Pastry Chef wondering aloud "what did I get myself into".

I hope you see this photo when you are hungry and think about how well you will be treated at PyCon.  Registration is open now . Just consider that for $300 you will be surrounded by other like minded Python devotees for 3 days of Python only talks - and eat very well with bfast and lunch included.  This is like our own Python Community Stimulus Package.

See you in Atlanta in February.