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Talks I Want To See, Cont.

It seems that I missed Jesse Noller's contribution: jessenoller.com: PyCon 2010: Talks I want to see; Keynotes, registration open: I thought I’d share the talks I’m pretty jazzed about, as well as some other bits of PyCon-related news. First up – early bird registration is open – early bird reg nets you a decent discount on registration fees for PyCon, and will run until January 6th. Next – for those of you who didn’t see the news, Mark Shuttleworth will also be doing a Keynote at PyCon – this is awesome news. I think both keynotes, his and Antonio Rodriguez’ will be great. I don’t want to speak as to the content just yet – but with two high caliber entrepreneurs/founders, I’m dead sure it will be awesome. As for the talks I want to see – well, this is criminally difficult. I pretty much want to see almost every single invited talk we have (I’m especially excited about Alex’s, Jack’s, Joe’s and Ned’s talks. I think our invited speakers this year will be very, very popular.

The Five Talks I Really Want to See

The deadline for getting early-bird pricing at PyCon is coming up ( register by January 6! ), and people are starting to see just how great the schedule is for this year's PyCon. From around the web: PyOraGeek: PyCon pre-favorites : When I look over the PyCon 2010 talk list , I'd like to be at about half of them (a physical impossibility, until I master self-multiplexing). Still, these are the ones that I'll move heaven and earth to be at. What about you - what are your favorites? Click through for the whole list, but Catherine highlights (among others) Extending Java Applications with Jython ... IronPython Tooling ... Python in the Browser .... and others, and then ends with the magnificent: An Underwater Python: Tortuga the Python Powered Robot because, deep down inside, people everywhere are the same; we all want to be loved, and Python-powered robot submarines . Carl Trachte then weighs in: pyright: PyCon pre-favorites, the Carl T. edition : These are my picks (not

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 propo

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

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 voluntee

PyCon 2010 talks announced

The PyCon program committee has announced an unprecedented program of 95 talks for PyCon 2010. Talk abstracts can be browsed at http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/talks/ . With a record-breaking pool of submissions to choose from, the committee has assembled a program of enormous variety and quality, representing topics across the whole range of Python programming. Talks cover not just Python's traditional CPython implementation, but newer Python implementations on a variety of platforms, including Java, .NET, Parrot, and Python itself. As always, scheduled talks are only the tip of the PyCon iceberg, which also includes tutorials, Open Spaces, keynotes, Lightning Talks, poster sessions, development sprints, hands-on lab, exhibit hall, and no end of unscheduled discussion and fun. PyCon 2010 takes place Feb. 17-25 in Atlanta, GA; see us.pycon.org .

RuPy '09 Conference - Agenda is Complete

RuPy is the strongly dynamic conference concerning mostly Ruby and Python programming languages (7 & 8 November, in Poznan, Poland). Registration has been open for some time, and now we have also completed the agenda . There will be a load of talks and many stars of the geek world will come to talk about their experiences. After the first day of talks, we invite all attendees to join the Geek Party on Saturday night, where one can discuss Ruby and Python-related issues while holding a glass of cold beer. The list of speakers and talks include: Michael Dirolf - "An Introduction to MongoDB" Obie Fernandez - "Rapid Application development with Rails and MongoDB" David Goodger - Community-oriented talk Charles Oliver Nutter - "JRuby: Pushing the Boundaries" Paolo Negri - "RabbitMQ" Tarek Ziade - "The Python Packaging Ecosystem" Scott Chacon - "Mastering Git" Check out the complete list of speakers at http://rupy.eu/speakers/

Invited speakers

The vast majority of talks at PyCon go through a challenging submission process where they are weighed against the other submitted talks - 179 submissions this year. A few speakers, however, have been so consistently and overwhelmingly popular at previous PyCons that this year's program committee has invited them to skip the usual review process, reserving talk slots for topics of their choice. The PyCon 2010 invited speakers and their topics are Ian Bicking, On The Subject Of Source Code Jeff Rush, Interfaces, Adapters and Factories Jack Diederich, Python's Dusty Corners Mike Fletcher, Debating 'til Dawn: Topics to keep you up all night Raymond Hettinger, Mastering Team Play: Four powerful examples of composing Python tools Bob Ippolito, The other kind of testing Alex Martelli, Powerful Pythonic Patterns Joe Gregorio, Threading is not a model Ned Batchelder, Tests and Testability Holger Krekel, The Ring of Python Ted Leung, A Survey of Concurrency Constructs

Introducing the PyCon US Poster Sessions!

Starting at PyCon 2010 in Atlanta, GA, we're excited to announce the addition of organized poster sessions during the regular conference days. Every year, PyCon US has tried to highlight new, interesting, and noteworthy things going on in the Python Community... and every year, we've been amazed by the variety and depth of interesting projects that have been presented. Up until now, that information has been formally presented using a combination of invited and reviewed talks, lightning talks from attendees, and open-space events. While these are all good in their own right, we've decided that perhaps one more presentation model would be a good fit with PyCon... Poster sessions have proven to be a fantastic way to facilitate direct contact between presenters and audiences at other conferences and we're excited to be able to bring them to PyCon in 2010. We will have two designated plenary poster sessions and will be providing space for posters up to 4ft. by 4 ft. in

ConFoo.ca 2010: Call for Proposals

PHP-Québec , Montréal-Python , Ruby Montréal , W3Qc , and OWASP Montréal are organizing the first edition of the ConFoo.ca conference , which will be held in Montréal, Canada, on March 10th through 12th at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel. With over 500 attendees expected, ConFoo.ca will be one of the largest web development conferences in North America. ConFoo.ca is looking for great speakers willing to share their experience and skills with programmers, managers, marketers and decision makers. The conference will be divided into two parts: A technical part, encompassing different aspects of web development: PHP, Python, Ruby, security, project management, CMSs and frameworks, databases, systems administration, web standards, accessibility and agile methods. A decision-making part: referencing (SEO), web marketing analysis, and social networking. Presentations can be in English or in French, and should be roughly one hour long. Presentations may be recorded for later broadcast in digit

pyTexas: Regional Conference - Oct 24/25

pyTexas , the 3rd annual regional Python conference, is coming up in only ten days . It is being held Oct 24-25 Sat/Sun in Ft. Worth at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. The format is scheduled talks on Saturday morning followed by open space talks driven by the attendees in the afternoon. On Sunday there will be sprints on various projects and, in parallel, a Python Lab that tests the attendees with interesting programming puzzles. There is no cost to attend but we would appreciate you adding your name to the registration wiki to give us a better idea of attendance. We expect the conference to be a small, interactive gathering of the Texas community, not a big stuffy conference. It will be a lot of fun. We hope to see you there! Jeff Rush , an organizer

Kiwi PyCon: How a programming language is changing the Web

The main keynote speaker at Kiwi PyCon 2009 , Joel Burton, an internationally recognised trainer and presenter, will explain how the programming language Python is becoming the language of choice for developing websites due to its simplicity and flexibility. The conference will be held at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator in Christchurch on November 7th and 8th. Other tracks at the conference will include: GUI, Science & Math, Game, and Applications. The conference will also have a dedicated Web track, which will include presentations about many Python web technologies, such as: Django, Twisted, Zope 3, Grok, and Plone. The conference has attracted a lot of interest from many universities throughout the country and staff and students from Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago universities will be presenting regarding how they've used Python in their research. “As Christchurch has the reputation of being the Silicon Valley of New Zealand, its been really great to see a numbe

179 PyCon proposals!

Talk submissions for PyCon 2010 have closed, with an astonishing 179 talks proposed. (For comparison, PyCon 2009 received 118 submissions - and many attendees called 2009 the best PyCon ever.) Thanks to everyone who submitted! The all-volunteer Program Committee is now busy with the difficult but delightful task of selecting the very best from this huge pool of submissions. Expect a PyCon program with breadth and quality like never before! Tutorial proposals remain open through October 18: http://us.pycon.org/2010/tutorials/proposals/

PyCon India receives fantastic response

For Python language enthusiasts across India, all roads led to the Lecture Hall Complex at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 26th and 27th Sep. The reason - to attend and be part of the first PyCon India which was held during the week-end. The event saw tremendous enthusiasm and participation from all over the country. Over 350 delegates and 30+ speakers attended the event. The event generated a lot of interest in the academia, with a large number of college students and fresh graduates attending it. A notable instance is the participation of 75 students from the Rajalakshmi Engg. College in the neighboring city of Chennai, who just hopped on a train to Bangalore en-masse. This is a worthy example of how Python has caught the imagination of young programmers in the sub-continent and that the language is poised for steady growth and adoption in India. The opening keynote talk by Dr. Prabhu Ramachandran was well attended and appreciated by the crowd. Dr. Ramachandran talked

PyCon India aims to bring together Python aficionados from across the country

The first ever PyCon India, scheduled to start at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 26th and 27th Sep, 2009 aims to bring together Python aficionados, developers and companies using the Python programming language, under a common umbrella for the first time. The event is unique in many respects. It is the first ever formal Python meet of its kind and scale ever to be organized in India. The event is fully community organized, with the Bangalore Python Users Group as the forum for coordinating activities. There are a range of talks on a variety of aspects of the Python programming language, from introductory tutorials for beginners to Python for mobile computing and Python for the Semantic web. There will also be informal sessions where individual Python developers can share their experiences on Python and how they benefited from it. Around 400 delegates are expected to take part in the event from across the country. The event is sponsored by reputed organizations such as T

Kiwi PyCon - Conference brings programming language of the year to NZ

What do Google, YouTube, Weta Digital and the New Zealand Government share in common? They all rely on the 2009 Programming Language of the Year - Python, for their daily operations. To promote Python's use in New Zealand the NZ Python User Group ( NZPUG ) is holding the first Kiwi PyCon conference in Christchurch at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator on November 7th and 8th. The event will include talks highlighting how Python has been used in web and desktop applications, in the field of science and maths, in gaming and animation, and in various other fields. The programme will also include interactive sessions with the audience and opportunities for delegates to give short presentations regarding ways they have benefited from Python. Python is used in New Zealand by reputable companies such as Weta Digital, the company behind Lord of the Rings and King Kong, and is also used extensively by the New Zealand Government, by academic institutions throughout the country and many ot

Just one week to go for PyCon India!

Pythonistas in the garden city of India, Bangalore are organizing the very first PyCon India in Bangalore, India on Sep 26-27, 2009 at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The effort is undertaken by a group of Python enthusiasts in the BangPypers (Bangalore Python Users Group) forum. Go to PyCon India site for the most recent information and updates. For a list of talks planned at PyCon India visit here . Please spread the word and participate to make the first PyCon India a grand success!

Display a PyCon 2010 Badge

If you blog, or maintain a website, please let your readers know about PyCon 2010 by adding a PyCon graphic to your page or sidebar. Here's what it looks like: Copy the HTML below to get a fully-functional badge. <a href="http://us.pycon.org/"><img src="http://python.org/images/pycon-2010-banner.png" alt="PyCon 2010: Atlanta"></a>

Linux Outlaws, EuroPython Special edition

This year's EuroPython was a roaring success, and was the biggest one ever. During the event Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws recorded several interviews and the result is episode 106; The EuroPython Special. Linux Outlaws: Episode 106 Direct link to download the mp3 The interviews are about ten to fifteen minutes each. The interviewees are: Steve Holden, chairman of the Python Software Foundation Laura Creighton, one of the founders and organizers of EuroPython and core team member of the PyPy project Bruce Eckel, author and keynote speaker at EuroPython Michael Foord, IronPython developer and author

PyCon 2010: Call for Proposals

Call for proposals — PyCon 2010 — http://us.pycon.org/2010/ Due date: October 1st, 2009 Want to showcase your skills as a Python Hacker? Want to have hundreds of people see your talk on the subject of your choice? Have some hot button issue you think the community needs to address, or have some package, code or project you simply love talking about? Want to launch your master plan to take over the world with python? PyCon is your platform for getting the word out and teaching something new to hundreds of people, face to face. Previous PyCon conferences have had a broad range of presentations, from reports on academic and commercial projects, tutorials on a broad range of subjects and case studies. All conference speakers are volunteers and come from a myriad of backgrounds. Some are new speakers, some are old speakers. Everyone is welcome so bring your passion and your code! We’re looking to you to help us top the previous years of success PyCon has had. PyCon 2010 is looking for propo

PyCon US 2010 Needs Your Help!

Planning for PyCon US 2010 is in full swing but we are woefully short on officially filling staff positions! If you're interested, please sign up at http://us.pycon.org/2010/about/staff/ and be sure to join the PyCon US organizers mailing list: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-organizers In particular, we need to fill the Registration Manager role very soon as we're planning to open registration earlier this year than ever before. (More on that in a future posting!) If you have any questions about any of the staff roles, feel free to ask on the organizers list or email any of the organizers individually!

RuPy 2009 Call for Speakers

RuPy is a conference on the Python and Ruby programming languages, held in Poznan Poland. RuPy 2009 will be on the 7-8th November and they have just announced their call for speakers: RuPy 2009 Call for Speakers RuPy 2009 committee is looking for speakers willing to present a Python, Ruby, Groovy or any other related subject. If you have an interesting talk in mind go ahead and submit a talk proposal. The talk proposal should include a talk title, brief introduction and your short resume/biography. To our invited speakers we offer free accommodation, full board and possibility to interact with a very lively IT community. You are also free to participate in all the extra events - ‘Geek party’ always turns out great! You can also support us by linking to our site and informing all your friends about the event and the possibility to submit a talk proposal. Potential speakers should submit an abstract using the following form: RuPy ‘09 :: Speaker Submission Form by September

SciPy Conference 2009

SciPy 2009, the 8th annual Python for Scientific Computing Conference is open for registration. The conference is in Pasadena, CA, August 18-23. The early bird rate ends July 22nd. SciPy 2009 Registration SciPy 2009 Schedule This conference provides a unique opportunity to learn and affect what is happening in the realm of scientific computing with Python. Attendees have the opportunity to review the available tools and how they apply to specific problems. By providing a forum for developers to share their Python expertise with the wider commercial, academic, and research communities, this conference fosters collaboration and facilitates the sharing of software components, techniques and a vision for high level language use in scientific computing. The conference is hosted by the CACR (Center for Advanced Computing Research), on the Caltech Campus, Passadena, CA.

PyCon India 2009

PyCon India 2009 , first Python Conference in India, is being organized by the Python user and developer community in India. The conference will consist of a number of full length presentations, lightning talks, sprints and BoFs. Venue: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore Dates: 26th and 27th September 2009 How to register: Register online at http://in.pycon.org/2009/ register before 1st August and get an early-bird discount or register directly at the conference. Call for Proposals: PyCon India is looking for proposals on all aspects of Python programming. We will accept a broad range of presentations, from reports on academic and commercial projects to tutorials and case studies. As long as the presentation is interesting and potentially useful to the Python community, it will be considered for inclusion in the conference. All the talks will be within 45-60 minutes. There will also be a dedicated Lightning Talk session for talks no longer than five minutes. More information abo

PyOhio schedule posted

The preliminary schedule of talks for PyOhio has been posted, with twenty-five talks and tutorials planned on a variety of Python programming topics. PyOhio 2009 takes place July 25-26 in Columbus, OH, and is free of charge. See pyohio.org for more information and to register (registration opening soon).

EuroPython Starts Next Week

EuroPython 2009 starts next week, on Tuesday 30th June in Birmingham, and is preceded by two days of Python tutorials. If you have not already booked your place there is still time to get in if you register although hotel rooms are disappearing fast. With over 400 delegates registered already and more than 100 talks and other events this is the biggest European Python event ever and is not to be missed by anyone interested in Python. There are keynotes by Professor Sir Tony Hoare, Cory Doctorow and Bruce Eckel, and a talk on Bletchley Park from Dr Sue Black, not to mention prizes including an Xbox and a Dell Studio laptop. The social side has not been forgotten, with a Conference Dinner on Wednesday 1st and other evening socials, and... a Partners' Programme so you can bring your nearest and dearest and be sure that s(he) will be happy while you are immersed in things Pythonic. Win Brownie points for a change: bring your partner! Early Bird registration is over, although there

EuroPython Talk Schedule Online

EuroPython 2009 is fast approaching. EuroPython is the official community conference for Python Programmers across Europe. This year it is being held in the Birmingham Conservatoire, United Kingdom, where previous UK Python events have been held. We are expecting 300-400 delegates from across Europe. The first two days, Sunday 28th June 2009 and Monday 29th June 2009, are tutorial days, including an introductory tutorial for those who have never programmed in Python before. The main conference, from the 30th June to 2nd July, has talks from the leading Python programmers from across Europe. Speakers include Professor Sir Tony Hoare, Cory Doctorow, Jim Hugunin, Bruce Eckel, Simon Willison, Christian Tismer, Emily Bache, Stani Michiels and Michael Foord. Tutorial and talk abstracts are available on the website . The full talk schedule has also now been posted: EuroPython 2009 Timetable The final two days, the 3rd and 4th of July, are 'sprint' days, where delegates splint into gro

PyCon France at the Cyberbase de la Villette

The French Speaking Python user group (Afpy) is organizing Pycon FR again this year on May 30/31. Come to Paris, at the "Cyberbase de la Villette" and meet the French Speaking Python community! A lot of talks, tutorials and lightning talks will be given during this week-end, on all kind of topics. And the great news is that the whole conference is free, thanks to our sponsors. Schedule : http://pycon.fr/sessions Cyberbase location : http://pycon.fr/acces.html The French Python user group : http://afpy.org Follow the event on Twitter : #pycon-fr Sponsors : http://pycon.fr/partenaires.html

2009 PyCon talks now appearing on PyCon podcast

Talks from PyCon 2009 are now appearing on the PyCon podcast feed, at the rate of roughly 15 talks per day. I'm trying to select the talks for each day in a balanced fashion: one keynote per day, at least one three-part tutorial per day, a certain number of talks with audio problems (so that we don't have an entire day of hard-to-listen-to talks at the end). The feed URL for subscribing to the podcast is http://advocacy.python.org/podcasts/pycon.rss . Video and audio material from PyCon 2009 is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA license. This means you can incorporate excerpts or entire recordings in your own non-commercial projects, as long as you credit the speaker and you CC-license the finished project. For example, the 5/2 episode of Ron Stephen's Python 411 podcast [MP3 link] contains Collin Winter's explanation of the Unladen Swallow project from the Python Virtual Machines panel discussion.

Audio for PyCon 2009 talks now available

Thanks to the staff at Blip.tv, audio-only versions of the PyCon 2009 talks are now available. To download the audio for a talk, go to the individual page for the talk. Just below the license and summary information, there's a "Play episode as" select box. The choices are MPEG4 video, Flash video, and now MP3 audio. (For many talks, MP3 is listed twice in the select box; I don't know if these two choices are different in some way, or if it's a bug. I suspect a bug, because the RSS feeds only list one URL for audio/mpeg format.) Want an easier way to download the audio? Wait for a few days; I'm working on scraping the list of talks and will add them to the PyCon podcast's feed.

PyOhio: Call for Proposals

The PyOhio Call for Proposals has been issued. PyOhio 2009 takes place July 25-26, 2009 at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio . Much like a mini-PyCon, it includes scheduled talks, tutorials, Lightning Talks, Open Spaces, and room for your own unique ideas. If you can make it to Ohio this summer, please consider participating.

All PyCon 2009 Videos Uploading

The video team has pulled the trigger and all the video from the conference is being uploaded now. At the time of this post about 14 talks are now online. By the end of the day Friday, almost everything should be available (with a few minor exceptions). The videos are also integrated into the PyCon Schedule App as well, with a minor lag time. Just look for the tiny video icon: . Congratulations to the entire PyCon US 2009 volunteer video team for performing this Herculean task. In total 2.2TB of video, covering 168 hours of material, were collected, edited, transcoded, and uploaded. This is divided into 96 hours from the tutorials and 72 hours from the main conference.

Photographers Needed!

This morning the PyCon organizers received some bad news. Our photography coordianator, Steven Wilcox, has a family emergency and won't be able to attend the conference. We hope everything turns out well for Steven and his family. Unfortunately this has left us scrambling a bit, but in the spirit of "The show must go on", we are asking that any attendees who are photographers or photography buffs to step up and help out. We also ask that anyone who had arrangements with Steven for PyCon photography should contact us. We are particularly looking for session photographers and portrait photographers. Session photographers will take photos of speakers during thier talks, tutors during thier tutorials, sprinters during thier spints, and so on. The portriat photographers would be responsible for setting up and running a small studio to get portraits of Python people, for use by the PSF in future press releases. Of course everyone is welcome (and encouraged!) to take many pyco

Press Release #4

Organizers are already in place, preparing for the tutorials and summits that begin tomorrow... and here's the final PyCon 2009 press release. We hope your bags are packed! ---------------------- White Oak Technologies, Inc., Google, Sun Microsystems Sponsor World's Largest Python Conference Python 3.0 enters spotlight at PyCon 2009 CHICAGO - March 24, 2009 - PyCon 2009, the largest annual conference of the worldwide Python programming community, takes place March 25 - April 2 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare in Chicago, IL. The core conference runs March 27-29, with days of special events both before and after the main conference. Last December's release of Python 3.0 marks one of the most important events in Python's history, and PyCon 2009 provides developers a chance to learn to adapt to it from the worldwide masters of Python programming. Though Python's 2.x series will remain viable for years, the Python community is cl

What is the Board Games Social?

This year, like the last few years, an open space room has been dedicated to friendly board gaming and cards. Last year there seemed to be a constant game of Fluxx and Settlers of Catan while Power Grid, RoboRally, Carcassonne, Bang!, Munchkin, Treehouse, piecepack, and a load of others opened some of our eyes to the engaging world of German style and abstract games. If you're looking for a low-key social activity at this year’s PyCon please join us in the open space area. If you have a game you’d particularly like to play, visit the Board Games Social wiki page at the PyCon web site and add the game so we may inform fellow players or pass word for someone to bring it. We'll have Chess, Scrabble and other standards if you're looking for something familiar, and some new variations such as Sorry Sliders, Yahtzee Free For All, Lost Cities the Board Game, Hive with the Misquito and Monty Python Fluxx. The games are brought by attendants and some loaners are being provided by T

PyCon Needs Your Help

PyCon US is a 100% volunteer effort. In order for the conference to run smoothly we need a large on-site volunteer turnout. This year the conference is larger than ever. As a result we need more people than ever to step forward and volunteer their time at the conference to help make it a success for all. With PyCon less than a week away, we are in desperate need for Session Staff and Session Runners in particular. Being a Session Runner is a simple task where you work with presenters to make sure they are ready to present before they give their talk, and help the Session Chairs with the transition between speakers. The rest of the time you are free to see whichever presentation or other activity you wish. All session staff this year will have radios with headsets so staying in touch will be easy. Everyone can see which session still need session staff on the main Schedule ; those talks w/o star or clipboard icons. Signup is very simple, and this is a great way to be involved and ma

Press release #3: Summits

PYCON 2009 HOSTS CROSS-COMMUNITY SUMMIT MEETINGS CHICAGO - March 16 - Python programmers won't be the only ones coming to PyCon this month. PyCon 2009 is hosting two new summit events that will draw key developers and strategists not only from Python, but also from the Perl, Ruby, Java, .NET, and JavaScript communities. The Virtual Machine Summit on March 25, sponsored by Sun Microsystems, and Python Language Summit on March 26, both at PyCon 2009 in Chicago, are invitation-only events that will bring cross-discipline groups together to discuss and strategize on challenges that are common across their projects. Virtual machines - software layers that sit between machine-specific binary code and language-specific compilers, creating multi-language programming environments - have become a focus of modern language development. Virtual machine developers will attend from a variety of projects, based in a number of language communities: PyPy (Python), Parrot (Perl), Da Vinci (Java), D

Deadline for hotel reservations coming soon!

The deadline for PyCon 2009 hotel reservations at the conference rate is 3:00 pm (Chicago time; 21:00 UTC) on Friday, March 6. Act now, because the regular rate is considerably higher! If you haven't registered for PyCon yet, there is still time! The regular online registration deadline is March 18. After that, on-site registration will be available, but the price is higher.

Science Friday at PyCon sprints

Through clever use of import __future__ , NPR's Science Friday has managed to record and publish interviews at PyCon's sprints... a month before they take place! Watch it at Science Friday Well, actually, the video is from PyCon 2008's sprints - but it's a good chance to see several PyCon attendees (including Guido, Mike Fletcher, Travis Oliphant, and Ka-Ping Yee) talking about Python, PyCon, and sprinting.

Early-bird & hotel deadlines soon!

The early-bird registration deadline for PyCon 2009 is February 21, only a few days from now. After that, the price for registration will be going up. Hotel reservations at the conference rates are still available, but not for long. Act now, because the regular rate is considerably higher! A reminder to tutorial and talk speakers: you are responsible for your own registration and hotel reservations. So don't delay!

Blog badges are out

YOUR FRIEND Wherever did you get that lovely blog badge? YOU At the "Publicize PyCon" webpage, of course. They have badges in a variety of styles and sizes to insert into blog entries, blog sidebars, and any other sort of webpage. YOUR FRIEND It's so stylish! And it shows you're going to PyCon, one of the most valuable and enjoyable conferences in the tech world. YOU Not just that - by encouraging new attendees to come to PyCon, I'm helping make the pool of talent and energy that we share there even more dynamic and exciting. I'm helping build a better conference with this simple badge! YOUR FRIEND Was it difficult to insert? YOU As easy as cutting and pasting this: <a href="http://us.pycon.org"><img src="http://us.pycon.org/media/2009/public/pycon2009-horizontal-large-215x135.png" alt="PyCon 2009: Chicago"></a> YOUR FRIEND I'm so jealous! It must have cost a fortune. YOU Not at all! All "Publiciz

Press release #2

PyCon 2009 Takes Python to New Places CHICAGO - February 10, 2009 - PyCon 2009, the seventh annual conference of the worldwide Python programming community, has opened registration and announced its list of accepted talks. The topics show Python appearing in a variety of places outside its traditional realms. From hackathons in Africa to a neutrino detector at the South Pole; from massive multicore machines to tiny embedded wireless devices; and from mobile phones to distributed heterogeneous networks, talks at Pycon 2009 demonstrate how Python is being used in places and in ways that will startle even longtime Python users. Python continues to branch out across software platforms as well, with several talks covering the growing use of IronPython and Jython on the .NET and Java platforms. Meanwhile, traditional Python strongholds such as science, education, databases, and web programming are not neglected, and several talks flesh out attendees' understanding of fundamental Python t

Call for Sprint Projects

Python-related projects: join the PyCon Development Sprints! The development sprints are a key part of PyCon, a chance for the contributors to open-source projects to get together face-to-face for up to four days of intensive learning and development. Newbies sit at the same table as the gurus, go out for lunch and dinner together, and have a great time while advancing their project. Sprints are one of the best parts of PyCon; in 2008 over 250 sprinters came for at least one day! If your project would like to sprint at PyCon, now is the time to let us know. We'll collect your info and publish it so that participants will have time to make plans. We'll need to get the word out early so that folks who want to sprint have time to make travel arrangements. In the past, some have been reluctant to commit to sprinting: some may not know what sprinting is all about; others may think that they're not "qualified" to sprint. We're on an ongoing mission to change that pe

Randall Munroe

The PyCon organizers committee would like to confirm that Randall Munroe of xkcd is, in fact, banned from PyCon 2009. We apologize to all 2008 attendees for last year's disgraceful keynote, "Web Spiders vs. Red Spiders". PyCon is a serious conference and we will not countenance this sort of nonsensical frivolity . Many of our sponsors feel that Mr. Munroe is the single largest cause of programmer distraction and his presence would be inappropriate. Registration volunteers have been instructed to refuse admission to Randall Munroe personally, and in fact, to any stick figures who may attempt to register, particularly if they are wearing hats. If Mr. Munroe happens to defeat our elaborate security protocols and attend nonetheless, we urge attendees to avoid any Open Spaces he may convene.

Invited speakers are announced!

The PyCon Program Committee performs the same key task for every year's conference: it works to bring in the best speakers talking about the most interesting and relevant topics from all corners of the Python community. It's a tall order, but we're very excited about the scheduled talks we selected for this year. Then we decided to do more. Throughout PyCon's history, a small group of speakers has consistently delivered fantastic talks and attracted glowing reviews from our attendees. So this year, we approached them and said "come talk about whatever you want". Their talks didn't go through the normal review process by the Program Committee. Instead, they're invited talks , a new category of talks -- in addition to the scheduled talks and the keynotes -- that will shine a spotlight on what we believe is the very best PyCon has to offer. Our inaugural invited speakers are Ian Bicking, C. Titus Brown, Brett Cannon, Bruce Eckel, Raymond Hettinger, Steve

PyCon 2009 Financial Aid Available

The Python Software Foundation has allocated some funds to help people attend PyCon 2009. If you would like to come to PyCon but can't afford it, the PSF may be able to help you. The financial aid can cover some or all of the following: • Your registration for PyCon • Your hotel room at the conference hotel • Your flight or other transportation Please see http://us.pycon.org/2009/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is February 23rd.

PyCon 2009 Registration is Open!

Registration is now open for PyCon 2009, the annual U.S. Python community conference! Early-bird registration is open until February 21: register now at the low rates. See the PyCon web site for complete details. PyCon 2009 will be held from March 25 through April 2 in Chicago: Tutorial Days: Wednesday, March 25 & Thursday, March 26 Conference Days: Friday, March 27, through Sunday, March 29 Development Sprints: Monday, March 30 through Thursday, April 2 Register early, especially if you'd like to attend tutorials, as tutorials fill up early. There are 32 great tutorials to choose from, in four sessions over two days. The list of accepted talks is up . Hotel reservations are also open. More hotel information is here. The volunteer organizers have been busy developing the software, providing the website content, testing & debugging. There is still much to do, and you can help! See you in Chicago!

PyCon 2009 accepted talks

The list of sixty-five accepted talks has been posted here . Have a look; it's a very exciting set of topics! Of course, don't forget that the scheduled talks are only a small part of the PyCon experience. There's also Open Spaces, tutorials, keynotes, Lightning Talks, sprints, exhibitors, and just plain spending time with others from the Python community.

EuroPython 2009 Call for Proposals

EuroPython 2009 is taking place in Birmingham, UK from the 28th June to 3rd July 2009. The local organisers of EuroPython 2009 are the PyCon UK society. This is a community conference - so we need your talks to make it a success. We're looking for proposals on all aspects of Python programming from novice to advanced levels; applications and frameworks, or how you have been involved in introducing Python into your organisation. To submit proposals see: Call for Talks, Papers and Tutorials If you have friends or colleagues who have something valuable to contribute, twist their arms to tell us about it! Please point anyone that you feel may be interested to this link. Already we have some fine keynote speakers, with more to be confirmed: Professor Sir Tony Hoare Jim Hugunin Cory Doctorow Following on from the successful tutorials at PyCon UK 2008, the conference will start with two days of tutorials (28th-29th June). Proposals for half day tutorials can be submitted using the same f