The PyCon US Blog

We've begun posting audio from last year's conference in podcast form . New recordings will be posted once or twice per week. The podcast is available in the iTunes Store podcast section , and you can also access the feed URLs directly. Three feeds are available: PyCon 2007 M4A feed -- smaller files; requires iTunes and/or an iPod. PyCon 2007 OGG feed -- mid-sized files; depends only on free software. PyCon 2007 MP3 feed -- larger files; compatible with most players.

We now present, for the enjoyment of any tech reporters you may know (or be), PyCon 2008's first official press release . This and future press releases will be posted under "Press" in the "About" portion of the PyCon website sidebar. If you'd like to announce PyCon on mailing lists, please use this shorter version instead: PyCon 2008 Chicago, IL March 14-16, 2008 http://us.pycon.org PyCon 2008, the sixth annual community conference for the Python programming language, will be held March 14-16 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel. A rich schedule is being planned, including presentations, keynotes, Lightning Talks, an exhibition hall, and the hands-on Python Lab. Plentiful Open Space has been set aside for Birds-of-a-Feather sessions and other unscheduled "unconference"-style activity. Topics span the range of Python programming activity from introductory to advanced. Some topics are perennial; others focus on recent news, like Python 30

As of the wee hours of this morning, the calls for proposals (for half-day tutorials, and for conference talks) are closed. What a result! Now that the dust has settled from the last-minute rush, it looks like we received about 40 tutorial proposals and over 140 conference talk proposals. That's far more than we can fit into the schedule. The program committee is now responsible for selecting a subset of these talks & tutorials for the conference. Over the next couple of weeks we will be examining the proposals, asking for clarifications, and voting. We'll be busy! Care to lend a hand? There's a lot more than proposal reviewing that needs doing. Please take a look at Helping Out at PyCon

Thanks to all the proposal authors so far, we have received lots of proposals for PyCon talks & tutorials. But we'd like to have even more. Alas, the proposal submission deadline should have been set after a weekend, not before. So we have decided to extend the proposal submission deadline to Monday, November 19 at midnight (end of Monday, Chicago time). This gives you a whole extra weekend to write up your talk and tutorial ideas! If you've been procrastinating, stop! Get started on a proposal instead! See the call for conference talk proposals and some topic ideas and more ideas from the PyCon 2007 feedback . See the call for tutorial proposals and topic ideas from the PyCon 2007 feedback . I hope to see (and hear) you at PyCon 2008 !

There is only one week left for PyCon tutorial & scheduled talk proposals. If you've been thinking about making a proposal, now's the time! Tutorial details and instructions here. Scheduled talk details and instructions here. The deadline is Friday, November 16. Don't put it off any longer! PyCon 2008