The PyCon US Blog

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.

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!

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

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

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

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.

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

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.