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.

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!

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 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...

PyCon 2009's first official press release has been posted on the Press page . Help spread the word about PyCon 2009! For less formal channels (like mailing lists), here's a shorter and simpler announcement. Cut, paste, and share at will. PyCon 2009 Python community conference Chicago, IL March 27-29, 2009 http://us.pycon.org/ PyCon 2009, the seventh annual community conference for the Python programming language, will take place March 27-29 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel in Chicago, IL. The pre-conference tutorials have been expanded to two days (March 25-26), and the conference will be followed by four days of development sprints (March 30 - April 2). As Python usage has grown rapidly, PyCon has grown as well. PyCon 2008's attendance topped 1000, up from 410 just two years before. Organizers expect this PyCon to be the biggest and most active ever. All interested community members are invited to help make PyCon great. The Call for Proposals is open to receive s...

U. S. citizens are preparing to vote next month. Unfortunately, many of their votes will be collected by software of unverifiable quality and accuracy. Carl Flatow of NPR's Science Friday came to PyCon 2008 during the after-conference sprints. One of the leading lights of the Python community that he met was Ka-Ping Yee , who has done important work on this very problem. With elections looming, Carl has released his video interview with Ka-Ping about open source vs. proprietary voting software in general, and about PVote in particular. View it at the NPR Science Friday website!

Doug Napoleone, who maintains the web application used for tracking talk proposals, has opened up the proposal system's statistics to the world; previously, this page was restricted to members of the program committee. It's still early, so only four proposals have been submitted at the time I'm writing. The graph of activity will get more interesting as the deadline approaches and the program committee begins intensively reviewing and commenting. Remember, the deadline for tutorials is October 31 and the talk proposal deadline is November 3, so start thinking about what you could do!

Want to share your experience and expertise? PyCon 2009 is looking for proposals to fill the formal presentation tracks. The PyCon conference days will be March 27-29, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois, preceded by the tutorial days (March 25-26), and followed by four days of development sprints (March 30-April 2). Previous PyCon conferences have had a broad range of presentations, from reports on academic and commercial projects to tutorials and case studies. We hope to continue that tradition this year. Online proposal submission will open on September 29, 2008. Proposals will be accepted through November 03, with acceptance notifications coming out on December 15. For the full details, please see our detailed call for proposals . We look forward to seeing you in Chicago!

The period for submitting tutorial proposals for Pycon 2009 (US) is now open and will continue through Friday, October 31th. This year features two "pre-conference" days devoted to tutorials on Wednesday March 25 & Thursday March 26 in Chicago. This allows for more classes than ever. Tutorials are 3-hours long on a specific topic of your choice. Last year we featured classes on Learning Python, Web Development, Scientific Computing, and many more. Class size varied from 10 to over 60 students. The extended time spent in class allows teachers to cover a lot of material while allowing for interaction with students. The full Call for Tutorial Proposals , including submission details, an example proposal as well as a template, is available at: http://us.pycon.org/2009/tutorials/proposals/ . Tutorial selections will be announced in early December to give you time to prepare your class. PyCon will compensate instructors US$1,500 per tutorial. If you have any questions, please c...

PyCon UK Registration is Open. The conference takes place in Birmingham UK from 12th to 14th September 2008. A full programme includes a day of tutorials; bookings are being taken at http://www.pyconuk.org/booking.html . The early bird rate has been extended to 11th August. Plenary talks will be by Mark Shuttleworth, Ted Leung and Raymond Hettinger. There is a list of already accepted talks at: http://pyconuk.org/talk_abstracts.html A schedule for the tutorial day is at: http://pyconuk.org/timetable.html [text by Michael Foord]

Mark your calendars: Tutorial days : Wednesday March 25 & Thursday March 26, 2009. (Two days of tutorials next year instead of one!) Conference days : Friday March 27 through Sunday March 29, 2009. Development sprints : Monday March 30 through Thursday April 2, 2009. Venue Change PyCon 2008 was far more popular than we originally planned for, and we nearly filled the venue, the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare hotel. We had hoped to have more tables ("classroom" layout) in the ballrooms, but we had to cut back and use mostly chairs ("theater" layout) in order to fit everyone in. One of the compromises we had to make was in catering. With so many people, the hotel was unable to provide proper sit-down hot meals, simply because the space was't sufficient for everybody to sit banquet-style. Once the conference days were over, there was no problem seating the sprinters (on the first day of the sprints, there were more sprinters and hangers-on than anticipated...

(In case you didn't see it on the PSF Blog or on the python.org front page :) The second national Python Conference in France, PyCon FR 08, will be held at the Cité des sciences et de la Villette in Paris. The program has been posted (in French -- an English version is available as a blog post ).

PyOhio, the first annual Python programming miniconference for Ohio and surrounding areas, will take place Saturday, July 26, in Columbus, OH. The conference is free of charge. It will include scheduled talks, Lightning Talks, and unconference-style Open Spaces. To get more information or to volunteer, see http://pyohio.org . See http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyOhio/CallForProposals for information on proposing a talk.