🌐 Mailman 3 February 2011 - Inpycon - python.org

Foreign delegates
by Noufal Ibrahim March 6, 2011

March 6, 2011

Any ideas on who we want to invite? I think atleast 3 of us on the list are attending the PyCon in Atlanta this year and we might be able to talk to people first hand to get them to come if we decide on the details. The general use of Python in India as far as I can tell is for web related programming so perhaps some notable from the Django, Pinax, Pylons etc. communities? Other good speakers that come to mind are Raymond Hettinger (core Python), Ian Bicking(infrastructure, web, packaging), Michael Foord(testing), David Beazley (concurrency). --

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suggestions for PyCon India
by David Goodger March 5, 2011

March 5, 2011

[I found this in my email drafts folder; thought I'd sent it long ago. Hopefully it isn't stale ;-) ] Hi all, I had a great time in Bangalore, and I was impressed by the size & scope of PyCon India in only its second year. I have some suggestions based on my experience organizing the US PyCon over the years. Some have already been mentioned here (I know I heard some discussed). * You should add time between talks, 5 or 10 minutes. Attendees need time for moving between rooms, and the next speakers need time to set up their laptops. * At PyCon US, we have "time remaining" signs: 10 minutes, 5 minutes, STOP. These are very useful for the session chair (MC), who can be sitting in or near the front row and watching a clock. * Speakers should be encouraged (required) to repeat any questions they are asked. Often the people on the other side of the room cannot hear the questions. The recordings rarely pick up the questions. * Speakers and MC's should feel free to defer questions to the end of a talk, especially if the questioner is insistent. * Speakers should not run off immediately after a talk, but move swiftly to the hallway and answer any after-talk questions. * As you grow, you may choose to add parallel features (e.g. open space) and secondary events (e.g. development sprints, tutorials). You already had the FOSSEE sessions for beginners, a great idea! But take it slowly, and don't add anything before you're ready. * I noticed some audio feedback when people were speaking. This can be reduced by placing the microphone closer to the speaker's mouth. The further away, the higher the gain must be, and the more likely feedback becomes. Something to tell your speakers. * These kinds of instructions for speakers can be printed up ahead of time, and given to speakers and MCs. If you're interested, I can get the instruction sheet from US PyCon. * A "green room" is very useful: a room for speakers with a spare projector (to test laptop connections), wired network connections, a printer, water, etc. This can double as a conference office. * WiFi at conferences is always an issue. 802.11 was not designed for such high user densities. In a nutshell, at PyCon US we deploy lots of real APs (not laptops!), at low power (important!) on alternating channels, to reduce interference. We are lucky to have Sean Reifschneider, a sysadmin and networking guru who has effectively deployed wireless for many years. Sean has written reports about PyCon's wireless here: http://www.tummy.com/Community/Articles/pycon2010-network/ (with links to earlier years). * Pre-printed badges with icons for speakers (and anything else you want to track) are a good way to see at a glance who is missing. * It's best to avoid staggered starting times. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but try hard! * One way to handle the lunch/break rush is to stagger the *ends* of talks just before lunch/breaks. For example, some talks can end 15 minutes later than others. * Lightning talks are particularly popular at US PyCon, to the point where it was unfair to schedule other talks against them, so we made them plenary. * For North American conferences, as you grow in attendance, costs go up per-person (you have to move from free space to hotels or conference centers). If this is true in India as well, you may consider holding multiple regional conferences instead of one national conference. It's not ideal, but it's one way to keep costs down. * I noticed a large drop-off in attendance between Saturday and Sunday. It seems to have happened last year as well. Why is that? Most importantly: notwithstanding any of the above, please don't imitate any other conference too closely. It would be a shame to lose the unique character of PyCon India. -- David Goodger <http://python.net/~goodger>

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Fwd: PyCon Speaker Notes
by ॥ स्वक्ष ॥ Feb. 27, 2011

Feb. 27, 2011

Hi, I'm forwarding Doug's mail to the list to preserve a public copy of the speaker notes, which has also been edited and added to the wiki: http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyConIndiaSpeakerNotes so that folks with a wiki account can edit/maintain the page and/or discuss it on this list. -vid ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Douglas Napoleone <doug.napoleone(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 22:30 Subject: PyCon Speaker Notes To: VidA <vid(a)svaksha.com> Vid, David Goodger asked me to pass on our speaker notes. I have pasted in our speaker notes from this year at the bottom. Along with speakers we also have session staff. The session staff are broken into 'session chairs' and 'session runners'. The chairs sit in the presentation room and assist the speaker and moderate when needed. The runners track down speakers, make sure they are prepared well before getting to the presentation room, and act as a second body for the session chairs whom are stuck in the rooms. All session staff have 2-way radios. We also have a common 'green room' for speakers and session staff. We have a test projector, a printer, some snacks, and a lounge area. This is where people meet up and where we post instructions and up to date information. I have included the session staff instructions from 2010. ========================= Speaker/Session note 2010 ========================= The key to a great conference is simple; communication. Below is a list of instructions for presenters and the session staff. Even if the instructions are not for you, please read them all so you understand what everyone is doing and how we are all working together. In truth there are only 3 rules: 1. Do what works. 2. Do not do what does not work. 3. Share with everyone else what #1 and #2 are. #3 is the second most important rule. In short if something below is not working, don't do it. Just because I typed it up in this e-mail does not mean it is the right thing to do. These notes are printed out in (recycled) dead tree form and can be picked up in the green room or operations. They are also conspicuously posted in the Green Room and Operations. Please excuse the mess while we clean up these rooms during the transition between tutorials and the main conference. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the most important rule is: HAVE FUN! (seriously!) ============================ Speaker/Session QuickSheets 2010 ============================ Speaker Information * Go to the Green Room at least 10min before your talk to get the latest information, co-ordinate with Session Staff, and test your equipment. * Your machine resolution should be at 1024x768 resolution if possible. Use high-contrast fonts & large lettering for slides. * Feel free to use the Green Room at any time. Printers, snacks, and drinks will be available any time during the day. * Session Staff will ask you for your slides, and they can upload them to the website for you. * Alert Session Staff to any requirements like machine audio. * Introduce yourself to the room session chair and let them know about any special introduction information. * The Session Chair will start the talk with an introduction and end the talk with a thank you. * We have professional lighting this year. Try not to stare into the lights. (we are still working to reduce glare) * Repeat or summarize all questions before answering them. * Respect questions, even newbie or silly ones. * Attempt to introduce yourself to your Session Staff earlier in the conference. Session Staff Information * Go to the Green Room 15min before your session starts to co-ordinate with other Session Staff and get up to date information. * Return your equipment to the Green Room after your session. * Speakers are volunteers too. Please be polite and courteous at all times. * Communicate with other Session Staff to get everyone up to speed on the latest information including radio channel number and other changes. * If some plan or procedure does not work, communicate that fact and try to find something which does work with others. * Feel free to use the Green Room at any time. Printers, snacks, and drinks will be available any time during the day. * Attempt to introduce yourself to your session partner and speakers earlier in the conference. * When using the radio's, plug the headset in while the radio is turned off. * After you turn the radio on, press the PPT button ONCE to turn off VOX. * Check to make sure VOX is turned off at all times. Session Runner Information * Be in the Green Room 10min before each talk to meet the speaker. * Don't forget your Radio and Headset. * Help the speaker set up their laptop on the test projector with the slides ready to present. * Ask the speaker about any special requirements, such as machine audio, which will require help from the A/V Staff. * Ask the presenter if they can copy their slides onto a provided USB drive for copying up to the website. * Escort the speaker to the presentation room 5min before the talk is to start and introduce them to the Session Chair. * Help the previous speaker disconnect their equipment (if there is one) and the new speaker hook up theirs (if needed). * If there is interest in an Open Space talk from the previous talk, ask if those interested would like assistance with getting a room and posting to the board. Session Chair Information * Don't forget your Radio, Headset, Stop Watch, and Signs from the Green Room. * Return your equipment to the Green Room after your session. * Ask the speakers how they would like to be introduced, if there's anything particular you should mention in your introduction. * Ask how the speaker's name is pronounced. * Ask the speakers how much time they want for Q&A, and how they want to be timed; if they want reminders at 15min, 10min, 5min. * Ask the speakers how they would like to handle questions: would they prefer to handle this phase of the session themselves, or would they like your help? Remind them to repeat questions. * When the presenter is ready at the beginning of the talk, signal the A/V Team and wait for their go signal. * If there are any announcements, please read them in a loud, clear voice. Use the microphone! * Introduce each talk with the title, speaker, and how long the talk will last 30, 45, or 60 minutes including any Q&A: "This is 'How to introduce a talk.' by Someone. This will be a 45min talk including 10min dedicated to Questions and answers at the end." * If the speaker asked for help with questions, you should ask the audience for questions at the end of the presentation, and indicate whose question should be taken next. Either you or the speaker should repeat the question into the microphone. * Make sure talks finish on time, as a courtesy to the subsequent speakers and to the audience. "I'm afraid we have to move to the next talk right now." * If there is sufficient interest suggest an Open Space followup. "If anyone is interested in further discussion please consider an Open Space followup; a Session Runner can help those interested." * Remember to thank the speaker and the audience for their participation; start the applause. * Try to clear the Podium and usher attendees away from the podium; the Session Runner will arrive with the next speaker 5min before the next talk (if all goes to plan) and manage setup and Open Space handoff. ========================= Speaker Instructions e-mail 2011 ========================= Hello again! Well - we're only two weeks out (oh my.) from PyCon 2011 in Atlanta. I wanted to double check some information with everyone as well as provide some additional information (instructions) and pass the rough schedule past all of you. First off, I want to confirm: 1> All of you have registered for the conference. 2> All of you have a place to stay. 3> All of you are still intending on presenting at the conference. Next, we have a *rough draft* of the schedule for viewing here: http://us.pycon.org/2011/schedule/conference/draft/ There are some minor glitches we're working out (there's some break time bleeding into talks) but this is mainly to show the placement and scheduling of your talk. Next up - instructions for everyone! There will be a meeting Friday morning, just after the plenary session, at 10:05 in the Green Room for all Presenters, and Session Staff. Snacks and Drink will be provided in the room so you will not miss out on the break. The key to a great conference is simple; communication. Below is a list of instructions for presenters and the session staff. Even if the instructions are not for you, please read them all so you understand what everyone is doing and how we are all working together. In truth there are only 3 rules: 1. Do what works. 2. Do not do what does not work. 3. Share with everyone else what #1 and #2 are. In short if something below is not working, don't do it. Just because I typed it up in this e-mail does not mean it is the right thing to do. Helpful Instructions: - Go to the Green Room at least 10min before your talk to get the latest information, co-ordinate with Session Staff, and test your equipment. - Your machine resolution should be at 1024x768 resolution if possible. Use high-contrast fonts & large lettering for slides. - Feel free to use the Green Room at any time. Printers, snacks, and drinks will be available any time during the day. - Session Staff will ask you for your slides, and they can upload them to the website for you. - Alert Session Staff to any requirements like machine audio. - Introduce yourself to the room Session Chair and let them know about any special introduction information. - All microphones are wireless lapel clip this year. Have the Session Chair help you. - The Session Chair will start the talk with an introduction and end the talk with a thank you. - Do not use a laser pointer. Only attendees in the first row can see it. - Face the audience and project. The audio system does not cover the first few rows. - Repeat or summarize all questions before answering them. - Respect questions, even newbie or silly ones. - Attempt to introduce yourself to your Session Staff earlier in the conference. I want to again thank you, and offering myself, or any of the PyCon staff if you need any assistance! Jesse Noller PyCon 2011 -- vid ॥ http://svaksha.com ॥

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Drumming up interest in pycon
by Dhananjay Nene Feb. 24, 2011

Feb. 24, 2011

We all (Steve, Harshad, BG, Ramki, Navin and Self) had a useful and enthusiastic meeting yesterday late night. I wasn't the one taking notes, so can't post them to the list (they should follow in due course). One of the items discussed was drumming up support for Pycon and Python in the days leading upto Pycon in some of the software companies, by conducting talks, workshops etc. I am wondering if anyone has conducted anything similar, and a dump of experiences and thoughts on the same would be useful. Dhananjay -- -------------------------------------------------------- blog: http://blog.dhananjaynene.com twitter: http://twitter.com/dnene

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Notes from InPyCon planning meeting of local Pune Team
by Navin Kabra Feb. 23, 2011

Feb. 23, 2011

Hi All, We had a meeting of the local Pune InPyCon 2011 team on Thursday night, and here is an overview of what was discussed: (Note: by "local team" we just mean the first few people that were part of the group that made the InPyCon Pune pitch. Over the next few weeks, we will make a more inclusive effort and create a local team from We felt that we should have a 3 day conference - Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday will be mainly for tutorials introducing people to Python. Saturday and Sunday will be the main conference. There we're hoping to run 4 tracks in parallel as follows: I: Introductory and Web (this is the newbies/evangelism/101 track) II: Experienced (this is for pythonistas, with prereqs) III: Themed tracks IV: Tutorials, Labs, BOFs etc For this conference, we don't want to really focus on the size of the audience - rather we would like to really try hard to get good quality, advanced talks. We'll insist on there being enough advanced talks; and aggressively reject "introductory" talks that can't be accommodated in the introductory track. It's OK to have advanced talks that expect the audience to know certain things beforehand, as long as the prerequisites are explicitly listed in the talk description. We believe this it will be a challenge to get enough speakers who can talk about advanced topics - so let's try to think of various creative ways in which to meet this challenge. We'd like longer talks - all talks to be 1 hour. We also want 5 to 10 minute breaks between talks. One keynote on Saturday, and another keynote on Sunday. As far as dates, it appears that 16-18 Sept, or 23-25 Sept are the main possibilities. (Before that, Pune will be immobilized by Ganesh Chaturthi, and afterwards there's Navratri and Gandhi Jayanti.) We'll finalize the dates after talking with our potential venues. We're going to make first contact with potential venues next week and we are hoping to have the date and venue finalized in 2 or 3 weeks. Other isuses discussed during the meeting: 1. How much to charge? Reference: Pycon 2010 charged 250 for early bird, 350 for not-so-early bird, and 500 on the spot. Current thinking is to keep it the same. Maybe charge Rs. 150 for Day 0 Tutorials if there are people who want to attend just that. 2. How many people to expect? This needs to be estimated right now so that we only consider appropriate venues. Reference: Pycon 2010 had about 650 people on day 1. and 350 on day 2. We're not sure how to estimate the number of people coming for Pycon Pune, but for now, we're saying that as far as venue sizing is concerned, we will consider venues where the largest hall capacity is at least 300+, and there are at least 2 other halls/classrooms. Having labs would be a bonus. 3. Is a foreign speaker really necessary? We spend a lot of money, and maybe they don't have the star power that we think they have. Opinion was divided on this topic.

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Necessity of foreign delegates. Was Re: Notes from InPyCon planning meeting of local Pune Team
by Dhananjay Nene Feb. 22, 2011

Feb. 22, 2011

On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 10:27 PM, Sreekanth S Rameshaiah <sree(a)mahiti.org> wrote: > > > On 19 February 2011 18:30, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Sat, Feb 19 2011, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: >> >> > On Sat, 2011-02-19 at 11:34 +0530, Navin Kabra wrote: >> >> 3. Is a foreign speaker really necessary? We spend a lot of money, and >> >> maybe >> >> they don't have the star power that we think they have. Opinion was >> >> divided >> >> on this topic. >> > >> > not really necessary unless the person is already in India. >> >> I disagree. Details in another thread (Navin's mail which I forwarded to >> the list) >> > Good to do if cost is shared through a grant as in last year. > -1 if we have to generate the entire cost. > - sree > Since I am new to broader discussions about pycon india, I took some point to ponder on the topic. I am not too sure how useful a foreign delegate is. Here's a quick summary. a. It is unclear if seasoned pythonista's decision to attend will be influenced by the existence of a foreign delegate b. Part of the foreign delegate's fees are paid for by Pycon India whereas the local speakers don't have to, is a dualism that is hard to explain. Of course foreign delegates paying for themselves (or fully paid for by PSF should be fine). c. Anyways it seems we rely on the foreign delegate to provide an overall enthusiasm building keynote rather than some hardcore python elucidation. So, we don't seem to be wanting to go for some advanced python skills that we would otherwise find it hard to get from others in India. At the same time there are perhaps some topics that the foreign delegate could comment upon which are not otherwise not easily understood through at least the python user mailing lists and websites (as an eg. perhaps some insights into pypy VM) d. The opportunity cost of the expenditure. At 1L, we cold imagine sponsoring anywhere between 5-10 teams to work on a python summer of code during vacations in India (this is a new idea that came to my mind as I was thinking through the topic). From an expenditure review perspective (how many miles does a rupee go to promote python), I have a feeling that such an expenditure could be better suited to supporting the growth of python in India. Again, I am new to this area, so I may not understand all the dynamics of how important it is to have a foreign delegate to rope in the local delegates. But this is my 2c (or 2paise). Dhananjay

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Decision making / Consensus building process. Was Re: Necessity of foreign delegates.
by Dhananjay Nene Feb. 22, 2011

Feb. 22, 2011

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:59 AM, Anand Balachandran Pillai <abpillai(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 12:07 AM, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Mon, Feb 21 2011, Dhananjay Nene wrote: >> >> [...] >> >> > We've decide the mailing list to be the place for clarifying and >> > resolving issues and lets welcome comments so long as we can still >> > ensure we can deal with them and work to closure quickly. >> >> [...] >> >> Agreed and I think one days worth of discussion is okay for one of the >> largest potential expenses that we can incur. >> >> FWIW, I don't think your initial mail was inappropriate (almost nothing >> is). I was a little surprised but it's best to clear all this on the >> list (along with the flames, smoke and the rest of it) rather than >> resort to private emails and phone calls. > > When I said "uncalled for", this is what I meant. The issue could > have been thrashed out between some of us privately by an > email to a few or a phone call before splashing it widely to the list. > I didn't mean that we shouldn't discuss these things. If I gave > off such a nuance, please excuse me. I am getting extremely conflicting signals. I am confused. > I think some of us in this list deserve such a treatment considering > the effort we have taken in organizing many aspects of this conference > last year. As stake holders in IPSS and Inpycon and as some of the > pioneers and early leaders in this forum and the conference, we deserve > and expect it. A courtesy many including myself will only be too happy to extend, provided we believe this is preferred way of doing things. > I am sorry to say it out loud in this list, but considering > the volume of opinionated emails from those who lend more out > of their vocal cords and typing fingers rather than lending a hand > or a leg on the ground, I felt I had to say it. Unclear where this is directed. But again, I thought thats a part and parcel of the way things get done. I think it is important to bring this out in the open. Anand, what you refer to here is exactly the way I am used to the most historically - if I may give that a name, the quiet diplomacy approach. At the same time, I am led to believe that the preferred approach is to really bring out all the issues in the open and thrash them in the open - the loya jirga way. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loya_jirga). There is an obvious tradeoff between these approaches not limited to how they influence noise, transparency, involvement etc. Add to that the complete amorphousness of decision making structures. While there is transparency, there does remain a lot of ambiguousness since there is no specific team in charge of decision making, something I am adapting to though have never had to deal with this degree of amorphousness ever before. So my simple question is -> How do we want to handle it going forward. Dhananjay

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twitter hash tag for PyCon India 2011
by Anand Chitipothu Feb. 21, 2011

Feb. 21, 2011

Hi, What hash tag should we use for this conference? Last year we used #inpycon2010, but I felt it will be better use pyconindia instead of inpython because the former reads better. Last year it is was too late by the time I thought about it. Shall we use #pyconindia2011 as hash tag this year instead #inpycon2011? It is important to decide now because I need to specify it in the home page of the website. Anand

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Re: [Inpycon] Inpycon post from navin.kabra@gmail.com requires approval
by Noufal Ibrahim Feb. 19, 2011

Feb. 19, 2011

Just to make sure that it reaches the list. On Sat, Feb 19 2011, inpycon-owner(a)python.org wrote: [...] > From: Navin Kabra <navin.kabra@ > Subject: Early thoughts of the Pune team on Pycon 2011 > Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 11:19:42 +0530 > > Hi All, > > We had a meeting of the local Pune InPyCon 2011 team on Thursday night, > where we discussed a number of things, including short-term tasks and task > allotment. > > Here is an overview of what was discussed: > > We felt that we should have a 3 day conference - Friday, Saturday and > Sunday. Friday will be mainly for tutorials introducing people to Python. > Saturday and Sunday will be the main conference. There we're hoping to run 4 > tracks in parallel as follows: > > I: Introductory and Web (this is the newbies/evangelism/101 track) > II: Experienced (this is for pythonistas, with prereqs) > III: Themed tracks > IV: Tutorials, Labs, BOFs etc > > For this conference, we don't want to really focus on the size of the > audience - rather we would like to really try hard to get good quality, > advanced talks. We'll insist on there being enough advanced talks; and > aggressively reject "introductory" talks that can't be accommodated in the > introductory track. It's OK to have advanced talks that expect the audience > to know certain things beforehand, as long as the prerequisites are > explicitly listed in the talk description. We believe this it will be a > challenge to get enough speakers who can talk about advanced topics - so > let's try to think of various creative ways in which to meet this > challenge. > > We'd like longer talks - all talks to be 1 hour. We also want 5 to 10 minute > breaks between talks. One keynote on Saturday, and another keynote on > Sunday. > > As far as dates, it appears that 16-18 Sept, or 23-25 Sept are the main > possibilities. (Before that, Pune will be immobilized by Ganesh Chaturthi, > and afterwards there's Navratri and Gandhi Jayanti.) We'll finalize the > dates after talking with our potential venues. We're going to make first > contact with potential venues next week and we are hoping to have the date > and venue finalized in 2 or 3 weeks. > > Other isuses discussed during the meeting: > > 1. How much to charge? Reference: Pycon 2010 charged 250 for early bird, 350 > for not-so-early bird, and 500 on the spot. Current thinking is to keep it > the same. Maybe charge Rs. 150 for Day 0 Tutorials if there are people who > want to attend just that. > > 2. How many people to expect? This needs to be estimated right now so that > we only consider appropriate venues. Reference: Pycon 2010 had about 650 > people on day 1. and 350 on day 2. We're not sure how to estimate the number > of people coming for Pycon Pune, but for now, we're saying that as far as > venue sizing is concerned, we will consider venues where the largest hall > capacity is at least 300+, and there are at least 2 other halls/classrooms. > Having labs would be a bonus. > > 3. Is a foreign speaker really necessary? We spend a lot of money, and maybe > they don't have the star power that we think they have. Opinion was divided > on this topic. [...] --

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Assembla user notifications settings
by Dhananjay Nene Feb. 18, 2011

Feb. 18, 2011

Those who are watching the pycon india 2011 space on Assembla, kindly note that if you are getting more or less emails than what you might expect the place to configure what emails you would like to receive and how frequently is on http://www.assembla.com/spaces/pycon-india-2011/stream (top right -> change alert settings). For those who would like to receive all the gory details you can select the "Automatically follow new tickets" and all updates for all the new tickets will be sent to you. If you are interested in the specific happenings on any existing ticket you can also add yourself as a follower to the ticket. Dhananjay

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