Open Django Central Now Open to Sponsors

The Open Bastion, the subsidiary that runs events and conferences, has announced that its Open Django Central event, new to the calendar this year, is now (yes, we know) finally open to sponsors. Sponsorship is very reasonably priced, and the more money that comes in sponsorship the better we can make the event for the local Django community.

This represents a rare opportunity to connect with a diverse group of “djangstas” from the greater
Chicago and surrounding areas. The conference is targeted not just at technologists but also at
others wishing to engage with the open source world and find out what these technologies can do.

We hope that by adding your name to the roster of those supporting Open Django Central you will
indicate your enthusiastic support of and interest in open source technologies, in particular Django and Python. It's easy to ask about becoming a sponsor.

We are also still looking for speakers, so please let us know of anyone (you included, dear reader) who might be interested in giving a (technical, not marketing) talk at the conference. Slots are from 30-90 minutes.

And please act now, as time is (yes, we know) getting short!

Promoting and Supporting Open Source

I was a little surprised today to discover that my Twitter buds mostly hadn't heard I had moved to Portland, and when I thought about it I realized that blog readers had no way to know either, since although I have been talking about the move a lot I have been too busy to write about it. This condition still holds, really, so this is a sketch for now.

In order to engage the Portland business, government and open source communities I organized a reception a couple of weeks ago, which also represented the announcement of a new business, The Open Bastion. As you can see from the web site we are still in well, not exactly stealth mode, but it's early days yet. I am happy to say that the reception appears to have started many conversations abut open source, which I will be following up on as they develop.

Why Portland? Well, I have been feeling the pull of the West coast for some time, and have visited Portland quite a but recently, including running DjangoCon US there last September. So the plan for the new business is to organize and run technical events–conferences, presentations, training sessions. There is also a very active Python user group here, which I attended shortly after my arrival in the city as one of about forty people there that evening. Portland likes to think of itself as the open source capital, but I want it to put its money where its mouth is.

Portland, being a conference city, is marvelously well endowed with venues. I am happy to say that it appears to be a city that values its heritage and it still has many fine original buildings, which makes the place a pleasure to walk around. With excellent public transport (including a fare-free zone in the center to discourage the use of private cars) it's a wonderful place to live and to visit, and I am looking forward to spending time here.

I will be keeping in touch with the East coast, too, by spending roughly a  quarter of my time in New York, where I expect technical events will also be required. We are, of course, equally happy to help you with events in the location of your choice. So if you are thinking about running a technical sales presentation, or a conference, or any other similar sort of event and you would like someone to take the organization off your hands, drop me a line. I am "sholden at theopenbastion dot com".

Serious Python Conference Information

Just in case the world needed reminding how active the Python conference world is, I did a search for Python conferences on the lanyrd.com site. At time of writing the query returned 84 conferences in the last couple of years. This is gratifying, but I am pretty sure it's only the beginning.

DjangoCon Retrospective

Tumultuous events seem to occur in clusters in my life, and the week of DjangoCon found me in the middle of one such cluster. This being more of a professional than a personal blog I concentrate here on the conference, where the tumult manifested itself first in the shape of a chance meeting with a congressman. The next day I helped the Conference Direct team prepare for evening registration and helped people sign in.

The three days of DjangoCon were a most stimulating time. The Django community has its share of characters, and being among so many was truly a joy. I ended up just up the corridor from James Bennett[1], who is also quite a social person, and so a certain amount of partying ensued (which I regret to say I was not really in the best mood to enjoy). James was happy to entertain the people I kicked out, and they were apparently happy to be entertained, so we achieved a pleasant win-win.

Conference time is usually fairly closely scheduled, and DjangoCon is no exception. I used my "keynote" to try to get people relaxed and in the mood to enjoy themselves a little during all the serious learning that was taking place [2]. Then it was into tracks and running. Lunch seemed to go down well and everyone appeared to enjoy the breaks. Due to the generosity of our sponsors it was possible to provide a continental breakfast this year as well as lunch and breaks. After James Bennett's keynote were the lightning talks, which I had to miss because I was running a Python programming competition (won by Justin Lilley, against some worthy competition). I finished the day with a quiet room-service dinner with Kirby Urner, who was acting as Snake Wrangler and my general factotum.

This reminds me to mention that the Django pony was again in evidence as was Naga, the PSF_Snake. Everyone who came to the conference received their own "My Little Pony" toy, and I believe I may have detected early signs that the Django community is moving towards being "ponied out". The pony was the subject of a question during my keynote that rather sandbagged me - I was unaware of strong feelings in certain elements of the community about the pony as a symbol. Having said which, honesty is the best policy and I said what I believe.

Day two moved on in strong style. I was much preoccupied with how best to try and accommodate a visiting speaker. In the end we just moved the whole afternoon forward by a quarter of an hour, leaving a 5:15 to 5:30 slot for Congressman David Wu. I don't really know what the audience made of being addressed by a congressman. The decision to invite him was a no-brainer for me. I would rather hear a bit of "why ever did you bring a congressman in to speak?" that any "why on earth didn't you ask the congressman to speak?" Congressmen aren't like buses, they don't come along on a regular schedule, and the particular congressman in question happens to have impeccable science and technology credentials. He certainly seemed reasonably well-briefed on open source, which is a big thing in Portland right now.

The early part of the evening was spent at a reception my company gave, which a couple of campaign staff also attended. I entertained them a little longer after the reception finished, and then went downstairs to grab a roomful of people to help me consume wine and food I had ordered for my room. This turned into a most stimulating party, but at midnight or so I realized I needed to get some sleep. Fortunately James sent a scouting party down, and a transfer to his rooms was affected with only one use of the verbal crowbar.

Later to bed than I had anticipated, I had to rise early to attend a breakfast meeting away from the conference. As I returned it was gratifying to learn that the bacon had been delivered for breakfast at DjangoCon. The hotel had to serve the savory pastries late and in insufficient quantity on day two because their bakery supplier let them down. They asked if we would like a per-delegate refund, but I suggested instead that they add bacon to the Thursday menu, which they duly did. Unfortunately the bacon was apparently set down in the middle of the general display, and although I made light of it at the time[3] it would have been nicer for the vegetarian population if it hadn't been thrust under their noses.

The day appeared to go well. At lunchtime I gave away books from APress and O'Reilly, our two media sponsors, and awarded prizes for various pieces of arcane knowledge ("What's the animal on the front of this book?"). The only slight logisitical glitch in the proceedings occurred right at the end, when the short length of the sprint preparations caught us on the hop. I got a call and immediately went down and "turned the bar on" so people could get a drink, and a couple of minutes later Nancy from Conference Direct arrived with the drinks tickets and it was business as usual.

I like to think that most people had a good time, and I have tried to deal with criticism as it was raised in so far as I could. Sometimes, though, people insist on waiting until they have left and then making negative remarks, and I have seen a few such:

What I learned at #djangocon: 1. Not enough core committers. That's it. Total bummer of a conference #circlejerk I hope this twitterer realises that the chairman and community volunteers are the right people to take this up with, and there has already been talk of an Exreme Django track.

Oh fast internet, how I missed you! Back from #djangocon.  I don't think the Internet service was that bad (considering that PyCon spends four times as much and still gets it wrong when they don't let Sean Reifschneider do it), and there weren't extensive complaints as far as I knew (except maybe one fairly short period). Or maybe the author is, like me, a happy consumer of fiber to the customer premises. You do get spoiled ...

What I disliked most about #Djangocon: I have a toy for a 3 year old kid as a shwag. The pony isn't funny anymore. And yet, such is the power of the six dollar pony that you kept it despite the fact that you hate it. Nobody was checking at the doors to make sure you took your pony home with you. You're just a schwag collector, aren't you?

@pydanny please be careful around those dirty Django men, @pythonchelle watch out too #djangocon. I don't remember who tweeted this, but I hope the dissatisfaction was momentary.  Dirty Django men? Not dirty (mostly), simply in way too large a majority. We need to work on that. And the dirt ...

http://isalexacoredeveloper.com/ is just cruel #djangocon I have to agree, it is, but I don't think that this is in any way DjangoCon's responsibility [4].

Overall I think most delegates enjoyed their conference. While running these events can be a little stressful it is rewarding to feel that the conference has helped in some way to advance the state of the Django art and allowed people some relaxation during the conference "white space".

My thanks to all DjangoCon US's sponsors, and to everyone from the Django community who helped to make the event such a success. I am already looking forward to 2011.

NOTE: DjangoCon US 2011 will be held at the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower on September 6-8.

[1]: OHWar quote: "Beer. My suite. Now."
[2]: As is perhaps indicated by the title: Matters of Little Consequence or The Care and Feeding of Ponies.
[3]: OHWar quote: "Screw the vegetarians."
[4]: OHWar quote: "Pinax is sort of a reusable application thing." As you will have seen if you followed the link, Alex's status has changed since the site was instigated, and the question is now answered in the affirmative.

What Do We Tell the Government?

This coming Thursday I am speaking at GOSCON, a conference organized with the specific intentions of informing governmental IT users about open source. Most of the speakers will be from the government side if the last such event I attended is typical, so I am giving a talk called No Free Lunch. The idea is to suggest ways that government can maximize the benefits of using open source, and provide open source teams with resources that will enable us to increase production, so this isn't just a talk for the Python Software Foundation - I want to represent a wider community if I can.

Twitter friends have already provided some useful ideas, but I will be happy to weave more in there if you can provide them. So, what would you like to see government (which in this context is principally the executive branch, but I am happy to include points for the legislative and judicial branches if you have them) doing for open source?

New Holden Web Subsidiary to Produce DjangoCon 2010

DjangoCon 2010 had to happen. After a brilliant start at the GooglePlex the event followed up with a transition to a hotel venue. DjangoCon is "small" in some sense that PyCon isn't (it probably compares with the size of the first PyCon if the figures I have seen are close). Well, I managed the first PyCon in 2003 (and the second, and the third), so I figured I could probably manage DjangoCon. Fingers crossed, wish me luck, DjangoCon is at the DoubleTree in Portland, OR from September 7-9 this year.

It will be interesting. My close involvement with the US open source community was relatively new when I started PyCon, whose development was therefore very organic rather than being the structured product of corporate thinking.  It was really my instinctive rebellion against the exclusive nature of the corporate conferences that Python users used to have to attend.

DjangoCon's sponsorship tariff this year makes small company participation eminently practical, and serious visibility is a practical proposition for the medium-sized enterprise. I am delighted to say that HUGE Inc., besides hosting the meeting at which the announcement was made, have agreed to be our first commercial sponsor, closely followed by Clearwind as our second. If you know anybody who might want to sponsor the conference please let us know.

DjangoCon can continue to demonstrate the practicality of collaboration between the open source communities and the "outside world". Sponsorship will be shared between commercial enterprises and recognized open source organizations such as OSU OSL and the Python Software Foundation, who can mingle with and get to know all segments of the Django world. The reverse is obviously also true.

This particular venture is being run by a new organization, "Steve Holden's Mighty Python Empire," whose mission is to increase the visibility of open source technologies by running popular and profitable training and conference events. Look for more about its other activities towards the fall.

I am looking forward to getting to know the Django community better, and to working with them to give them the best possible forum to learn about the technologies surrounding this fascinating application.

PyCon Asia Pacific Call for Papers

If you would like to visit Singapore next year, please consider submitting a paper to PyCon Asia Pacific, which runs from June 9-11 next year. The call for papers is open until February 1, but why not get that proposal in before Christmas?

Python in Brazil

If you want an exotic holiday, fly to Brazil. While you are there, take in the pythonbrasil conference. That's a good web site that makes it look like fun!

PSF Associate Memberships?

When I spoke about The PSF and Us at EuroPython a couple of weeks ago there were some interesting questions, many of which related to how individuals could help the Python Software Foundation. During the discussion I asked how many people would be prepared to support the Foundation by paying for some kind of (non-voting) associate membership, and I estimate at least half the audience's hands were raised.

It appears, therefore, that Python users want to be associated with the Foundation. So now I would like to ask readers (whom I assume will mostly be Python users) a few questions.

Do you think it would be a good idea for the PSF to broaden its membership base in this way? If you aren't a nominated member, would you like to become an associate? If so, why? What would you like to get from an associate membership? What could the Foundation offer in return for some annual payment? What should that payment be? What could (or should) the Foundation be doing for you and Python that it isn't already?

I am looking for some guidance here from an apparently under-served section of the Python community. Your feedback will be invaluable.

EuroPython Booked

So the flights and hotel are booked and it's confirmed: I am going to EuroPython. This will only be my second attendance, and since it's in England this year close to where my one of my sisters lives I expect to feel reasonably at home. It won't be a long trip, but John Pinner tells me he'd like me to give a talk about the PSF and an after-dinner speech, and that "we may like you to join a panel or two, Open Space etc as well if that's OK".

Since the conference is paying my travel and accommodation it would seem ungracious to refuse. So it looks like I'll be busy. I am already looking forward to it!

One of the nice parts of visiting the Midlands will be a chance to sample some British beers. If you have any recommendations or suggestions please be sure to let me know!

PyCon Proves Its Worth

Here's a great quote from Catherine Devlin's blog post Five Minutes at PyCon Changes Everything reporting the unexpected recruitment of a high-powered development team after giving a lightning talk:

If I'd had $1 million of startup funding to hire a staff to work on sqlpython, I couldn't have gotten a team that large or that talented. I figure that gives me better than a 1000-to-1 return on my PyCon investment. :)

It's also been extremely gratifying to discover that the dip in numbers (initial assessment says we were maybe 10% down on 2009) represents an amazing result. Apparently many conferences have seen attendance at 50% of last year's numbers, and some have simply canceled because the cancellation fees were a smaller that their expected loss.

This really vindicates the low-cost community-based approach that PyCon has always used. Several people told me that they booked to attend the conference without knowing whether they could get company approval, because they knew the conference was great value and they could afford to attend on their own dime. PyCon is a very special conference indeed, and the Python community makes remarkable things happen there every year.

PyCon 2009 Presentations

I've just been thinking about planning for PyCon, and I have a lot to do. The tutorial schedule is a little bare right now, but I am hoping it will be fleshed out soon. There are over 30 tutorials, two of which I am involved in.

Firstly I have to write Python 401: Some Advanced Topics (not my own choice of title), which is supposed to discuss iteration, generators, descriptors and metaclasses. These are all features of Python that could stand some more explanation, but I'd like to put a twist on the material and have the audience suggest potential applications that we can discuss as a part of the tutorial.

There's a second tutorial, Python for Teachers that I'll be presenting jointly with Kirby Urner. The idea behind this one is to try and enthuse those involved with formal education about Python's potential for teaching mathematics of various kinds. Kirby has a lot of experience doing that, and I am supposed to provide irreverent questioning and keep Kirby headed in the right direction. He's the education side, I represent the geeks, if you like. I'm really looking forward to it, but I owe Kirby email about those plans.

Then I have to give an invited talk which I believe will be a plenary session, though that hasn't been confirmed yet. My working title for this is Leading the Python Tribe, in which I want to investigate the shared sense of direction in the Python community, in so far as it currently exists, and offer some thoughts about the roles of the Python Software Foundation.

I am also hoping to run an Open Space session along the same lines as last year's Teach Me Twisted, but this time looking at web testing - an area I would really like to learn more about. I think I have Grig Gheorghiu interested in helping out, but he's a busy guy and hasn't yet committed. If anyone can rope in the knowledgeable web testers we need it's Grig.

To top this all off there'll be the PSF members meeting to chair, sundry sessions in the bar, meals with friends old and new, and all the other wonderful things that happen at PyCon with absolutely no formal scheduling. So I expect to be busy, but I also expect to enjoy myself hugely. See you in Chicago?

PyCon is International

Various national conferences have started to use the PyCon name, and this has now been formalized by making the various national sites available under the pycon.org domain. So now you can go to:

• br.pycon.org
• eu.pycon.org
• fr.pycon.org
• it.pycon.org
• uk.pycon.org

That's a long way for a community conference to spread in five years! The eu conference is a redirection to EuroPython, which is a trans-national conference and (if I am not mistaken) was actually started the year before PyCon. But it's nice to have them in the family.

Thanks to Marc-Andre Lemburg for maintaining the domain. Let's hope to see more PyCons as the Python's influence spreads further and its popularity continues to increase.

PyCon Registration Going Great Guns

With over five weeks still to go until PyCon 2008 in Chicago registrations already number over 180, almost three-quarters of the total registrations for the first PyCon in 2003 in Washington DC. The tutorials, running for the third year, are also popular and many of them already have enough registered students to guarantee that they will run.

I'm delighted to see that my own Python 101 for Programmers is a popular offering—it's intended for people who have had little or no previous exposure to the language, and I am trying to cover all the essentials in three hours! Let's hope that it brings some new members to the Python community.

If you have never been to PyCon, I would like to recommend you try it. It's definitely not a stuffy atmosphere, people go there to have fun as well as do productive work, you can learn huge amounts from both the tutorials and the regular papers, and the sprints are a great way to get into a new project and learn from the developers themselves.

It's a unique event, besides being terrific value for money.

Is Guido Drunk Yet?

So Guido is encouraging people to get him drunk today. I hope someone gets a video!

The Python Community

This page is clearly seditious, as it claims that there are activities that are "more fun" than programming in Python*.

It does start to give you some idea of the breadth of the Python community. Strange as it may seem, after 40 years working with information technology I like the Python community as a place I don't necessarily have to do technical stuff. So I have tended to organize conferences rather than present at them.

With PyCon and EuroPython, and now individual conferences all over Europe and South America starting up under the PyCon [the page is a bit out of date] banner, Python has a truly international community.

Through its various electronic media, both interactive (newsgroups/mailing lists, Wiki, IRC) and with groupings based on geography and technical interests, everyone gets a chance to contribute no matter where in the world they are. The jobs list is also worldwide.

The Python Software Foundation's Advocacy Coordinator (Jeff Rush) certainly has his hands full!

* ObGeek: Outrageous suggestion.

Other People's Time

Would you rather work with a contractor who gives you a due date and sticks to it or one you could never be entirely certain of? If the project slips, how good will communications be?

Seth Godin here relates why it's important to keep public events to a schedule. Conferences aren't about the muckety-mucks, they're about the hard-working stiffs who've forked over their cash. Well, the conferences I organize are, anyway.

If a meeting's not about the participants, why are they there?

Lots of PyCon Good News

The PyCon blog announced today that pre-registered attendance has now reached 400. After a pause in growth last year (due to the change of venue?) I am happy to see that Python's continued increase in popularity is being reflected in PyCon's attendance figures. It is, after all, the primary US conference for anyone with an interest in the Python language.

Sponsorship is also on the increase, and I am delighted to have exceeded the target that the co-chairs set me when they put the budget together. This is the first year we have attracted five Platinum-level sponsors. Thanks to everyone who is supporting the conference in this most practical of ways. I hope all my readers will take the time to follow their links at the right-hand side of the PyCon web pages. It's also not too late to sign up as a sponsor - where else could you get your organisation's name on the web next to both Google and Microsoft?! The details are here.

On a personal note the database API tutorial is going ahead. The lower numbers this year should allow time for questions and personal tuition. I'll have to get working on the slides and examples now!