Advocacy Accomplishments (most recent at top)
2007/09/11 Teamed with Paul Kippes, a Dallas Pythoneer, who arranged to give a talk to the Dallas PHP Usersgroup describing Python, from the PHP point of view. 22 people attended, discussion was vigorous and several members thanked us for presenting. The slides used are online.
2007/09/08 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a screencast "Searching the Python World" to be part of the "Keeping in Touch with the Python Community" series.
2007/09/06 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a screencast "Watching the RSS Feeds" to be part of the "Keeping in Touch with the Python Community" series.
2007/09/06 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a screencast "Python Walkthru of a Twisted Webserver" to be part of the "Python Source Walkthrough Series" series.
2007/09/06 Over time, added to the www.python.org site in topic-appropriate places sidebars with my commentary that link to strong screencasts/videos on showmedo.com and elsewhere on the Internet.
2007/09/03 Did a bit of promo for the Texas Python Unconference
2007/09/03 In coordination with showmedo.com, announced the 1st winner of the most popular screencast of the month.
2007/08/23 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a screencast "Python Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)" to be part of the "Python Source Walkthrough Series" series.
2007/08/22 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a screencast "Python and the Image Manipulation Library" to be part of the "5-Minutes with Python" series.
2007/08/20 Worked with Forrester Research to get the open source community free citation of portions of the survey of dynamic languages.
2007/08/19 Did a bit of promo and www.python.org site changes for "Python the German-Speaking Countries" 2-day workshop
2007/08/13 Continued to work closely with the showmedo.com folks to promote and prepare screencasts. Several more are in the works and plan to be released by the end of this week.
2007/08/06 Fielded a couple of Python job postings to usergroup members locally.
2007/07/30 Reviewed and corrected final scorecard for Forrester Research survey of dynamic languages.
2007/07/24 Training for Python pages continued to be regularly updated. Issued blog call for trainers to participate in screencasting that highlight their offerings.
2007/07/24 Issued blog call for members to join fledgling usergroups in Arizona and North/South Carolina.
2007/07/17 Made a place on www.python.org to receive reST/S5-based slide presentations so they can be reused under a free license.
2007/07/15 Assisted organizers to start three new Python usergroups, with a couple more pending at this time.
2007/07/14 Met with edu-sig/educators Michael Tobis and Clare Richardson from Austin to discuss the state of the Python education scene.
2007/07/09 Linked new screencasts into www.python.org and added entries in the left menu to point to the new audio/visual section.
2007/07/07 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a screencast "A Demonstration of ReStructuredText" to be part of the "5-Minutes with Python" series.
2007/07/05 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a 60-min screencast "A Demonstration of the 'IPython' Interactive Shell" (60-min) (reST script) This screencast is going to be broken down into shorter ones by Ian at showmedo.com and so is not yet available on their site. UPDATE - processing complete and video available as of 2007/07/15.
2007/07/02 Reviewed and submitted corrections for fact-check copy of Forrester Research survey regarding survey of dynamic languages.
2007/07/02 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com the screencast "Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'" to be part of the "5-Minutes with Python" series.
2007/06/29 Reviewed screencast by Ian Ozsvald "First 5 Minutes with Python" (5-min) to be part of the "5-Minutes with Python" series we're creating.
2007/06/28 After being contacted by a member asking about Python BoFs at OSCON 2007, successfully rallied people to make it happen, and to volunteer their participation in podcast efforts there.
2007/06/25 Recorded and handed off to www.showmedo.com a pair of screencasts on how to get into making screencasts, to encourage others.
Preparing for Screencasting (19-min) (reST script)
Giving Your Screencast (10-min) (reST script)
2007/06/25 At the request of a member, some small cleanup and organization of http://www.python.org/doc/faq/windows/, including getting rid of an obsolete, parallel set of FAQ documents.
2007/06/22 At of this date, there have been eight postings to the usergroup organizers shared blog.
2007/06/21 Worked with docutils to create a custom theme using the Python logo for use in the creation of presentation screencasts. I've not yet decided on where to store the theme on www.python.org, or whether to submit it for inclusion in the docutils package. You can see the theme used in the screencasts I've done.
2007/06/12 There have been periodic flurries of updates by the community to the PythonWriters and PythonTraining wiki pages, which is encouraging. Each page has a good amount of content on it.
2007/06/07 Sent out an invitation for usergroup organizers and wannabes to join the new group-organizers mailing list. There has been a good response, with 21 members as of 2007/06/11.
2007/06/07 Sent out an invitation for usergroup organizers to email me information to add them as posters to the new shared usergroup blog. There are now 10 usergroups added, as of 2007/06/11, as I've recorded in the left-lower menu of links to usergroup websites.
2007/06/07 Posted a meeting summary report to the new shared usergroup blog.
2007/06/06 Set up a prototyping area in which to work on changes to www.python.org, in collaboration with the community.
2007/05/30 Participated in a phone interview with Forrester Research on parts of the survey response, particularly the strategic direction for promotion.
2007/05/30 Completed and submitted answers to Forrester Research, including the four code samples.
2007/05/26 Distributed final response to Forrester Research survey for last-minute community input and corrections. Got detailed responses from several members, especially Sean Reifschneider who was quite detailed.
2007/05/18 Issued several calls for community input on the Forrester Research survey, and collated private responses into our response.
2007/05/14 Created a blog to be shared by the organizers of various usergroups in making announcements and giving meeting reports. Have not yet requested for it to be added to an aggregator nor added to www.python.org.
2007/05/14 Issued call to community for updates to the list of Python trainers and also added an entry to the left menu of www.python.org for "Training Classes".
2007/05/14 Issued call to community for four code samples for Forrester Survey.
2007/05/12 Member of DFW Pythoneers, Brad Allen, is on extended business in Portland Oregon, and he has been working to restart their local Python usergroup. He paid for a year of http://python.meetup.com/183 and has convened two meetings, the first with 5 people, the second with 8. He has also made contact with the local Plone usergroup and is working to build a Portland leadership before he has to return to Dallas.
2007/05/12 2nd Saturday meeting of the DFW Pythoneers, wherein I presented on D-BUS and showed how to hook events coming from the Jabber IM client Gajim. We had a new attendee from the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, which is developing some interest in using Python with robots, as M.I.T. is doing. Fortunately Martin Thomas had brought his TuxDroid, which is controlled with Python and which he had turned into a service on the D-BUS, to be controlled by any application. We didn't quite make it to having the TuxDroid controlled from the Gajim jabber client, both D-BUS participants.
2007/05/10 Issued call to Python community for help with 11 answers to Forrester Survey. Some responses received but not much content so will need to research the answers myself, due to short deadline of May 18th..
2007/05/09 Received working copies of select chapters of the college textbook "Understanding Computers", for reworking for the 12th edition. The work done for the 11th edition was just updating a few pages, while the 12th edition the publisher staff are allowed to do major rewrites of sections so Python will get higher visibility.
2007/05/08 Continually collecting quality video lectures for use by fledgling usergroups or others. Oddly there are not that many around it seems. Hopefully the ones from PyCon 2007, once processed, will help here.
2007/05/04 Participated in a teleconference with Forrester Research staff, wherein they reviewed their overall philosophy of how they conduct a survey and what can be done with it afterward. There was also a good question and answer exchange among representatives of the various dynamic languages in the call.
2007/05/03 Reviewed the draft criteria and gave detailed feedback to Forrester Research about the criteria to be used in their survey of dynamic languages. The final survey form now looks like this. The survey has aggressive completion dates and involves interviews with selection community members, the names of which I am submitting. It also needs four samples of source code for specific problems, as well as essay-style answers, which I am handling myself. I've asked the community for help with the source code samples.
2007/04/26 Spent time learning Andrew's new scheme for content on www.python.org and created a section for audiovisual materials, to be developed in cooperation with http://www.showmedo.com. The section has not yet been added to the main menu, pending creation/processing of new screencasts. There is also a subsection for the viewing of in-page videos. These are where the "5 Minutes with Python" series of screencasts will go.
2007/04/25 Worked on outline for paper, "Starting and Running a Successful Python User Group"
2007/04/25 Some cleanup and rework of the Advocacy wiki page but more is needed.
2007/04/25 The Omaha Python Usergroup provided a sample tearaway flyer, for reuse by other groups.
2007/04/25 Convened an online meeting with the Usergroup Support Committee, a small group of community members to provide input and take on some of the tasks of strengthening the usergroups of Python. This committee has a private mailing list <usergroup-advocacy@python.org>. The IM transcript of this meeting is online here.
2007/04/19 Created a mailing list, <group-organizers@python.org>: "To share knowledge, of what works and doesn't work in running a vibrant Python usergroup. We seek members of existing usergroups to share their expertise and those who wish to start a usergroup near them and want help in getting started." This list has not yet been publicly announced, pending a blog to go along with it.
2007/04/15 Performed some auditing of existing roster of usergroups, noting dead links and building up a local spreadsheet of information. Much more is needed here.
2007/04/11 Received complimentary paper copy of college textbook "Understanding Computers", 11th edition, that now includes mention of Python.
(break after PyCon and gap in contract)
2007/03/01 End of PyCon 2007
2007/02/23 Start of PyCon 2007
(much preparation for PyCon 2007)
2006/12/03 Put candidate PyCon slogans onto poll site and let the community vote; tally the vote and report it to the graphic artist and swag coordinator.
2006/12/01 Fed material to author and reviewed writing of Python material in "Understanding Computers" college textbook (pub Mar/2007) to be published by Course Technology/Thomson Learning; lead passed to me from PSF.
2006/11/26 Led and finalized keynote speaker selection for PyCon.
2006/11/25 Participated in final selection of PyCon tutorials.
2006/11/21 Produced first draft of talk timeslot assignment.
2006/11/19 Participated in budget preparation for PyCon.
2006/11/17 Participated in final selection of PyCon talks.
2006/11/14 Get vector format of PyCon logo to the graphic designer.
2006/11/13 Made announcment re advocacy onto comp.lang.python, comp.lang.python.announce, and marketing@wingide.com mailing lists.
2006/11/11 Took a few quick photos at local bookstore for basic clipart for advocacy portal.
2006/11/10 Implemented a suggestion box web form (Zope 3 component) that emails feedback to me at <advocate@python.org>; mail server on ximinez.python.org not configured to accept/deliver mail yet though.
2006/11/08 Implemented a web viewlet/component, under the Careers tab, that polls monster.com and dice.com once each day and plots the count of Python-specific job openings; retains up to 5 years of data.
2006/11/08 Established a subportal, for those who want to help promote Python.
2006/10/31 Met over phone with Shane at O'Reilly to discuss how the various open source communities can work with O'Reilly; wrote up meeting notes on my blog.
2006/10/28 Presented a 2-hr code walkthru of the underlying structure of the advocacy portal to the DFW Pythoneers, getting feedback and ideas.
2006/10/27 Coordinated with the PyCon graphic designer negotiating contract, getting it signed and so forth; we now have a photo montage at the top of us.pycon.org although we're still looking for good photos.
2006/10/20 Worked short list of keynote speakers and got speaking commitments; we have 3 firm and 2 more candidates if our schedule has room.
2006/10/17 Contacted specific key individuals and send out emails encouraging various Python subcommunities to submit PyCon talks; we had 104 talk submissions for 2007 versus 70-odd for 2006.
2006/10/16 Added support for filterable documents to the advocacy site, and came up with a decent presentation layout for said documents.
2006/10/14 Prototyped up and did a code walkthru for the DFW Pythoneers showing how Python programs can participate on the D-BUS (desktop bus for Unix), querying and altering the hardware (such as detecting USB plug-in events and altering the laptop LCD brightness) using HAL. Also showed how to use the notification-daemon on D-BUS to pop-up balloon help and a brief touch on the wireless services provided by Avahi (zeroconf/rendevous) on the D-BUS. This talk came about as a result of my PyCon research into a possible One-Laptop-Per-Child keynote, where that project uses much of this same technology. Blogged.
2006/10/12 Reviewed the slogans for PyCon with the attendees of the DFW Pythoneers social, collecting input on how and what to select. We also discussed what we'd like to see at PyCon and how we could, individually, lead threads on comp.lang.python and other forums to encourage speakers to step forward.
200610/12 Worked on a list of PyCon talk ideas, adding outlines to some, posting to comp.lang.python and comp.lang.python.announce. Also blogged the calls (here and here) for talks and tutorials but I suspect those didn't get out because it was before any blog aggregators had picked me up. I have gotten a good offer for a talk about eggs, and a confirmed solid candidate for a keynote speaker.
2006/10/05 Gave a 60-min presentation at the local DFW Unix Users Group about dynamic languages and Python, as a follow-on to the main presentation given by Dave Thomas about Ruby and Rails. My slides are available on the club website, in docutils/restructured-text S5 format. I'd guess the audience size was roughly 15-20 people. Blogged.
2006/10/03 Migrated over the prototype portal from advocacy.dfwpython.org to advocacy.python.org.
2006/09/30 Added sponsor logos back to PyCon site
2006/09/30 Reworked PyCon site to support IE
2006/09/28 Gained access to the correct portion of Python SVN to hold my creations, both software and content.
2006/09/25 Put out call for PyCon talk and tutorial ideas; post my suggestion list.
2006/09/22 Had a virtual host added to the Apache configuration for ximinez.python.org that points to the advocacy portal work area, along with cgi-bin for a few tools such as Nabu.
2006/09/22 Installed onto ximinez.python.org a tool set: Python2.5, Docutils, Zope 3.2.1, Pyscopg2 DA, Nevow/Stan, Nabu.
2006/09/22 Established on ximinez.python.org a root directory under which to install the advocacy tools and content.
2006/09/21 Got a DNS subdomain, "advocacy.python.org", pointed to ximinez.python.org, one of the python.org machines.
2006/09/20 Got an account on the PostgreSQL database on ximinez.python.org, under which to install the various tables for dynamic content.
2006/09/20 Got a shell account on the python.org machines and familiariing myself with the architecture and filesystem layout of each.
2006/09/17 Restyled the us.pycon.org website to something closer to the look of www.python.org.
2006/09/15 Assisted Doug Napoleone with sysadmin support for rolling out the new, Django-based PyCon Submission system.
2006/09/12 Produce a glossy sheet and a business card for a install fest being held in Australia. Set up a file library to hold them at:
http://advocacy.dfwpython.org/@@/collaterals/ (soon to be at advocacy.python.org instead)
2006/09/11 Subscribed to the pydotorg mailing list to get getting involved in discussions.
2006/09/07 Arranged for the creation of the mailing list <advocacy@python.org> and the email alias for myself of <advocate@python.org>.
2006/09/07 Finalized the contract for the position.
2006/08/25 Expanded collection of ArticleIdeas.
2006/08/20 Established list of magazines for article submissions and starting collecting ArticleIdeas.
For active discussion on advocating for Python, please join the mailing list at http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy