Sign the [http://www.python.org/psf/contrib-form.html Python contributor agreement] Steve indicated that he would have copies at the Sprint
Subversion client software (Windows users may use SVN Tortoise, Putty and Pageant). Get your SSH2 key installed and verify you can commit.
Suitable IRC client (XIRC or similar).
FredrikLundh: How about IM tools too? Google Talk? (I'm no IRC user, so maybe modern IRC tools cover point-to-point communication too? Please enlighten me).
SeanReifschneider: IRC *CAN* do person-to-person talk, as well as small or ad-hoc groups of people, much like IM. You can "/msg user" to send them a private message, in xchat that opens a new tab for user-to-user communication. You can "/join #channel" to create a new channel named "channel" that you can invite others to. I can do IM, please ask me directly for my IM name in AIM or Google Talk, Python folks are welcome to it, but I keep it kind of private.
GeorgBrandl: Would a kind of collaborative text editor be helpful? For non-Macintosh users, [http://gobby.0x539.de Gobby] comes to mind.
SteveHolden: I think we can probably do without anything so fancy - pair programming can be the major staple, probably.