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=================================================
 Minutes of 2007-07-17 PyCon Organizers' Meeting
=================================================

| Start time: 18:00 UTC (14:00EDT, 13:00CDT, 11:00PDT)
| Agenda: http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyCon2008/OrganizersMeetings

.. contents::

Attendance
==========

David Goodger,
Brantley Harris,
Greg Lindstrom,
Ivan Krstic,
Carl Karsten,
Noah Kantrowitz,
Ted Pollari,
Chris McAvoy,
Steven Githens,
Skip Montanaro,
Catherine Devlin,
Facundo Batista,
Doug Napoleone


Food Logistics
==============

Pre-meeting, there was some discussion of past food logistics.
T. Pollari confirmed that CTE (the meeting planners) will do the
negotiations with the hotel.


Staff Roles
===========

| Sign-up sheet here: http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyCon2008/Staff
| 2007 staff: http://us.pycon.org/TX2007/DeptHeads

D.Goodger: "If anybody hasn't signed up yet, and intends to, please
do. If you don't intend to, please rethink. If you know anybody who
can, please bug them. ... Multiple roles are fine."

T.Pollari: "What goes into the financial aid coordinator position?
... I may be able to take that on." D. Goodger did this last time; he
has some notes and will get them onto the web.

I.Krstic will sign up for the Program Committee Chair role.

C.Devlin will send staff-recruiting mail to last year's speakers.

N.Kantrowitz: "Should we just sign up based on interest and assume
that information about what to do will appear later?" D. Goodger:
"yes ... bug me or past holders for info, and the pycon-organizers
list."

V.Lindberg: "What does the sponsorship coordinator do?" D. Goodger:
"Send out mailings to get sponsors to give us $. There's even
software behind it." C. Devlin: "Recruit corporate sponsors. Steve
Holden has done it last N years." Lindberg will take on this role.

C.McAvoy will sign for Volunteer Coordinator.

N.Kantrowitz expressed interest in keynote coordination. Details To
be discussed.

C.Karsten will be A/V Coordinator.

"Stepping on toes" was discussed. It isn't an issue: we have tough
toes.


Keynote Speakers
================

Keynotes can be up to 90 minutes. In past years, we had 90-minute
plenary sessions each morning, with a keynote speaker, plus Guido van
Rossum at lunch one day (Saturday). Each day ended with a plenary
lightning talks session, and one lunch (Friday) was for sponsor
lightning talks. Unless we change things, we'll need 3 or 4 keynote
speakers. Goodger: "One keynote at lunch, no more; lunch is too busy
& noisy I think. It's good for lightning talks though."

2007 schedule: http://us.pycon.org/apps07/schedule/

Keynotes should be aimed at a different level from talks -- more
general interest, less technical.

Goodger: "We need ideas for keynote speakers. We need to get people
signed up as early as possible."

Keynote speaker suggestions:

* Guido van Rossum (to be confirmed). F. Batista: "Guido's talk about
  Python's status and future is always appreciated."

* V.Lindberg is willing to do a keynote on "IP and Open Source".
  Goodger: "Van did an *abbreviated* talk (prior person ran long) at
  2007 which was very cool, and could be turned into a much longer
  one."

* Adrian Holovaty of Django (suggested by C. McAvoy): a chicago resident, has
  lots of ideas about the future of news publishing. He's a dynamic
  speaker as well.

* Peter Norvig, AI researcher, Director of Google Research, former
  Director of search quality at Google (V. Lindberg). `Article
  in Technology Review
  <http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=19050>`__.
  `Python Infrequently Answered Questions
  <http://norvig.com/python-iaq.html>`__. I. Krstic: "wicked smart, huge
  authority in the ai field. A big python fan." Lindberg: "Wrote the
  book on AI (using LISP), now prefers Python for a lot of work."

* Alex Maartelli (G. Lindstrom)

* Mark Hammond, who is working on XPCOM (Goodger: "he was unready for
  2007, but said he'd be interested in 2008")

* V.Lindberg suggested a talk on "parallel processing with Python".
  (There was a talk by someone at ILM? Imageworks, says
  N. Kantrowitz.)

* Herb Sutter. I. Krstic: "... might be a good choice for
  concurrency, btw. He's been giving oodles of keynotes about "the
  concurrency revolution", see gotw.ca."

C.McAvoy asked if we would have a theme again, like education in
2007. Goodger: "It's wide open right now. If the keynote coordinator
(and program committee) decide to do it, that would be fine. It would
be good to advertise a theme, if we have one."

Goodger: "I'm wary about having too narrow a theme; some of us don't
do web apps (like me)." N. Kantrowitz: "I think that a good mix of
big talks (either keynotes or just highly anticipated regular talks)
is probably a better way to go." B. Harris: "maybe the best idea is
to see who you can get and then fit a theme onto that if it's
possible." Goodger: "yes, availability is the biggest issue. Since
we're not paying big $$, beggars can't be choosers."

Theme suggestions:

* B.Harris suggested "The Web". "It's a big topic at this point, the
  only issue is that people might be tired of it." N. Kantrowitz
  further suggested talking to the Tabblo people.

* I.Krstic suggested "Concurrency". "A lot of people wanted to hear
  more about twisted this year, and there are lots of different
  approaches to be heard."

* Lindberg: perhaps "Coding Smart": With Norvig (algorithms),
  concurrency, web stuff? It could be widely applicable.
  Goodger: "good theme for now, yes."

Harris: "I'm looking at this from a marketing perspective, and if you
can advertise some hot topic as a theme, it's a big mind-share grab."
Goodger: "It can be, yes, but it could also turn some people away so
we have to be careful." Krstic: "let's not get hung up on the theme
business; if a theme arises naturally out of the people who we want to
have speak, that's great." Agreement ensued.

G.Lindstrom asked if there is money for speakers. Goodger: "we can
cover hotel and maybe even travel" (for keynote speakers). "We're
poor, so if they can cover it themselves (or their work can) it would
be cool."

McAvoy: "I liked that there were some non-python talks last year,
which is sort of odd, but I liked it." Goodger: "non-Python keynotes
are good for the mix, especially with controversial/provocative
speakers & subjects."

Goodger asked everyone to contact the people they proposed, and
coordinate with Noah Kantrowitz.


Chicago Visit
=============

Goodger:

    I'm going to OSCON, visiting Chicago on the way. Arriving Friday
    [2007-07-20] for lunch & tour of the hotel. I'm taking a Segway
    tour Saturday AM, then free for lunch & dinner, so if anyone wants
    to meet, I'm available. I'll post details to the chipy list &
    pycon-org this PM.

C.Karsten will also be at the Friday lunch meeting. Larry Skaja of
CTE (meeting planner) should be there also. Others are welcome.


PyCon Tech
==========

2007 PyCon Tech page: http://us.pycon.org/TX2007/PyConTech

Goodger: "I have a wish list / laundry list of issues related to pycon
tech that I'll put on the wiki. The main issue for me is the core
infrastructure: 2006/7 was Zope-based, and nobody but Jeff knew how it
worked."

D.Napoleone:

    My plans are to make a call for volunteers with work to be done
    when I get back from Montanna, some time after Aug 5th. Before
    then I would like to have a wiki and bugtrack system of some sort
    in place. I would like a list of deadlines from the organizer
    body as a whole so I can get my timeline finalized, e.g. when to
    accept proposals, etc.

Napoleone: "There is an open question on where things will be hosted."
Kantrowitz: "Consider the Trac offer as permanently open." Krstic:
"I'm happy to provide hosting, etc."

Goodger: "I'd like to see the PyCon site look like a variant of
python.org. Clean, simple, accessible." Napoleone: "Are we looking
for a new host for the pycon web site? or just a new skin/base?"

Napoleone: "I would like to see the PyCon US web site as seperate from
the Tech project site."

Harris: "I can offer my services, mostly I work with Django, and with
graphic design."

Those who wish to help should join the pycon-tech mailing list
(http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-tech) and send their
SSH public key to <doug.napoleone@gmail.com>.

N.Kantrowitz will set up Trac (on pycon.coderanger.net?).

Goodger: "Everyone should feel free to use the PyCon blog
(http://pycon.blogspot.com/); you just need a Google account."


Action Items
============

* D.Goodger will post his financial aid notes on the web.

* C.Devlin will send staff-recruiting mail to last year's speakers.

* Keynote speaker proposers will contact the proposees (see `Keynote
  Speakers`_ above).

* D.Goodger will post his PyCon Tech notes on the wiki.

* N.Kantrowitz will set up Trac on pycon.coderanger.net.

* D.Goodger will prepare a PyCon organizers' schedule.
"Minutes of 2007-07-17 PyCon Organizers' Meeting" moved to the
private PyCon organizers' wiki: http://wiki.python.org/moin-pycon/2007-07-17

"Minutes of 2007-07-17 PyCon Organizers' Meeting" moved to the private PyCon organizers' wiki: http://wiki.python.org/moin-pycon/2007-07-17

PyCon2008/OrganizersMeetings/2007-07-17 (last edited 2008-11-15 14:00:04 by localhost)

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