Description:

An introduction to the Python Business Forum and a discussion of cchallneges facing companies basing their business around Python.

Organisers:

Jacob Hallén, Chairman of the PBF

Laura Creighton, Treasurer of the PBF

Attendees:

Jeff Matheus

Brian Skahan

Tom von Schwerdtner

George Belotsky

David Ascher

Chetan Gadgil

Arthur Siegler

About 10 more people who didn't sign the attendee sheet.

The PBF is a non-profit organisation that was formed in July 2002. It was formed to further the business interests of companies and independent consultants who base their business on Python. It is a low cost organisation, with a 20 EURO/year membership fee. You join by following the instructions at http://www.python-in-business.org.

The main activities of the PBF are in the Special Interest Groups. Currently there are two groups active.

The Python-in-a-Tie group works closely with the Sanakefarm initiative to produce a stable, bug free and commercially viable release of Python.

The PR-sig works on popularising Python and on promoting Python business and Python applications. It has done a whole lot of work on the PBF web site and has gathered the Python Success Stories, that are available on line. Some of them have been published in a pamphlet from O'Reilly.

There was a long discussion on how to get the US government to accept Python as a viable option for large scale projects and mission critical software. The conclusion was that we need a Special Interest group that co-ordinates the activities of several companies to get a foothold and create a success story within the government. The chairman of the PBF, Jacob Hallén, wanted a volunteer to step forward to chair the SIG. So far no volunteer has surfaced.

Laura Creighton strongly recommended the following web-page for reading: http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit029.html.