On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 5:14 PM, David Boddie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Tuesday 29 July 2008, Douglas Napoleone wrote:
>
>> Question: What about having software like the badge generation as its
>> own standalone project? I am sure more than just the python community
>> could benefit from such an application, and having the project
>> independent of a 'conference core' will greatly help with its
>> development and maintenance.
>
> Sounds good to me, but then, I didn't write it. :-)
>
>> At least that is my recent experience with PyCon-Tech. the few spin
>> off projects are doing great, and I plan on breaking the remaining
>> pieces into separate projects as well.
>
> I was going to suggest naming them according to a pattern or brand,
> maybe making them all part of a virtual package, but perhaps it's
> better to let them all have their own identities as projects.
>
> If it looks like they're all part of a larger project, people might
> be less interested in working on them, perhaps thinking that there's
> some grand design that they have to buy into.
Each of the projects are labeled django-XXX (as they are all django
applications).
The plan is to also include them into the Pinax project (and some already are).
http://pinax.hotcluboffrance.com/
The design of which is 'ala carte applications which are known to work
together'.
I am also very interested in the badge generation software used for EuroPython.
We had one set of software for generating badge 'previews' and onsite
printed badges which lacks even basic font scaling.
The professionally printed badges used some very nice software
developed by the printing house, but it is Java based and not open
sourced.
<rant>
Personally I hope to outsource the registration system. The
requirements we have are just insane; register 20 people on one
charge, manage registration for tutorials where rooms fill up
dynamically (i.e. have 10 rooms of varying sizes and once one tutorial
hits the max size of the largest available room, assign to that room
and close out the tutorial, yet manage things like 4 already being at
30 people so tutorial #8 maxes out at 20 people etc...), deal with
partial and full refunds, tutorial adding and swapping, discounted
registrations, people can change any non-cost aspect of the
registration online (badge name, etc), example badge preview, allow
for free form text (put whatever you want on the badge), mail in
payment, financial aid discounts, 'coupon codes' for sponsors,
automatic changeover of pricing given dates (early reg, normal,
at-door), 'problem resolution management' (which turned out to be
crucial due to paypal being just as messed up as I had expected).
The limitation put on the old system to integrate with the PSF
Verisign-PayPal+GnuCash+Custom MailMan scripts madness... well, it was
madness. We had 5 levels of redundancy and had to fall back to the 6th
(all due to being on a Verisign system now run by PayPal which they
have no interest in supporting any more, but which all the PSF
accounting and book keeping is based on). There was mass confusion
between the hotel and conference registration, and people were
insisting on having a phone number to call for help on the
registration side (to the point where I was taking calls at work).
Scaling registration to 1500 people does not work with backend systems
last updated in 2000 and an off-hours volunteer staff.
</rant>
At the same time, given the number of transactions and the shear
amount of money involved, having an organization be responsible for
the accounting with a certified and insured CPA is not something I
would want to go without.
-Doug
>
> David
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