2008/8/3 Douglas Napoleone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > 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'.
<boring_old_fart> Personally I think it is a mistake to base all this on a framework, because a) It excludes most of the community from working on it, as they will not have the specialised framework knowledge. b) The framework is almost certainly 'unstable' in the sense that it is developing too fast: you wouldn't wish to use it in a commercial app requiring long-term support, nor in a conferencing system for long-term use. </boring_old_fart> > 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. I'll set up a demo for you when I'm back from a break. > <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). Is the key word here 'insane' ? Are all these things _really_ necessary? eg allowing whatever you want on the badge? Has it all just got out of control? Could some management realism reduce the problem to soemthing, well, manageable? > 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. QED > </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. Based on my experience with payroll, outsourcing it just introduces a new set of problems and actually increases the workload. Best wishes, John -- > -Doug > >> >> David >> _______________________________________________ >> Europython-improve mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython-improve >> > _______________________________________________ > Europython-improve mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython-improve > _______________________________________________ Europython-improve mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython-improve
