Hi all, We reviewed some talks at the weekend, and we felt a few of them needed some more information so I've sent a few emails out and added the responses I've got to reviewer comments in django's admin. This one about mediacore was a bit long though, so I'm forwarding it here - any sort of feedback for a response welcome :) (all sounds pretty interesting to me, he could almost do 2 talks - 1 about accessibility and another about mediacore)
Daz -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Europython Talk Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:58:37 -0700 From: Stuart Bowness <[email protected]> To: Darren Worrall <[email protected]> Hi Darren, Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'd be happy to elaborate. We are in the middle of a reasonably major overhaul of MediaCore and we're hoping to have the next release (0.8) out mid-late April (so the new version would be out well before the Euro Python conference). This update will include a whole stack of accessibility features, which will make MediaCore a video CMS for the blind. Until this new release is out the door, the current site will not promote these features. Originally when we created MediaCore we had just planned to launched a simple python video cms, but a month after our launch we were contacted by a company down in the US (Assistive Technology.tv), which took one look at our project and loved it. Currently the main accessibility feature is that the code is written in such a way that the site is actually quite accessible to people who are visually disabled. We've been working really hard over the last month to completely rework the front-end to make it even more accessible for people with disabilities. Some of these improvements include: - Streamlined tab indexing (basically making the entire platform accessible via keyboard), which has required major UI rework. Interestingly here, we found AJAX can be an accessibility killer. - Audio descriptions of videos - Closed captioning of videos - Making sure all interfaces adhere to WAI guidelines Currently, we are working with AssistiveTechnology.tv and getting feedback from the Canadian Institute for the Blind. The whole process has been incredibly informative, and we would love to share what we have learned about accessibility with the wider Python community. As a side note, the MediaCore project itself could be a topic for discussion. We've learned a huge amount in launching the open source project, and are super keen to share it with the larger Python community. We could talk about how we built the app using TurboGears, how the UI was developed and integrated using GENSHI, how we launched the open source project (choosing licenses etc.), how it has been marketed, lessons learned in managing the project, and how we are building community and encouraging submissions. I'd probably say that one of the biggest challenges we have faced is marketing a Python project. We're in the process of writing a manual on how to market and launch an open source project. Really, we're completely flexible with what could be presented, and if you have a feeling for what might resonate best with the audience then we can reform the talk around that. As I indicated, the length of the talk could also be flexible (anywhere from 1/2 hour to 2 hours) so whatever works best for the conference. Cheers, Stuart ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stuart Bowness Director, Simple Station Inc. (250) 858-9329 Portfolio: simplestation.com <http://simplestation.com> Twitter: twitter.com/simplestation <http://twitter.com/simplestation> On 2010-03-29, at 1:11 PM, Darren Worrall wrote: > Hi Stuart, > > Thanks very much for your talk submission to Europython. We are > interested in it, but would like to know more about how your 'youtube > for the blind' title will actually fit into the talk - we couldn't find > any specific references to accessibility features on the MediaCore > website, are these currently in development and is that what you wish to > talk about (on top of introducing MediaCore), and if so, could you > elaborate on the details? > > Thanks, > > Darren _______________________________________________ Europython-improve mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython-improve
