I'm with Tim: +1 many thanks to Zeth for this (and apologies for outing us ;-)
Nicholas. On Wed, 2010-08-04 at 12:27 +0100, Zeth wrote: > Hello everyone, > > Originally I was starting with just the people that turned up to the > local user group SIG at EuroPython. However, since Nicholas has outed > us, here is an outline of where we are. Basically, we are talking > among people who want to be actually be an organiser of a local Python > User Group (PUG). > > I organised a slot in the EuroPython programme which was attended by > people from around the world, not just the UK. Everyone talked about > their group or their wish for a group and we all shared what we had > been trying to do. Afterwards a group of UK people moved to the > weatherspoons. I was going to feedback the main points at the closing > ceremony but there was confusion with the lightning talks organiser > who overran by an hour and 20 mins and so the closing ceremony went a > bit mental. The lightning talks were very good though! > > Python local user groups in the UK > -------------------------------------------- > > The 2006 idea was to make 11 UK PUGs - at least one for each English > region plus Wales and Scotland. (Northern Ireland is both part of > Python Ireland and the PyConUK so we would let those in Northern > Ireland work out how they want to do it). > > As things get more successful, each of the 11 group can have branches > or more local meetings, so for example. We start with: > > Cambridge and East Anglia Python User Group > > Then the first branch might meet in Cambridge and another might start > up in Norwich. Various branches could grow up and die off with the 12 > group middle layer staying alive. Different branches could have > different levels of organisation. Cambridge might have a fully fledged > technical meet, while in Lowestoft they might just have a beer and an > ice-cream together on the pier (are there any Python Programmers in > Lowestoft?). > > At the 2010 SIG, people seemed to agree that this was still a good idea. > > Talk Swaps > -------------- > > One idea from the SIG meeting was to prepare a new talk for your own > PUG, then give that talk at other PUGs. This could help seed new PUGs, > and help keep existing ones going. We tried to work out the > practicality of that. > > We talked about how to reduce the costs before we incur them. We can > feed speakers ourselves. If the trip requires staying overnight, we > can sleep in each other's houses. However, travel by second class > train or coach could still be £50 or more. > > Most PUGs would not hold any money as a deliberate way to avoid > creating a bureaucratic overhead to running the group. So we thought > about asking the PSF, or the EuroPython Society, or the proposed new > European PSF branch, to handle the expenses for us. If we raise any > money ourselves we could pay it upstream to cover these costs. > > One suggestion was to have a jobs board to cover these costs. > Discussion has already started on this thread about that. Where > Nicholas wrote "We might be able to support the costs of running the > site", the speaker swaps are the only thing that we have suggested to > do that could cost money. The site itself does not cost us any money > at the moment, since Clocksoft generously allow us to put the site on > one of their servers. > > If anyone has any other ideas for how to cover these traveling > expenses, please do share them. > > Local User Group SIG IRC Meeting - 19th August at 7.30pm > ---------------------------------------------- > > This is the first time I have used doodle, so I am not an expert. But > I think I have to myself add email addresses to it, I can't seem to > find an option for making it completely open. If someone can tell me > how, that would be helpful for next time. > > Anyway this time, lets forget adding more people to doodle and just go > for 19th August at 7.30pm (as long as it does not clash with a local > Python group!). The meeting will last approx 1 hour and I will > circulate an agenda nearer the time. > > The meeting is for people who are involved in helping to organise a > local user group or want to be. > > After that meeting, if we want we can use ways to discuss among > ourselves without making too much noise on python-uk (e.g. people that > run Linux groups use the lugmasters list to cut down on noise for > people that don't care and just find those discussions annoying). > However, this email list is pretty low-traffic anyway, so we can use > it until other subscribers on this list rise up and tell us off for > making too much noise. > > Website > ---------- > > I want to get beyond talking about websites since there is a lot more > important things to running a local user group than the website, but > here is an outline of what we are up to. > > I did the first version of python.me.uk during PyConUK 2007 and many > people gave lots of different ideas, all useful and positive, although > obviously in different directions. > > While some people say, 'just use a mailing list' or 'just use meetup' > or 'just use X', I decided that this was not a good approach. As well > as being fragmentary, as proved by Rob Cowie's posts in this thread, > he did not know the magic solution (dig through the wiki) for finding > the right site. When you talk about people who may be new to Python > (as well as perhaps new to open source software projects like Python > altogether), then requiring people to use certain systems acts as a > barrier. > > For example. while old Unix-fans like myself love mailing lists, many > people who started using computers in the 2000s find them obscure and > confusing (look how many Linux user group mailing lists have a > recurring thread about top-posting vs bottom posting). > > During EuroPython 2010, a couple of us did some work coding a new > version of python.me.uk based on the ideas I have been given. This is > in process and we hope to have things ready for the IRC meeting. > > Pinax is a content management system (based on Django) that is already > aimed at social groups such as a local Python group, so the features > we want are already there: profiles, calendar, photos, tribes, > locations and so on. > > The Pinax site is up and functioning to some extent but still needs a > little templating work before we launch it. If anyone wants to help, > we need more graphics and CSS work rather than Python coding now. > > Basically, each local group (in internal Pinax terms 'a tribe') can > have their own theme (colours, mascot etc), and subdomain, for > example: > > http://wm.python.me.uk/ > > However, behind the scenes it all goes into one integrated calender > and so on. If someone moves to another part of the country, they do > not need to make a new login, they just change a few checkboxes which > user groups (tribes) they are subscribed to. > > Also behind the scenes we can do a lot of automated updates to social > networking sites etc, so when an event is added it updates twitter, > facebook and so on. We can also do mailing list munging so that old > Unix fans can ignore there is a website at all and just access the > whole system via a mailing list. > > Each group's admin does not need to know Django, they just login to > the website and use the web based admin. Groups can start up, grow and > die off, and it will all be tracked on the site. > > I don't really care if you hate Django/Pinax and want me to use > Turbogears or a wiki or some proprietary cloud. Pinax is off the shelf > and easy to use and we have the people to do it. Getting stuck on > arguing over the website is a dead end. Lets use our efforts to get > the groups up and running. > > Anyway, I hope the meeting time of 19th August at 7.30pm suits > everyone. If you cannot make it please send your thoughts to this > thread or if you want to give your thoughts in private then send it to > me. > > Best Wishes, > Zeth > _______________________________________________ > python-uk mailing list > python-uk@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-uk
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