Just for the record and in case my experience helps any other user/dev: I proposed talks related to web2py in PyCon US 2011 and 2012, both rejected. In 2011 they send me a rejection letter explaining why (basically, they considered my libraries, techniques, etc. to have reduced target audience for pycon). In base of that letter, I tried to enhance my presentation proposal for 2012 but it was rejected again. I didn't propose a talk this year as I didn't receive the rejection letter so I don't know what mistakes I made or how to try to solve them. This is a bit discouraging and anyway as I have little chance to get a talk of mine accepted (even Massimo has difficulties with this and he speaks better English, has a PhD, more community experience and Python knowledge, etc.), I've decided to step away from PyCon at least for this year (for this and the following reasons).
In 2012 I proposed a poster that was accepted (related to web2py), as most posters were. That was a nice experience, we meet many interested people, anyone should try to send a poster proposal, you have a lot of more chances and maybe even more exposure than a talk in certain cases, but I don't know if that justifies a travel half around the world. Also, in PyCon 2012 we organized a sprint that attracted many interested users and developer (although no one signed up publicly in the PyCon sprint wiki page IIRC..., so it is a bit risky if no web2py talk/tutorial is approved, maybe no web2py users/devs will go, so no reason for a web2py sprint there...) I understand no one else proposed a talk, I've meet many web2py users (even some in renowned companies and important positions) that are afraid to say they are using web2py, fearing they would receive attracts or would be asked to move to other framework, as the installed perception is that web2py is inferior, bad, etc. In fact, we invited this year Massimo to PyCon Argentina (and Python Brasil too), and some complained and accused me of making a "web2py conf" ... He has only 1 general talk about web2py, there was a second talk of 3 argentinian web2py developers (including me) that we decided to decline as I has no more energy and to avoid any further confrontation. We also proposed a sprint (the most "bookmarked" by 38 interested people, second in attendance after SugarOLPC special day, and with similar or even more attendees than the CPython sprint proposed this year). I presented a 1-hour workshop of web2py, that almost fill the room but sadly we suffered an electrical power outage in Buenos Aires downtown... Finally, web2py offered money to sponsor both conferences, with the royalties of the web2py cookbook (either for Argentina and for Brasil) In the other hand, there were almost 3 django related talks (with some backup talks that where declined by their authors), a introductory django tutorial of 2 hours, and a experienced django tutorial also with 2 hours. The local Django community didn't propose any keynote nor sprint nor sponsorship. In total, at PyCon Argentina 2012 there were 52 talks, 9 tutorials/workshops, 10 sprints projects. We even received complains about web2conf (conference website application, that we switched to after django pycontech died). No one wanted to collaborate because "web2py is not python", so we received a lot of critics but 0 patches (btw, most of issues were related to css, html, js, PIL, janrain, etc., not too web2py related) The web2py conference is a good idea and I understand those who want to be more comfortable and avoid any further confrontation or problem (in fact, I'm thinking I'll do that...). Sorry if this is a bit sad, but in the end I think we have something good with web2py that worth our efforts. PS: I've participated in PyCon US 2012 program committee helping to review some talks, and also I was volunteer (session runner, registration desk, etc.). I've also collaborated with PyCon Argentina since 2009 (website, reviewer, etc.), being the chair this year. Best regards Mariano Reingart http://www.sistemasagiles.com.ar http://reingart.blogspot.com On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 5:03 PM, VP <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Thursday, December 6, 2012 11:05:52 AM UTC-6, Massimo Di Pierro wrote: >> >> Hello VP, >> >> I proposed two talks. i do not remember the exact tiles: >> >> - one was about new web2py features: wiki, scheduler, components > > > This sounds like an update on web2py. Playing the devil's advocate, one can > argue that since web2py has been featured in previous PyCon, such an > "update" might not be substantial enough, or not as substantial as other > proposed talks. > > > >> >> - one was about my experience in teaching programming and how we can do it >> better by teaching we programming > > > On the other hand, I feel this proposed talk is worthy of PyCon. > > Seriously, I do not think at this point Web2py needs to be promoted at > PyCon. It is relatively established; those in the Python community should > know of its existence. If they like it, they will use it. If they don't, > its gonna be hard to sell it to them. This type of talks should be promoted > at educational conferences. If you can convince a handful of professors and > teachers to adopt Web2py for their classrooms, I think web2py will have a > very long and healthy future. > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > --
