Mailman 3 September 2010 - Inpycon

Re: [Inpycon] Some photos from Day1
by Pranav Prakash Sept. 29, 2010

Sept. 29, 2010

Great pics, can we have some more pics from Day 2 as well? Also, when are the videos coming on YouTube? I guess this week, maybe next ? Its a difficult job !!

2 1

Re: [Inpycon] Some thoughts on talks and what not to do in a tech talk
by Pranav Prakash Sept. 29, 2010

Sept. 29, 2010

> Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:56:26 +0530 > From: Noufal Ibrahim <noufal(a)gmail.com> > To: Mailing list for the PyCon India conference <inpycon(a)python.org> > Subject: Re: [Inpycon] Some thoughts on talks and what not to do in a > tech talk > Message-ID: <87hbhaqkvx.fsf(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > On Tue, Sep 28 2010, Pranav Prakash wrote: > > > One more thing which I would like to add is that- before the start of > day's > > events, all the speakers should come and report somewhere about their > > presence. The only obvious way is to sit at your venue and wait for the > > turn. And then the event in-charge announces your name and you go down > > there. And yes, taking down cell numbers of the speakers is important, in > > order to communicate any change in schedule or anything. Also, I am > planning > > to write a blog article on what not to do in a tech-talk, based on the > > mistakes I did (in this talk and previous ones) and the mistakes I saw > > people doing. Some of the points I could come up are > > > > * Avoid the temptation to do in too detail of your favorite subtopic. > > * Avoid coding on the fly. Generally people dont like to see the speaker > > "coding" something there and then only. It breaks the rhythm and > introduces > > boredom > > * Understand your audience in the beginning, and be prepared to cut/add > > things on the fly. Do a general talk with people who might be your > audience. > > Helps in getting what they want > > * People mostly ask question comparing the things you just told and the > > things they do, so be sure you are prepared for such things > > * Avoid too much code samples, showing something working lasts longer > than > > the codes > > * Don't be bookish, people come to dev talks with the expectation of > getting > > benefits from others experience, and not to attend a bookish lecture by a > > stupid professor > > [...] > > Good points. I will be writing a summary of the whole event similar to > what I did last year. I will be listing a bunch of articles by others at > the bottom. If you can send me your links, I will add them there. > > -- > I have made a blog post on what not to do on tech talks, and I am looking forward for some points which I might have missed. http://blog.myblive.com/2010/09/what-not-to-do-in-tech-talk.html -- *Pranav Prakash* "This life is more than ordinary" Twitter <http://twitter.com/pranavprakash> | Blog <http://blog.myblive.com> | Google <http://www.google.com/profiles/pranny>

2 1

Where is python users group of chennai?
by Sathishkumar Duraisamy Sept. 29, 2010

Sept. 29, 2010

Hi all, Some of them said, during python conference, chennai users group are very active now. So, I wish to subscribe in chennai python users group mailing list. But I am not able to find chennai python users group in http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo. How can I get those links.... Please sorry if it is not related to this mailing list. With thanks Sathishkumar

3 3

Some thoughts on talks
by Anand Balachandran Pillai Sept. 29, 2010

Sept. 29, 2010

Conference is over, we did a decent-good job and people are generally happy, except the odd tweeter here and there. So time to reminisce. I have (mentally) jotted down a few things I thought should improve regarding talks next year. Before I lose track of them and we all lapse into lethargy (till June 2011 :-), let me document it here. 1. Call for CFP at least 3 months earlier. Pycon US does it 3 months in advance (Nov 2010 for March 2011 Pycon). So in our case we should schedule this in early May for a Sep conf. That gives us enough time to scrutinize the talks and do a more thorough review. 2. Have multi-tiered review process: Last year we had almost no review, this year we had a 4 member group review. I am suggesting 2 tiered reviews next year on where we first have a screening round where we actually drop talks before even rating them (not based on consensus, but perhaps base on vote) followed by the second round where we rate the remaining talks. 3. Number of talks - I took in quite a bit more than I could chew this year, since well, I wanted to have as many talks as we could pack in. I see that it is not a very good strategy and we should prefer quality over quantity from 2011. I am thinking like 6-7 45 min talks with 5 minute interval between each talk. So if we have 3 halls, we can have up to 36 talks for 2 days - good enough and more if we select the talks well. 4. Interval between talks - We need buffer between talks which we kind of learned the hard way in the last two days :) (A big thanks to the talk co-ords Vijay, Ramki and Kunal). 5 minutes of buffer seem fine and we should plan to wrap up by 5pm to leave remaining 1-2 hours of sunlight for impromptu stuff. 5. Lightning talks track - We need to prioritize lightning talks and perhaps have a hall dedicated for lightning talks and sprints that could follow from it. So if people feel bored or want to have a change there is always this hall available. 6. Tutorial tracks - Maybe have a lab or class-room for a dedicated tutorial track where people could sign up for tutorials on anything ranging from 1-2 hours. 7. Phone numbers - Finally this is a small thing which we missed in the CFP form, but came back to bite us in a big way when a few speakers went absconding. We had no way to contact them immediately and well, we somehow managed things with impromptu discussions. So next year onwards, CFP forms should have cell numbers for us to reach the speakers in case of emergencies. Suggestions, brick-bats etc etc welcome. Please join in the discussion if your Pycon hang-over is over :) -- --Anand

13 24

Re: [Inpycon] Some thoughts on talks and what not to do in a tech talk
by Pranav Prakash Sept. 28, 2010

Sept. 28, 2010

One more thing which I would like to add is that- before the start of day's events, all the speakers should come and report somewhere about their presence. The only obvious way is to sit at your venue and wait for the turn. And then the event in-charge announces your name and you go down there. And yes, taking down cell numbers of the speakers is important, in order to communicate any change in schedule or anything. Also, I am planning to write a blog article on what not to do in a tech-talk, based on the mistakes I did (in this talk and previous ones) and the mistakes I saw people doing. Some of the points I could come up are * Avoid the temptation to do in too detail of your favorite subtopic. * Avoid coding on the fly. Generally people dont like to see the speaker "coding" something there and then only. It breaks the rhythm and introduces boredom * Understand your audience in the beginning, and be prepared to cut/add things on the fly. Do a general talk with people who might be your audience. Helps in getting what they want * People mostly ask question comparing the things you just told and the things they do, so be sure you are prepared for such things * Avoid too much code samples, showing something working lasts longer than the codes * Don't be bookish, people come to dev talks with the expectation of getting benefits from others experience, and not to attend a bookish lecture by a stupid professor I am thinking on other points and I am really looking forward from you all guys so that we can have an informal list of things not to do in a tech talk. -- *Pranav Prakash* "This life is more than ordinary" Twitter <http://twitter.com/pranavprakash> | Blog<http://codecontrol.blogspot.com> | Google <http://www.google.com/profiles/pranny>

4 7

thanks
by Kenneth Gonsalves Sept. 28, 2010

Sept. 28, 2010

hi, on behalf of the Indian Python Software Society I wish to thank all those who participated in inpycon2010 and made it a huge success. I personally was thrilled to see so many people who I last met at the last BLUG run event in 2004 who have come back to life. See you guys in Chennai 2011 for an experience you will never forget! -- regards Kenneth Gonsalves

9 15

D-day!
by Noufal Ibrahim Sept. 27, 2010

Sept. 27, 2010

Okay people! The conference is almost here. I'm tempted to break out in congratulatory verse but I'll reserve that for later. It would be nice if the main organisers (and anyone else interested in helping out) could meet at the venue sometime in the middle of next week. Say Wednesday. We should have the T-shirts and stuff by then and be ready with the rest of the stuff. We can clear up all last minute issues and pat ourselves on the back. This is also an opportunity for people who want to volunteer. There will always be shortage of people at the venue for minor things so the more people that are in the know, the better. If you want to help out, please drop by. Thanks --

5 8

Some photos from Day1
by Santhosh Divakar Sept. 27, 2010

Sept. 27, 2010

Random captures: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/santhosh.divakar/PyconIndia2010Day1# -Santhosh

1 0

Test email
by Anand Balachandran Pillai Sept. 25, 2010

Sept. 25, 2010

Just to see if google is allowing me to send emails... -- --Anand

2 1

impact of rain
by karthik Sept. 24, 2010

Sept. 24, 2010

Hi: I've been hearing that many parts of Bangalore are flooded due to the rains today. How bad is it really? Is it bad enough to make it difficult for people to make it to pycon? With best regards, Karthik

3 2