Mailman 3 March 2016 - PSF-Community

Sponsored tickets to PyData Madrid
by Betsy Waliszewski March 30, 2016

March 30, 2016

Hi all, As a Silver sponsor of PyData Madrid, the Python Software Foundation is entitled to 2 complimentary tickets. The event is happening April 8-10. http://pydata.org/madrid2016/ If you are interested in attending, please respond to: betsy(a)python.org. Cheers, Betsy -- Betsy Waliszewski Python Software Foundation Event Coordinator / Administrator @betswaliszewski

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EuroPython 2016: More than 150 sessions waiting for you
by M.-A. Lemburg March 27, 2016

March 27, 2016

Just in case you didn’t find enough Easter eggs today, we have a whole basket of them waiting for you: the first set of accepted sessions for EuroPython 2016 in Bilbao. *** EuroPython 2016 Session List *** https://ep2016.europython.eu/en/events/sessions/ The sessions were selected on the basis of your talk voting and the work of the EuroPython program work group. From the around 300 proposals, 156 sessions were chosen for EuroPython 2016 in the first round: * 125 talks * 20 training sessions * 11 local track talks We still have several other session types coming (helpdesks, posters, panels, interactive sessions). These will announced separately. Early in June we will have a short second Call for Proposals, limited to hot topics and most recent developments in software and technology. We will announce details soon. Many thanks to everyone who submitted proposals. EuroPython wouldn’t be possible without our speakers. The program work group will now work on the schedule. Given the number of sessions, this may take a while, but we’ll try to get it done as quickly as possible. The WG is also putting together a submission waiting list, which will be used to fill slots of speakers who cannot attend. Speakers on the waiting list will be contacted by the end of next week. Happy Easter Weekend ! With gravitational regards, -- EuroPython 2016 Team http://ep2016.europython.eu/ http://www.europython-society.org/

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PuPPy (Puget Sound Programming Python) Coordinating Group Train Travel from SEA - PDX
by Don Sheu March 18, 2016

March 18, 2016

If anybody's in Seattle or the surrounding area and are going to PyCon, consider joining a PuPPy contingent traveling by train to Portland for the conference. Anybody traveling from elsewhere and considering making this PyCon also a tour of the PNW that includes Seattle, I invite you to join our train. For many traveling to PyCon a flight to Seattle provides more air travel options and may save you money. Join PuPPy's train travel group. Purchase ticket for $34.23 at http://puppytopdx.eventbrite.com Joining the group will save you money. Remaining general reservation tickets range from $45.00 - 72.00. Joining our group only costs $31.50 plus Eventbrite's fee. We need a minimum of 20 to commit to book group travel at a discounted rate. If we have as many as 36, we may reserve an entire car. Let's start the journey with making some friends on the ride down. Making buddies before a conference is always a nice way to get a head start on having fun. We depart on train 513 at 11:15am from King Station in Seattle, arriving at Union station in Portland at 3:05. It's perfect for checking-in at hotels on arrival. According to polls I ran there's at 36 PuPPy members definitely going. If we include those thinking about going, there's as many as 80 PuPPy members attending PyCon. I'll run this to see if we have enough people committing. If we don't get our minimum 20 people committing, I'll refund purchasers' money. <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/puppy-group-travel-on-amtrak-to-pycon-pdx-tick…> Event to be held at the following time, date, and location: Sunday, May 29, 2016 from 10:30 AM to 3:05 PM (PDT) *King Street Station* 303 South Jackson Street Seattle, WA 98104 View Map <http://maps.google.com/maps?q=303+South+Jackson+Street,+Seattle,+WA+98104+U…> *Attend Event* <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/puppy-group-travel-on-amtrak-to-pycon-pdx-tick…> *Share this event:* [image: Facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.com%2Fe%2F2…> [image: Twitter] <http://twitter.com/home?status=I%27m+attending+PuPPy+Group+Travel+o...+--+h…> [image: LinkedIn] <http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventb…> WHENSunday, May 29, 2016 from 10:30 AM to 3:05 PM (PDT) - Add to Calendar <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/puppy-group-travel-on-amtrak-to-pycon-pdx-tick…> WHEREKing Street Station - 303 South Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98104 - View Map <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/puppy-group-travel-on-amtrak-to-pycon-pdx-tick…> -- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My Python user group in April meets at Moz *http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ <http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/>* *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.* ᐧ

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Announcing NVDACon: NVDA Users and Developers Conference, a conference for users, developers and supporters of an open-source Python-based screen reader for Microsoft Windows
by Joseph Lee March 16, 2016

March 16, 2016

Dear members of the Python Software Foundation, advocates of Python programming language, wider Python community and accessibility advocates: My name is Joseph Lee, a college student from Los Angeles, a visually impaired Python programmer and a contributor to a screen reader called NonVisual Desktop Access, a Python-based, open-source and community-driven screen reader for Microsoft Windows. First, I would like to thank you for the work the staff at PSF and the Python community are doing to promote Python programming language. Many programmers, including blind and visually impaired developers appreciate all your hard work to make Python a fun, easy to learn and one of the most accessible and widely used programming languages around the world. To give you a chance to talk to fellow Pythoneers who are blind or visually impaired and to foster collaboration with PSF and the community on accessibility, I'd like to invite the Python community to a community-led conference on NVDA screen reader scheduled for April 2016. For many blind people around the world, a computer and a screen reader is an integral combination for obtaining a wide range of information, tool for communication and is crucial for success at work. Until a few years ago, a visually impaired computer user would set aside up to a thousand dollars to purchase a screen reader (a screen reader is a software package that obtains, interprets and presents screen elements and their contents via speech synthesis and/or a refreshable braille display). Some of the well-known screen readers include JAWS for Windows for Microsoft Windows, VoiceOver for OS X and iOS and Orca for Linux, with JAWS being an example of a commercial screen reader. In 2006, two blind Python programmers from Australia decided to write a free, open-source alternative, choosing Python as its implementation language. Initially, they used packages such as PyTTS and older packages for accomplishing certain tasks and used accessibility API's such as MSAA (Microsoft Active Accessibility)/IAccessible. Over the years, the number of packages used by NVDA grew, and as of 2016, NVDA uses well-known third-party packages such as wxPython (GUI features), SCons (compilation), Py2exe (source code to binary transformation) and others, with support for newer accessibility API's and standards such as ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) and UIA (UI Automation) included as standard. Ten years after its creation, the NVDA screen reader project, led by an Australian charity named NV Access, has become an integral tool for lives of over a hundred thousand blind and visually impaired computer users around the world, and features of this project are growing thanks to contribution from the community. Some of the highlights include support for various office applications and web browsers, compatibility with Windows XP and beyond, ability to run from a USB flash drive without requiring installation, translated into nearly 50 languages and an interactive Python console/interpreter for testing accessibility features and for developing workarounds for inaccessible parts of various applications. As of time of this writing, NVDA uses Python 2.7, and developers are looking at porting NVDA to Python 3, subject to readiness of dependencies such as SCons, wxPython and others. In late 2015, some members of the NVDA user community met together online to discuss ways of celebrating NVDA's tenth anniversary in April 2016. Among many ideas discussed in our meeting, it was decided that the NVDA community, together with NV Access, will host a special NVDA Users and Developers Conference (called NVDACon) in April (inspired by PyCon, NvDACon (started in 2014) seeks to let users network with developers and to set the goals of NVDA's development for months to come). The organizers of NVDACon believe that promotion is the key to success of this gathering, and we thought about contacting PSF and the wider Python community to see if we could get the word out to mainstream media, to fellow Python developers and to raise awareness of accessibility in programming and user experience. At NVDACon, not only you'll get a chance to talk to users of a Python-based screen reader to learn more about how a screen reader works, you'll get a chance to learn more about how NVDA is impacting lives of blind and visually impaired people around the world as they work, play and everything in between and more. You'll also gain insight into how companies such as Microsoft, Mozilla and others are working together with NV access and the wider blindness community to enhance accessibility of their products, as well as hear from members of the NVDA community (who are also visually impaired Python programmers) as to how they are benefiting the wider community by creating add-ons (extensions) for NVDA. At the end of the conference, you'll get a chance to hear from the creators of NVDA screen reader discussing NVDA's past, present and future, as well as get a chance to talk to actual screen reader developers to learn more about what we the Python community can do to improve state of accessibility of software packages and to foster collaboration with NV Access to make programs accessible to screen reader users around the world. For more information on NVDA, please visit www.nvaccess.org. More information on NvDACon can be found at http://www.nvda-kr.org/en/nvdacon.php. Conference details: * Title: NVDA Users and Developers Conference (NVDACon) International 2016/Tenth Anniversary Edition * Date: April 22, 23, 29 and 30, 2016 * Place: NVDA Korea TeamTalk server (requires TeamTalk 5) * Time: varies * Theme: NonVisual Desktop Access: Ten years of screen reading excellence * Keynote speakers: Michael Curran and James Teh (NV Access) * Featured speakers: Kelly Ford (senior accessibility program manager, Microsoft), Marco Zehe (accessibility quality assurance engineer, Mozilla Foundation), Fernando Botelho (led developer, F123 Access), Lucy Greco and Pranav Lal (Dictation Bridge (http://dictationbridge.com)) We the organizers of NVDACon and the NVDA community look forward to seeing members of the Python community and PSF join this conference and a possible collaboration to making Python an even better tool for those starting out with programming, especially for blind and visually impaired users. Thank you. Sincerely, Joseph Joseph S. Lee Department of Communication Studies (student), Los Angeles City College Translator, code contributor and community add-ons reviewer, NVDA screen reader project Chair, NVDA Tenth Anniversary Planning Committee

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EuroPython 2016: Talk voting is open
by M.-A. Lemburg March 14, 2016

March 14, 2016

We have more than 280 great proposals for talks and trainings ready for EuroPython 2016 attendees to vote on. Please note that you have to have a ticket for EuroPython 2016, or have submitted a talk proposal yourself, in order to participate. Attendees: This is your chance to shape the conference ! You can search for topics and communicate your personal interest by casting your vote for each talk and training submission on our talk voting page: *** https://ep2016.europython.eu/en/talk-voting/ *** Talk Voting Talk voting will be open until Sunday, March 20. The program workgroup (WG) will then use the talk voting results as basis for their talk selection and announce the list of accepted talks late in March and the schedule shortly thereafter in April. With gravitational regards, -- EuroPython 2016 Team http://ep2016.europython.eu/ http://www.europython-society.org/

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PSF Board Meeting Minutes - 2016-02-25
by Diana Clarke March 9, 2016

March 9, 2016

Hi folks: The PSF board meeting minutes from February 25th, 2016 are now available online: https://www.python.org/psf/records/board/minutes/2016-02-25/ The PSF provides grants for development, conferences, workshops, and user groups. https://www.python.org/psf/grants/ The following grants were approved since the last board meeting, totalling $9,180 USD. - Python User Group Freiburg http://www.meetup.com/Python-User-Group-Freiburg/ Meetup.com fees Amount: $60 USD - PyLadies ATX http://www.meetup.com/PyLadies-ATX/ Meetup.com fees Amount: $90 USD - Python Costa Rica http://www.meetup.com/PythonCR/ Meetup.com fees Amount: $30 USD - DVAITA'16 http://www.dvaita16.com/ Palakkad, India February 19-20, 2016 Amount: $300 USD - Django Girls New York City https://djangogirls.org/nyc/ New York, USA February 26-27, 2016 Amount: $3,500 USD - PyCode Carrots Warsaw http://geekgirlscarrots.org/4702/pycode-carrotos-warsaw-7 Warsaw, Poland April 15-17, 2016 Amount: $1,200 USD - PythonDigest.ru Community Development Grant Amount: $500 USD - Django Girls Perth https://djangogirls.org/perth/ Perth, Australia March 12, 2016 Amount: $1,250 USD - Argentina en Python http://argentinaenpython.com.ar/ March-May 2016 Amount: $2,250 USD The PSF also hired an IT Manager: Mark Mangoba. Expect more news on this front in the coming weeks. In the mean time, welcome to the team Mark! For more updates from the PSF, please visit our blog and follow us on Twitter. https://twitter.com/ThePSF https://pyfound.blogspot.com/ Cheers, --diana

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PSF Board Meeting Minutes - 2016-02-08
by Diana Clarke March 5, 2016

March 5, 2016

Hi folks: The PSF board meeting minutes from February 8th, 2016 are now available online: https://www.python.org/psf/records/board/minutes/2016-02-08/ The PSF provides grants for development, conferences, workshops, and user groups. https://www.python.org/psf/grants/ The following grants were approved since the last board meeting, totalling $10,290 USD. - Tox & pytest Development Grant Amount: $3000 USD - Symposion Registration Development Grant Christopher Neugebauer Amount: $6440 USD - Argentina en Python Outreach Workshop Manuel Kaufmann Amount: $850 USD For more updates from the PSF, please visit our blog and follow us on Twitter. https://twitter.com/ThePSF https://pyfound.blogspot.com/ Cheers, --diana

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Sponsored tickets to DjangoCon Europe 2016
by Betsy Waliszewski March 1, 2016

March 1, 2016

Hi all, As a Gold Sponsor, Python Software Foundation is entitled to 3 complimentary tickets to DjangoCon Europe that is happening March 30-April 3, 2016 in Budapest, Hungary. https://2016.djangocon.eu/ If you have an interest in attending and can manage transportation on your own, please email me directly for more information: betsy(a)python.org. Cheers, Betsy -- Betsy Waliszewski Python Software Foundation Event Coordinator / Administrator @betswaliszewski

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