
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
I hope all of you are well! PyCon is approaching fast and will be here before we know it. We still have time to get things done and sorted out but I’d rather for us to get started early than to run out of time closer to the conference. I went ahead and wrote a blog post, some tweets, and a draft for an email we could use for reaching out to groups about hosting an open space. You can find the links to all documents in Trello. Please feel free to make suggestions for adjustments or additions.
The two big tasks which are still on our to-do list are creating a list of potential open space topics and reaching out to different groups. Kinga is going to tackle the list of topics. Hobson, do you think you could take on the task of creating a list of groups we should reach out to and maybe start reaching out to them closer to PyCon?
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon, if I forgot any tasks or you have anything else in mind which needs to be tackled, please add it to the Trello board so we know we need to plan in some time for it.
Thank you and have a great day! Anna

Sure thing, Anna, I'll compose a list of groups that might be interested in hosting open spaces. Do you have a "seed" list of previous open spaces and their hosts/groups/organizers?
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 4:30 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
I hope all of you are well! PyCon is approaching fast and will be here before we know it. We still have time to get things done and sorted out but I’d rather for us to get started early than to run out of time closer to the conference. I went ahead and wrote a blog post, some tweets, and a draft for an email we could use for reaching out to groups about hosting an open space. You can find the links to all documents in Trello. Please feel free to make suggestions for adjustments or additions.
The two big tasks which are still on our to-do list are creating a list of potential open space topics and reaching out to different groups. Kinga is going to tackle the list of topics. Hobson, do you think you could take on the task of creating a list of groups we should reach out to and maybe start reaching out to them closer to PyCon?
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon, if I forgot any tasks or you have anything else in mind which needs to be tackled, please add it to the Trello board so we know we need to plan in some time for it.
Thank you and have a great day! Anna _______________________________________________ Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Thank you, Hobson!
We have a list of last year’s open spaces but it doesn’t mention any organizers. Here you go https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yEXt6GxQ6jXxIUfTMB1WdIWc_56WNM-9F7i2... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yEXt6GxQ6jXxIUfTMB1WdIWc_56WNM-9F7i2Rdmsqdw/edit#gid=0
Anna
Am 15.03.2016 um 18:06 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
Sure thing, Anna, I'll compose a list of groups that might be interested in hosting open spaces. Do you have a "seed" list of previous open spaces and their hosts/groups/organizers?
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 4:30 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
I hope all of you are well! PyCon is approaching fast and will be here before we know it. We still have time to get things done and sorted out but I’d rather for us to get started early than to run out of time closer to the conference. I went ahead and wrote a blog post, some tweets, and a draft for an email we could use for reaching out to groups about hosting an open space. You can find the links to all documents in Trello. Please feel free to make suggestions for adjustments or additions.
The two big tasks which are still on our to-do list are creating a list of potential open space topics and reaching out to different groups. Kinga is going to tackle the list of topics. Hobson, do you think you could take on the task of creating a list of groups we should reach out to and maybe start reaching out to them closer to PyCon?
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon, if I forgot any tasks or you have anything else in mind which needs to be tackled, please add it to the Trello board so we know we need to plan in some time for it.
Thank you and have a great day! Anna _______________________________________________ Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Perfect, I can build on that and track down the organziations/groups.
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 10:09 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thank you, Hobson!
We have a list of last year’s open spaces but it doesn’t mention any organizers. Here you go https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yEXt6GxQ6jXxIUfTMB1WdIWc_56WNM-9F7i2...
Anna
Am 15.03.2016 um 18:06 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
Sure thing, Anna, I'll compose a list of groups that might be interested in hosting open spaces. Do you have a "seed" list of previous open spaces and their hosts/groups/organizers?
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 4:30 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
I hope all of you are well! PyCon is approaching fast and will be here before we know it. We still have time to get things done and sorted out but I’d rather for us to get started early than to run out of time closer to the conference. I went ahead and wrote a blog post, some tweets, and a draft for an email we could use for reaching out to groups about hosting an open space. You can find the links to all documents in Trello. Please feel free to make suggestions for adjustments or additions.
The two big tasks which are still on our to-do list are creating a list of potential open space topics and reaching out to different groups. Kinga is going to tackle the list of topics. Hobson, do you think you could take on the task of creating a list of groups we should reach out to and maybe start reaching out to them closer to PyCon?
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon, if I forgot any tasks or you have anything else in mind which needs to be tackled, please add it to the Trello board so we know we need to plan in some time for it.
Thank you and have a great day! Anna _______________________________________________ Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Thank you so much!
Am 15.03.2016 um 18:10 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
Perfect, I can build on that and track down the organziations/groups.
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 10:09 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Thank you, Hobson!
We have a list of last year’s open spaces but it doesn’t mention any organizers. Here you go https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yEXt6GxQ6jXxIUfTMB1WdIWc_56WNM-9F7i2... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yEXt6GxQ6jXxIUfTMB1WdIWc_56WNM-9F7i2Rdmsqdw/edit#gid=0
Anna
Am 15.03.2016 um 18:06 schrieb Hobson Lane <hobsonlane@gmail.com mailto:hobsonlane@gmail.com>:
Sure thing, Anna, I'll compose a list of groups that might be interested in hosting open spaces. Do you have a "seed" list of previous open spaces and their hosts/groups/organizers?
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 tel:%28503%29%20974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 4:30 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
I hope all of you are well! PyCon is approaching fast and will be here before we know it. We still have time to get things done and sorted out but I’d rather for us to get started early than to run out of time closer to the conference. I went ahead and wrote a blog post, some tweets, and a draft for an email we could use for reaching out to groups about hosting an open space. You can find the links to all documents in Trello. Please feel free to make suggestions for adjustments or additions.
The two big tasks which are still on our to-do list are creating a list of potential open space topics and reaching out to different groups. Kinga is going to tackle the list of topics. Hobson, do you think you could take on the task of creating a list of groups we should reach out to and maybe start reaching out to them closer to PyCon?
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon, if I forgot any tasks or you have anything else in mind which needs to be tackled, please add it to the Trello board so we know we need to plan in some time for it.
Thank you and have a great day! Anna _______________________________________________ Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)

Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com

Hi Anna -
I have made you a page editor but our django permissions are not 100% functional. Can you try now to see if you see an edit button on the page?
(FYI - I am on this mailing list and do not need to be cc'ed :))
Best regards,
Ewa Director of Operations Python Software Foundation Cell: 415-319-5237
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com

Hello Ewa,
Thank you for your prompt response :) I can see the edit button.
(And noted ;))
Thanks so much and have a great Friday and weekend! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:57 schrieb Ewa Jodlowska ewa@python.org:
Hi Anna -
I have made you a page editor but our django permissions are not 100% functional. Can you try now to see if you see an edit button on the page?
(FYI - I am on this mailing list and do not need to be cc'ed :))
Best regards,
Ewa Director of Operations Python Software Foundation Cell: 415-319-5237
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes <pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com>:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com

Is it possible to get a list of the email addresses of folks who've already been informed of open spaces (paper rejections and acceptances)? I can make sure the open spaces mailing list doesn't include those e-mails.
--Hobson
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Hello Ewa,
Thank you for your prompt response :) I can see the edit button.
(And noted ;))
Thanks so much and have a great Friday and weekend! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:57 schrieb Ewa Jodlowska ewa@python.org:
Hi Anna -
I have made you a page editor but our django permissions are not 100% functional. Can you try now to see if you see an edit button on the page?
(FYI - I am on this mailing list and do not need to be cc'ed :))
Best regards,
Ewa Director of Operations Python Software Foundation Cell: 415-319-5237
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Good question!
Brandon or Ewa, could you please help/advise with this? ----- https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 19.03.2016 um 22:12 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
Is it possible to get a list of the email addresses of folks who've already been informed of open spaces (paper rejections and acceptances)? I can make sure the open spaces mailing list doesn't include those e-mails.
--Hobson
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Hello Ewa,
Thank you for your prompt response :) I can see the edit button.
(And noted ;))
Thanks so much and have a great Friday and weekend! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:57 schrieb Ewa Jodlowska <ewa@python.org mailto:ewa@python.org>:
Hi Anna -
I have made you a page editor but our django permissions are not 100% functional. Can you try now to see if you see an edit button on the page?
(FYI - I am on this mailing list and do not need to be cc'ed :))
Best regards,
Ewa Director of Operations Python Software Foundation Cell: 415-319-5237 tel:415-319-5237 On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes <pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com>:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

I am not sure you should try to avoid sending your email to people whose talks were rejected.
First, we don’t know whether the topic of their talk had anything to do with the Open Space — if they got a rejection note for their talk on “Python Iterators” and saw the note about the possibility of doing an Open Space, that would not necessarily have inspired them to make CherryPy — the technology *you* are thinking of them as an expert and leader in — the topic of an Open Space.
Second, an email from you, the actual Open Spaces people, asking whether they are planning to host a CherryPy Open Space, is going to be so much more personal and inspiring than a little addendum to a talk rejection!
Thirdly, think of the small team of core CherryPy people. Some get Open Spaces invitations. Others do not. They eventually get curious and compare notes about this. It turns out, they realize, that if you have had a talk rejected, then you are blackballed by the PyCon leadership from receiving any further invitations sent to you about contributing to the conference. It could make people feel bad.
Finally, I’d like to preserve the feeling people have that their rejection is private between them and the Talks committee, and not being shared with other committees.
So I’d say, go ahead and plan an email, without worrying about whether they had talks rejected. If you worry that your language might sound inappropriate to someone who received an earlier rejection notice, then feel free to post the text here in this thread first, and the rest of us can let you know if there are any awkward phrasings you might improve. Thanks!
On Sat, Mar 19, 2016 at 5:18 PM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good question!
Brandon or Ewa, could you please help/advise with this?
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 19.03.2016 um 22:12 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
Is it possible to get a list of the email addresses of folks who've already been informed of open spaces (paper rejections and acceptances)? I can make sure the open spaces mailing list doesn't include those e-mails.
--Hobson
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Hello Ewa,
Thank you for your prompt response :) I can see the edit button.
(And noted ;))
Thanks so much and have a great Friday and weekend! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:57 schrieb Ewa Jodlowska ewa@python.org:
Hi Anna -
I have made you a page editor but our django permissions are not 100% functional. Can you try now to see if you see an edit button on the page?
(FYI - I am on this mailing list and do not need to be cc'ed :))
Best regards,
Ewa Director of Operations Python Software Foundation Cell: 415-319-5237
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Thank you Brandon, good point!
I wrote this email draft last week:
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a couple more weeks until PyCon US and we here at the open spaces headquarters are getting really excited. We’d like to encourage and invite you to host an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one hour long meetups for people to come together and talk about topics and ideas, do fun things like yoga, paint their nails, play board games, or to do whatever they would like to do or talk about. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space. You may ask what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
Any thoughts, comments, or edits are welcome! :)
Anna ----- https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 14:19 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
I am not sure you should try to avoid sending your email to people whose talks were rejected.
First, we don’t know whether the topic of their talk had anything to do with the Open Space — if they got a rejection note for their talk on “Python Iterators” and saw the note about the possibility of doing an Open Space, that would not necessarily have inspired them to make CherryPy — the technology you are thinking of them as an expert and leader in — the topic of an Open Space.
Second, an email from you, the actual Open Spaces people, asking whether they are planning to host a CherryPy Open Space, is going to be so much more personal and inspiring than a little addendum to a talk rejection!
Thirdly, think of the small team of core CherryPy people. Some get Open Spaces invitations. Others do not. They eventually get curious and compare notes about this. It turns out, they realize, that if you have had a talk rejected, then you are blackballed by the PyCon leadership from receiving any further invitations sent to you about contributing to the conference. It could make people feel bad.
Finally, I’d like to preserve the feeling people have that their rejection is private between them and the Talks committee, and not being shared with other committees.
So I’d say, go ahead and plan an email, without worrying about whether they had talks rejected. If you worry that your language might sound inappropriate to someone who received an earlier rejection notice, then feel free to post the text here in this thread first, and the rest of us can let you know if there are any awkward phrasings you might improve. Thanks!
On Sat, Mar 19, 2016 at 5:18 PM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good question!
Brandon or Ewa, could you please help/advise with this?
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/ https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 19.03.2016 um 22:12 schrieb Hobson Lane <hobsonlane@gmail.com mailto:hobsonlane@gmail.com>:
Is it possible to get a list of the email addresses of folks who've already been informed of open spaces (paper rejections and acceptances)? I can make sure the open spaces mailing list doesn't include those e-mails.
--Hobson
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 tel:%28503%29%20974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Hello Ewa,
Thank you for your prompt response :) I can see the edit button.
(And noted ;))
Thanks so much and have a great Friday and weekend! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:57 schrieb Ewa Jodlowska <ewa@python.org mailto:ewa@python.org>:
Hi Anna -
I have made you a page editor but our django permissions are not 100% functional. Can you try now to see if you see an edit button on the page?
(FYI - I am on this mailing list and do not need to be cc'ed :))
Best regards,
Ewa Director of Operations Python Software Foundation Cell: 415-319-5237 tel:415-319-5237 On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :)
Have a good Friday! Anna
Am 18.03.2016 um 14:52 schrieb Brandon Rhodes <pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com>:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 7:30 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good morning Kinga, Hobson, and Brandon!
Good morning! :)
Brandon, we had discussed reaching out to everyone whose talk or tutorial didn’t get accepted and to encourage them to host an open space on that topic instead. Do you think this is a good idea or not? It would surely involve a lot of emails so I was wondering if you had a better idea :)
That has already happened, I think — in general, when a committee sends a rejection, or at least when they follow up with someone who asks about their rejected proposal, we always mention Open Spaces, Lightning Talks, and Tutorials as other ways to share with PyCon attendees. I am working to make that message more consistent each year, and to make sure communications always include those options.
I was particularly careful this year to mention these consistently as sponsors and open source projects asked about involvement.
So, I think that you can consider those audiences informed, without needing a further email spree.
Brandon, I would also like to edit the open spaces page on the PyCon website. How do I do that?
I'm not sure. I have some hours tomorrow dedicated to web site work, so I'll slate it for then! (Unless Ewa knows off the top of her head? I'll Cc her on this email.)
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com

Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
------------------------------------------------------ Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
-----------------------------

Thank you for your edits Brandon! It sounds much better now :)
My original idea was to email groups of people like the PyLadies, the Django Girls, etc. When emailing groups it is pretty likely that at least 1 person will attend PyCon and they might be able/willing to share our email with people subscribed to their mailing list, etc. For individual people I’m not quite sure. I guess we would have to check whether they are registered for PyCon (if there’s a way for us to do that) or not.
Any thoughts on this, Hobson?
Best, Anna ----- https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 14:42 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane

That makes sense! One problem with English is that the reader can never tell whether "you" means one person, as I was assuming, or means a whole group of people, which is how you are actually intending on sending this letter. :)
In that case I would throw out my sentence:
“We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.”
and replace it with something like:
“We know that your group might have several members attending PyCon — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at the conference this year.”
Or, you know, something like that.
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 9:50 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thank you for your edits Brandon! It sounds much better now :)
My original idea was to email groups of people like the PyLadies, the Django Girls, etc. When emailing groups it is pretty likely that at least 1 person will attend PyCon and they might be able/willing to share our email with people subscribed to their mailing list, etc. For individual people I’m not quite sure. I guess we would have to check whether they are registered for PyCon (if there’s a way for us to do that) or not.
Any thoughts on this, Hobson?
Best, Anna
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 14:42 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane

Thank you, Brandon! :)
----- https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 15:05 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
That makes sense! One problem with English is that the reader can never tell whether "you" means one person, as I was assuming, or means a whole group of people, which is how you are actually intending on sending this letter. :)
In that case I would throw out my sentence:
“We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.”
and replace it with something like:
“We know that your group might have several members attending PyCon — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at the conference this year.”
Or, you know, something like that.
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 9:50 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Thank you for your edits Brandon! It sounds much better now :)
My original idea was to email groups of people like the PyLadies, the Django Girls, etc. When emailing groups it is pretty likely that at least 1 person will attend PyCon and they might be able/willing to share our email with people subscribed to their mailing list, etc. For individual people I’m not quite sure. I guess we would have to check whether they are registered for PyCon (if there’s a way for us to do that) or not.
Any thoughts on this, Hobson?
Best, Anna
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/ https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 14:42 schrieb Brandon Rhodes <pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com>:
Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com

I hope you don't mind my $.02. I was wondering about the reference to an open space talk about yoga or nail painting and thinking about how that would sound to someone who had a talk rejected. It makes it sound less "serious" than a proposed talk. I wouldn't want folks who didn't have their talk chosen to be offended by being offered an opportunity in the "2nd tier" of gatherings.
Best,
Betsy
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Good point, Betsy!
I took this wording from the open spaces section on the PyCon website. I personally think this demonstrates the scope of the open spaces and basically says „it doesn’t have to be super technical and serious, anything two or more people are interested in which sounds fun and doesn’t go against the CoC is possible“. I think the wording is fine for contacting wider groups of people like PyLadies, Django Girls, etc, which was my original intention. If we contact individuals we should indeed consider changing the wording.
Thoughts from others?
Best, Anna ----- https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 16:24 schrieb Betsy Waliszewski betsy@python.org:
I hope you don't mind my $.02. I was wondering about the reference to an open space talk about yoga or nail painting and thinking about how that would sound to someone who had a talk rejected. It makes it sound less "serious" than a proposed talk. I wouldn't want folks who didn't have their talk chosen to be offended by being offered an opportunity in the "2nd tier" of gatherings.
Best,
Betsy
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Brandon Rhodes <pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com> wrote: Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
-- Betsy Waliszewski Python Software Foundation Event Coordinator / Administrator @betswaliszewski

You can also just mention previous open spaces on neural nets and natural language processing along side nail painting to fully capture the "breadth".
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 8:28 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good point, Betsy!
I took this wording from the open spaces section on the PyCon website. I personally think this demonstrates the scope of the open spaces and basically says „it doesn’t have to be super technical and serious, anything two or more people are interested in which sounds fun and doesn’t go against the CoC is possible“. I think the wording is fine for contacting wider groups of people like PyLadies, Django Girls, etc, which was my original intention. If we contact individuals we should indeed consider changing the wording.
Thoughts from others?
Best, Anna
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 16:24 schrieb Betsy Waliszewski betsy@python.org:
I hope you don't mind my $.02. I was wondering about the reference to an open space talk about yoga or nail painting and thinking about how that would sound to someone who had a talk rejected. It makes it sound less "serious" than a proposed talk. I wouldn't want folks who didn't have their talk chosen to be offended by being offered an opportunity in the "2nd tier" of gatherings.
Best,
Betsy
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
-- Betsy Waliszewski Python Software Foundation Event Coordinator / Administrator @betswaliszewski
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

Thanks, Hobson!
Added your suggestion:
"Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas like neural nets or natural language processing, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.“
Anna ----- https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 16:31 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
You can also just mention previous open spaces on neural nets and natural language processing along side nail painting to fully capture the "breadth".
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 8:28 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Good point, Betsy!
I took this wording from the open spaces section on the PyCon website. I personally think this demonstrates the scope of the open spaces and basically says „it doesn’t have to be super technical and serious, anything two or more people are interested in which sounds fun and doesn’t go against the CoC is possible“. I think the wording is fine for contacting wider groups of people like PyLadies, Django Girls, etc, which was my original intention. If we contact individuals we should indeed consider changing the wording.
Thoughts from others?
Best, Anna
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/ https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 16:24 schrieb Betsy Waliszewski <betsy@python.org mailto:betsy@python.org>:
I hope you don't mind my $.02. I was wondering about the reference to an open space talk about yoga or nail painting and thinking about how that would sound to someone who had a talk rejected. It makes it sound less "serious" than a proposed talk. I wouldn't want folks who didn't have their talk chosen to be offended by being offered an opportunity in the "2nd tier" of gatherings.
Best,
Betsy
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Brandon Rhodes <pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com> wrote: Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
-- Betsy Waliszewski Python Software Foundation Event Coordinator / Administrator @betswaliszewski
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org mailto:Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

+1
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 8:36 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thanks, Hobson!
Added your suggestion:
"Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas like neural nets or natural language processing, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.“
Anna
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 16:31 schrieb Hobson Lane hobsonlane@gmail.com:
You can also just mention previous open spaces on neural nets and natural language processing along side nail painting to fully capture the "breadth".
--Hobson (503) 974-6274 gh https://github.com/hobson/ twtr https://twitter.com/hobsonlane li https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobsonlane g+ http://plus.google.com/+HobsonLane/ so http://stackoverflow.com/users/623735/hobs
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 8:28 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Good point, Betsy!
I took this wording from the open spaces section on the PyCon website. I personally think this demonstrates the scope of the open spaces and basically says „it doesn’t have to be super technical and serious, anything two or more people are interested in which sounds fun and doesn’t go against the CoC is possible“. I think the wording is fine for contacting wider groups of people like PyLadies, Django Girls, etc, which was my original intention. If we contact individuals we should indeed consider changing the wording.
Thoughts from others?
Best, Anna
https://calendly.com/ossanna16/
Am 21.03.2016 um 16:24 schrieb Betsy Waliszewski betsy@python.org:
I hope you don't mind my $.02. I was wondering about the reference to an open space talk about yoga or nail painting and thinking about how that would sound to someone who had a talk rejected. It makes it sound less "serious" than a proposed talk. I wouldn't want folks who didn't have their talk chosen to be offended by being offered an opportunity in the "2nd tier" of gatherings.
Best,
Betsy
On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 6:42 AM, Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you, Anna!
Here is a light edit for you to consider — the main tweak that I made was to change the idea of the “open spaces headquarters” to the official name “Open Spaces Committee” so that they realize who, exactly, on the conference Staff web page you correspond to. :)
Oh, and I also mentioned up front that the meeting rooms are free, so that they realize they don't have to pay.
How are you going to make sure it only goes to people attending PyCon, and not people who are skipping this year, or who missed the deadline and are sad?
Thanks again, everyone! It's so much fun to have a whole committee excited about Open Spaces this year. :)
Hello [insert name],
It’s only a few more weeks until PyCon 2016 in Portland, Oregon! We on the Open Spaces Committee are getting really excited. We noticed that you are involved in a Python project that PyCon attendees might be interested in — and we wanted to get you thinking about hosting an open space at PyCon this year.
Open spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides. People come together and talk about their favorite topics and ideas, or enjoy activities like yoga, painting their nails, and playing board games. Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or any activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great candidate for an open space.
You may ask: what’s so awesome about the open spaces? They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon.
The first opportunity to reserve an open space slot will be during the PyCon opening reception. For more information regarding the open spaces, please see this [blog post](insert link to Anna’s blog post).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our committee at pycon-openspaces@python.org.
We look forward to a great PyCon US 2016 and to many great open spaces!
Anna Ossowski, Kinga Kieczkowska, & Hobson Lane
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces
-- Betsy Waliszewski Python Software Foundation Event Coordinator / Administrator @betswaliszewski
Pycon-openspaces mailing list Pycon-openspaces@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pycon-openspaces

On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 9:54 AM, Anna Ossowski ossanna16@gmx.de wrote:
Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :) Have a good Friday!
You too! :) For your own records, the relevant paragraph from this year's talk rejection emails was as follows:
*I hope you still decide to attend PyCon! It's an amazing conference, and we still have several venues in which you could deliver your material. Lightning talks are quick, five-minute talks on any topic, and open spaces provide dedicated rooms for informal, unscheduled proposals and discussions.*

Great! Thank you!
Am 18.03.2016 um 15:02 schrieb Brandon Rhodes pycon.brandon@gmail.com:
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 9:54 AM, Anna Ossowski <ossanna16@gmx.de mailto:ossanna16@gmx.de> wrote: Thank you so much Brandon! I’m glad Open Spaces were mentioned in rejection emails :) Have a good Friday!
You too! :) For your own records, the relevant paragraph from this year's talk rejection emails was as follows:
I hope you still decide to attend PyCon! It's an amazing conference, and we still have several venues in which you could deliver your material. Lightning talks are quick, five-minute talks on any topic, and open spaces provide dedicated rooms for informal, unscheduled proposals and discussions.
-- Brandon Rhodes PyCon 2016 Conference Chair pycon.brandon@gmail.com mailto:pycon.brandon@gmail.com
participants (5)
-
Anna Ossowski
-
Betsy Waliszewski
-
Brandon Rhodes
-
Ewa Jodlowska
-
Hobson Lane