Laura Lewin is looking for chairs for two Python tracks (or a Python track and a Zope track) at the O'Reilly conference. Anybody interested in volunteering? Some background info:

We actually have two tracks, and there's room for strong differentiation between the two. Each track has a room for two days. We'll also want tutorials on the Monday and Tuesday.

Like O'Reilly's books, we're not really aimed at the novice. We want to give people who already use the technology more information. There should be at least one introductory tutorial, but we don't want to focus exclusively on that. However, if you, as Chair, have a vision for what you want O'Reilly's conference to be, we'd be very happy to work with you to realize that vision.

This year we're trying to raise the bar on our Python and Zope offerings. We'd like to have a lot of editorial involvement from a program committee, so that potential speakers have a chance to get their talks reviewed and commented-upon by others.

The program chair would really be the point person for the conference, to drum up papers and help publicize the conference to the Python community. The chair would appoint a committee, receive submissions, select presentations, seek out talks from people who didn't submit, and generally put together the material.

We can handle any combination of program committees and chairs: one person overseeing two committees, two chairs two committees, whatever gets it all done.

Does this sound like a job you're interested in? It doesn't pay, but it would be great for the Python community, as I'm sure you know.

For more info, please write or call Laura Lewin LLewin@oreilly.com (631) 262-9278. --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)