[EuroPython] From Guido, forwarded from the Marketting Python mailing list

[Laura Creighton]

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We are discussing how to market python there.  World domination: how to
get it.  There was a call for ideas.  I posted my The idea for the
Sprint that Andrew Smart and I wrote up in the discussion of the
Business Track.  This happened.

Laura Creighton


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Replied: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 00:24:23 +0100
Replied: lac
Replied: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
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To: Laura Creighton <lac@strakt.com>
cc: Lucio Torre <lucio@movilogic.com>, marketing-python@wingide.com
Subject: Re: [marketing-python] The Puppy Dog Sell
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 26 Feb 2002 23:39:14 +0100."
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References: <200202261701.g1QH11PQ025984@www.archaeopteryx.com> <a05101403b8a17d849de2@[63.205.23.218]> <3C7BF868.3090106@movilogic.com>  
            <200202262239.g1QMdEtB019272@ratthing-b246.strakt.com> 
From: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 17:59:43 -0500
Sender: guido@pcp742651pcs.reston01.va.comcast.net

> This is an idea I proposed for the business track at Europython.
> 
> I wonder if we could have a Sprint, but a Sprint with a difference.
> Invite business people to come with small problems they would like
> fixed.  A few hours worth of prgramming for a team of 4 people, say.
> They announce their problem to the team, who first gets to see it on
> site.  They then develop, on the spot, a python-using Open Source
> solution.  Gluing together other open sourced things, is, of course,
> ok.  The full blown idea involves inviting a member of the Press to be
> a member of each team.  Many journalists love to write about themselves.
> 
> Failing would be bad.  Success would be sweet.  In any case we would 
> not be forgotten....we might just wish we could.  So far my mailbox
> is not filling with Europython would-be attendees who think this is
> a great idea.

Here's my concern.  I get approached a lot by people who have a very
practical problem that I can't solve in Python.  E.g. they want to
connect their bar code scanner to their database.  It may require very
little coding, but finding out how to do it would be a nightmare,
because it's all about interfacing to existing closed apps that may
require reverse engineering or at the very least writing low-level
drivers before you can do anything with them.  Most business people
don't know enough about computers to distinguish these "messy"
problems from the computatilnally interesting ones.  Maybe advance
screening of the projects might solve this, though.  I'll be there if
you pull it off.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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