[EuroPython] Social Skills, Business Track

[Andrew Smart]

Hi folks,

have been focused on other stuff during the, so I'm jumping now
back to our discussion.

First question: how does a social skill track connect to Python?

Python programmers are, surprisingly, human beeings. So maybe
they are interested to learn something about "that stuff" while
beeing on the EPC.
Social skills are important for team work. EXtreme Programming
for example is also a concept of working together in a certain
way, not just a technique.

So, I would say, we can broaden the views of our fellow 
Pythoniasts with such a track. 

On a deeper level I think the idea behind Python is influencing
the way Python programming teams are working, as well as the
"Python way" influences the way programmer solves problems. But 
that is just an unprooven theory of mine :-)

There are other topics on "social skill" like project management,
workflow and stuff like that. Here it is possible to talk about
tools made with Python, experiences made with Python projects,
and about the topics in general.

Second question: this is business stuff, what's the difference
to the business track?

I see the business track more focused on "Pyton as a programming
language for commercial products" and "Products build with Python".
Project management could be seen as a topic for the business 
track, but PM is also needed for non-commercial projects :-)
At least you should do to some basic PM in nc-projects.

To add a little "bite": not everything which is NOT programming
is business :-))

Third question: what topics do you think of in the "social skill"
track?

For my person I would see following topics:
- team work (what does "teamwork" mean)
- social interaction (talking to people, what can go wrong...)
- cooperation strategies for open source companies / teams
  (Maybe even with some figures: what could pay of, what not...)
- working in international teams (culture differences)
- business processes in software development: how to organize
  the work, starting from the idea over programming to support
  Especially for Python projects: differences, short cuts...
- project management (old style, new style e.g. XP)
- best practice: let project managers tell their "style" and
  how they get the projects/teams to fly

Andrew