[Inpycon] Registration system [was] Budget estimates

[Noufal Ibrahim]

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Ramdas S <ramdaz at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 9:14 PM, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Every minute spent working on the app is a minute wasted given that a
>> solution exists already.
>
> By that argument, why Linux, Why Open Office, and above all why Python?

You're muddying the waters here.
The differences between free and non-free software are unlike the
differences between two languages. I don't want to get into
philosophical arguments ala RMS about the former category so I'll let
that pass.

> If you need a solution to create something new, that already exists, why do you
> still do it your way.

Usually because there's nothing that exists that is sufficient for
your purposes. That's not the case right now.

> There are just a bunch of open source projects, that's
> better or as good as their alternative commercial software solution. Yet
> many of us use FOSS, advocates and promotes it.

Like I said earlier, this is not about FOSS/Non-FOSS. This is not even
about language selection. The bulk of our site is going to be a Python
based wiki.

This is about whether we should spend precious time on hacking
software or whether we should spend it getting more important aspects
of the conference ready. It'd be a pity if talented people like
yourself and Anand spent time working on the app when they could be
spending it trying to do things like reeling in sponsors, publicising
the event and making a real impact on the technology scene in India.

> I guess it's the same spirit which reasons me to stick with kenneth's
> solution. But we'll improve it and make it better

I can't speak for you. You and the others here have their reasons and
they're probably well thought of. Let me summarise my position here so
that I'm clear.

- The aim of this list and this project is to conduct a conference
(and not to work on polishing an app).
- There is value in using Python apps for what ever we can (we *are* a
python conference).
- However, if using those apps dilutes our energies, it's not worth
it. We are volunteer driven and volunteers are in short supply. I feel
this is the case with FOSSConf since I'm *sure* that it has more work
to be done. Payment gateway integration, more bug fixes, archival of
data etc.
- By outsourcing this part of the process to an external company, we
increase the ticket prices by a small amount but get that headache
completely removed. It would be even better if the company used Python
but they don't. We shouldn't let this stop us from using their
services if it's worth it. (Practicality beats purity).
- You and the others who are volunteering for maintaining the app will
be busy with your regular lives during the coming months and there
will be delays. These always happen in a volunteer effort but if we
can avoid this, theres
   0. Less work for you guys.
   1. More time and energy to spend on more important issues.
- By using this service for the organisation, we are not detracting
*anything* from the actual conf. We will still have the Python
community of India in one place to discuss their favourite language.
We will still have good talks on the subject. We will still hopefully
have international speakers. We compromised last time too and it
didn't hurt the conference in the least (one of the main sponsors was
a Ruby shop who asked us to distribute 3 Ruby applications on a CD to
every delegate and we did it).

Now, the down sides. Let me address them.
0. We are a Python conference! We should use Python software!
    We use a lot of stuff that's non-python. Apart from the framework
that runs the app, everything is non-python. Using Python only is fine
if we can afford the time but I don't think we can. Like I mentioned
in my earlier mail to Vivek, we are at square zero and the if the
first thing that comes to our core teams mind is to polish an app to
use on the site, we're in bad shape.

1. doattend is an external entitiy and they have control of our precious data.
    This is mostly a strawman argument as far as I can see. All our
names and addresses were "sold" to the sponsors last time. They allow
exporting the data into CSV and we can clarify with them if we have
any specific concerns, we can speak to them. They're a company and
we're a customer. We pay them and they give us services we need.

2. It's expensive.
    50 or 60 Rs. extra per ticket is not much.

Anything else?


-- 
~noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in