[Inpycon] Development Sprints

[Noufal Ibrahim KV]

On Wed, Oct 15 2014, Anand B Pillai wrote:


[...]

> I don't think we should structure it so as to attract only the
> "experienced" people - the cream if you prefer. Then it would be
> possibly not a complete community conference - but a conference only
> for the community experts.

I think you misunderstand. I'm not saying we should structure it to
attract an experts only audience. 

I'm saying that we should raise the bar in two ways. 

   1. Exclude first time speakers and introductory talks by people who
      have no real world experience with the topic. This improves the
      speakers.

   2. Structure the conference (date, time, days, price etc.) in a way
      that dissuades disinterested people from attending. Only serious
      (though not necessarily experienced) people will come. This
      improves the audience.

> IMO, we should cater to all levels of audience - Rank newbies, Python
> rookies, journeymen and masters should find something interesting to
> listen to and talk about.

I'm contesting the use of the word "cater" here. I'm fine with an
introductory talk being given by someone who's used the technology in
question heavily and knows it's ins and outs.

I'm against first time or inexperienced *speakers*. 

Try to please everyone will, I think, mean that we will please no
one. In the best case, we'll please the casual newbies who might get a
kick out of listening to an "flask for newbies" talk and going home with
a new T-shirt never to touch Python again. 

> In short, I don't believe in this philosophy of "raising the level
> every year". This is wrong. It should be about being more inclusive
> every year - having the right mix of talks to attract a varied
> audience.

I'm on the other end. I think the conference should improve quality wise
and we should diversify (e.g. Python express) so that first timers who
want to learn the basics have other ways of getting what they want.

Even for first timers, it's a good deal. They won't benefit at all from
a 30 minute "intro to foo" talk. They (or atleast the motivated ones)
will however benefit from experienced people talking about topics above
their level.



[...]


-- 
Cordially,
Noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in