[Inpycon] Help with Venue for PyCon India

[Haris Ibrahim K. V.]

On 8 May 2016 at 12:38, Jaidev Deshpande <deshpande.jaidev at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 11:25 AM, Ankur Gupta <ankur0493 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 10:12 AM, Noufal Ibrahim KV
>> <noufal at nibrahim.net.in> wrote:
>>>
>>> [..]
>>>
>>> So basically, less (simple) talks, less (first timer) people, higher
>>> quality.
>>
>>
>> Among the many other objectives of a conference like Pycon, I believe
>> promoting the use of the language among new users is one. What you are
>> suggesting means having a conference just for the much experience folks.
>> Aren't you, in effect, suggesting that the user base of the language should
>> not be expanded?
>
>
> One of the most dangerous things that can affect any FOSS community is the
> tendency of evangelism for the sake of evangelism. Promoting the Python
> stack, expanding the userbase, etc, should come _only_ as a consequence of
> the content we produce as developers. If evangelism even remotely becomes
> one of your goals, your quality is sure to suffer. And it's not just the
> empirical evidence that prompts me to say this. It even makes logical sense.
> If we want to "promote" Python and related tech, our best market would be
> the young and unexperienced (and therefore non-opinionated) minds. But note
> that such audiences are also very fickle. They may not return for the next
> conference. And since they don't, we have to count on more fresh entries
> each year. And in the conference itself, since we're all acutely aware of
> the demographic, we spend too many talks pandering to this part of the
> audience.
>
> Actually, I'll even go so far as to say that expanding the user base of a
> language is _not_ the purpose of a PyCon. For that we've got activities
> going on all year. Come on! It's a three day event that happens once a year!
> If you're so concerned about evangelism, focus on the local chapter meetups.
> PyCon isn't the place to do it. It's a place for people to get together and
> exchange ideas. Teaching basics gets in the way of that like nothing else.
>
> So, in short, focus on the quality. Users will follow.

The argument for better quality is always valid, even if the
conference is beginner friendly.

I am still not completely in favour of making the conference "not
beginner friendly" (which is what the discussion is about, quoting "So
basically, less (simple) talks, less (first timer) people, higher
quality.").

Having said that, I think as far as a conference is concerned, even if
it can impart new horizons of exploration (as opposed to concrete
knowledge on one specific topic) to anyone who attends, be they
apprentice / journeymen / masters, that in itself is excellent.

Of course, the final call has to be made by the organizers since
they're the ones who can know if they have the bandwidth, but given
the circumstances, I also agree that experimenting with slightly
advanced topics and veteran presenters would be a worth while effort.

At this point, taking that path (more advanced talks) can probably
channel the organizers' energy from venue hunt (finalize JNU?) to talk
selection, which requires a lot of time and effort, and we're already
losing valuable time.

Cheers,
>>
>>
>> --
>> Best Regards,
>> Ankur Gupta
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> JD
>
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-- 
Haris Ibrahim K. V.
http://sosaysharis.wordpress.com
@harisibrahimkv