Need advice on starting a Python group

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Jonathan Gardner wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 6:57 AM, gb345 <gb345 at invalid.com> wrote:
>> And even when we've had volunteers, hardly anyone shows up!
>>
>> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>>
> 
> Two things: One, only you and your friend really care. Let that sink
> in. No one is going to carry the group but you two, at least
> initially.
> 
> Two, there's a lot of people at movie theaters and the county fair.
> Why? Because it is interesting and fun. Scientists work the same way.
> Yes, a lot of people are interested in Python. Why don't you do a bit
> of snooping around and see what people want to know about?
> 
> Let me give some examples:
> 
> * Interactive numeric programming with Python
> * Rapid website development with Pylons (Trust me, everyone wants to
> make a website.) Show how you are showing off data from one of your
> experiments of projects and how easy it is to organize and manage
> data.
> * How you used Python on your latest and greatest project
> 
> Don't expect the audience to participate, except to show up and ask questions.
> 
> If you want to build a Python support group, then form an informal
> group with your friends. Start a public mailing list and offer Python
> advice and support for free. Integrate whatever code your org has with
> Python, and manage and maintain that code so others can use it.
> 
> Finally, advertise. The more people see "Python", the more they will
> be interested. Coca-cola and Pepsi are really good at this!
> 


attendance will be very low and be sure nobody cares to check whether
anything happened on this group.

My suggestion is:


I'd suggest to setup a group, to which one can subscribe with mail
notification and for all the old ones perhaps even via nntp ;-) and of
course via a web front end (though I personally hate web groups)

Afterwards you can 'friendly-fore-subscribe' some collegues. ;-)
Just talk about your new cool group during lunch, etc.

Be sure, that most will be to lazy to unsuscribe.

Start discussing interesting topics on this group and then . . .
maybe others start joining. maybo nobody cares and you have just to
accept it.

bye


N