DjangoCon 2011 Blog: All

Get Ready for 2012

2011-11-08T14:32:25Z

DjangoCon 2011 is now over but we're already getting ready for DjangoCon 2012! For those who are curious here's the basic details for next year's conference:

WHAT DjangoCon.US 2012
WHEN September 3-8
WHERE Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Washington D.C

Stay tuned for information about tickets, schedules, talks and more.

Planning and preparation are already under way but we need your help. If your interested in helping us find sponsors, develop a program, promote the conference, or anything else, come join us over on the djangocon-organizers mailing list.

Open Spaces

2011-09-01T06:29:12Z

The best part of a conference like Djangocon is all of the great people you get to meet and talk to. To that end we've put aside some room for open space meetings throughout the conference.

Open space meetings are informal, ad-hoc meetings where groups of people can gather and chat about a common topic. Often these meetings take the form of Birds of a Feather (BoF) meetings or followups to a talk.

If you'd like to reserve a room an open space meeting or if you'd like to see what meetings other people have posted check out http://bit.ly/djangoconus-2011-openspaces.

Please keep in mind that due to venue policies and local laws you cannot bring outside food or drinks (especially alcohol) into the open space rooms. If you would like to provide food for a meeting contact [email protected]">Sean O'Connor to make arrangements.

Ready. Set. Code!

2011-08-25T12:36:01Z

Are you ready to sprint?

While we've had basic info about this year's sprints published for a while, we've been a bit light on the details. You can now checkout our full sprints page for all of the details on this year's sprints.

Thanks to Urban Airship, Google, and The Open Bastion for their support in making this year's sprints awesome!

Calling All Volunteers

2011-08-23T07:20:53Z

It takes a community to make Djangocon happen and we'll need your help on the day of the event.

While all of the planning for this year's Djangocon is complete, we'll need help on the day of the conference to make sure everything runs smoothly. Accordingly we've setup a page where you can volunteer to lend a hand. You can view all of the information on how to volunteer and what help is needed at http://bit.ly/djangoconus-volunteer. If you have any questions, feel free to contact [email protected]">Sean O'Connor.

Why Does Django Hate Python?

2011-08-17T13:23:04Z

In fine Djangocon tradition we invited Glyph Lefkowitz "front man and agent provocateur" for the Twisted project to give a talk on "Why I hate Django". In response, Glyph has taken the idea and tweaked it a bit. We're excited to announce Glyph's keynote: "Why Does Django Hate Python?"

From Glyph:

I was asked to give a talk about why I hate Django, but as I have learned to use it, I wondered more why Django hated me, and my favorite programming language, Python.

Django makes development of simple websites with Python easy, but it makes development of large, multifunctional sites using Python challenging. From deployment with Ruby (Chef) to handling web and email requests with C (nginx, exim) to handling COMET with Javascript (APE), it seems like everywhere I run into a slightly challenging problem, the Django community tells me to stop using Python and try something else.

In this talk, I will explore all the ways that Django hates Python and wants me to make a hash of my architecture by using code from a dozen other languages, that has to be managed with arcane configuration files rather than testable, documented Python programs. There's hope, though. I will also describe some of the wonderful things that might come from Python world domination. I'll also tell you how you can help, starting with your own site.

Can't wait to hear Glyph's thoughts and to see what changes may come from the feedback!

Why you should scratch your own itch

2011-08-10T08:00:32Z

Next up in our line-up of awesome keynote speakers: Brad Fitzpatrick. Even if you don't recognize Brad's name you will recognize (and probably have used) some of the tools he's built including memcached and LiveJournal.

Throughout his career Brad has faced a number of interesting challenges and had created a variety of tools to meet those challenges. From this experience Brad has gained an appreciation for scratching one's own itch. In this keynote Brad will discuss the rationals, costs, and benefits of the tools he's written, why you should scratch your own itches, and how to grow the community around and eventually pass off ownership of the tools you create. Along the way there will be some fun anecdotes (e.g. subverting the business models of large enterprise vendors) and practical advice on community management.

Should make for some excellent food for thought.

Open Source 2.0: The Science of Community Management

2011-08-09T07:34:24Z

One of the most compelling features of using Django is the amazing community that has formed around the project. To that end Djangocon has always tried to include talks which discuss various ways we can work to improve our community. This year we are honored to say that David Eaves, public policy, open government, and negotiation expert, has agreed to speak at this year's conference.

From David:

An open source community is only as good as the people it can attract and the efficiency with which it can harness their energy to create great software. A compelling mission is not enough to ensure success, effective communities must be responsive and efficient and also capable of balancing the diverse needs and demands of its members.

The next generation of open source communities will need to be still more effective at streamlining their processes and managing community members. Combining his experience with the theories collaboration and negotiation developed at Harvard and his work in data analytics in the open government space David will share what is coming in open source community management, along with the skills, tools and processes that will drive faster and better software development while hopefully reducing the number of headaches and fights.

Sounds like there should be some solid recommendations and advice for us to think about and discuss after David's keynote!

Tutorials Now Available

2011-08-18T12:37:32Z

Do you want some of the best Django training available anywhere at any price? DjangoCon tutorials on Monday September 5 are amazingly cost-effective.

Today we are happy to announce that the tutorial selection process is over. You can choose from the following six tutorials. Morning sessions run 9:00 to 12:30. Afternoon sessions run 2:00 to 5:30.

MORNING

Test Anything, Test Everything by Dave Dash

Ultimate Django Tutorial Workshop by Daniel Greenfeld et al

Making Interactive Maps for the Web by Zain Memon

AFTERNOON

Unbreaking Your Django Application by Christophe Pettus

We regret Pete Karl II's presentation is cancelled.

Deploying Django Applications With Amazon Web Services (DA CLOUD!) by Corey Bertram

Reserve your places now. Space is limited, and seats are sold on a first-come first-served basis.

Designers Make It Go to Eleven!

2011-07-19T23:48:55Z

One of the most exciting developments in the Django world recently has been the announcement of Django's new Benevolent Designer For Life, Idan Gazit. Accordingly we're happy to announce that Idan will be giving his first BDFL address at this year's Djangocon US.

From Idan:

The open-source world is and always has been focused on code; attention and respect doled out in exchange for patches. As a result, many open-source projects want for design love but don't know how to secure it. We scare off potential contributors from the many fields beneath the aegis of “design”: user experience, user interfaces, usability, interaction design, information architects, graphic design, typography, and other roles assumed by the authors of our markup and styling.

Django can be a model citizen among open-source projects in changing these attitudes and coaxing contributors out of the woodwork—not just for the benefit of the framework, but for the constellation of 3rd party apps which make Django great. Other FOSS communities have made efforts that we can learn from, and the fight to change perceptions is less uphill than you might think.

This talk will cover:

Misconceptions of “Design.” What is design, and what do designers do?
A brief trip down memory lane, and how Django came to be relatively designer-friendly.
“I don't get it: what is the BDesignFL role?”
Process and tools: How can Django better engage designers, for core's benefit and for the benefit of your projects. How can we help these contributors get over the “suck” threshold?
What parts of core are ripe for love from designers? What 3rd party projects?

Thanks to Idan for stepping into this new role and sharing his expertise with us. I can't wait to see the talk and to see what we can do to improve the role of designers in open source over the next year!

It's Alive! The Djangocon US 2011 Schedule is now live

2011-07-12T10:36:22Z

After receiving over 80 amazing proposals the review process is now complete and we present the schedule of talks for Djangocon US 2011!

We were blown away by all of the great proposals submitted to this year's conference. Choosing among them was incredibly difficult (we wanted to see all of them!) but we made it through and we are really happy with this year's program. Thank you to everybody who submitted a talk proposal and an extra big thanks to everybody on the organizers list who were key in putting together the schedule.

In addition to all of the great talks from the members of the community, we've managed to pull some strings and invite a number of really interesting keynote speakers. We hope they will help bring some new insights and perspectives to the Django community. These keynote speakers include David Eaves, Brad Fitzpatrick, and Glyph Lefkowitz.

Keep an eye on this blog as we will be posting more information about this year's keynotes as well as some of the most interesting talks over the next few weeks.

Announcing the State of the DSF Address

2011-07-05T09:29:05Z

We're excited to announce Djangocon's first keynote speaker for 2011 - Russell Keith-Magee, President of the Django Software Foundation

One of the highlights of Djangocon is the opportunity to meet, hear from, and talk to the people who have made Django what it is today and who are working to make it even better tomorrow. Russ is absolutely one such person. If you've spent any time on the django-dev mailing list, irc channel, or looked at Django's commit logs, you're sure to recognize his name. For the last few years Russ has been one of the most active Django core devs and has excellent supporter of the wider Django community. Recently as President of the DSF Russ has been leading a number of efforts to get the DSF more actively involved in the community.

For this keynote Russ will be providing some background on what the DSF is, what it has been up to recently, and what it plans to do over the next year. If you're interested in contributing to the Django community, this will be a great way to find out what opportunities are out there and to find out how the DSF can help.

Call for Papers

2011-06-22T07:36:01Z

Giving a talk at Djangocon is a great opportunity for you to give something back to the community while increasing your visibility within it.

It's that time of year again, Djangocon 2011 is seeking talk proposals! Giving a talk at Djangocon is a great opportunity for you to give something back to the community while increasing your visibility within the community. There has been a history of great talks at past Djangocons, so we can't wait to see what you will bring this year.

We will be accepting proposals online at starting today. As you might have noticed, we're running a bit late this year so we're only able to accept talk submissions for two weeks (until July 5). THIS MEANS SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSALS NOW! Visit the speaker page to register an account and submit one or more talk proposals.

Once the proposals have been submitted, the selection committee will vote on proposals and put together the final schedule by July 12. Understand that we have a limited number of slots for talks so only a subset of proposals can be accepted.

Djangocon's policy is that, with the exception of a few keynote speakers who have been invited from outside the community to bring in some perspective, and sponsors who receive a number of registrations as part of their sponsorship package, all speakers, volunteers, and organizers pay the same registration fees and pay for their own accommodations. We feel this policy is the most fair to everybody and helps the conference maintain its community feel. Speakers will, however, be allowed to register at early bird rates for a short time after their submissions are accepted.

This year we are breaking down talks into three levels:

Intro - Provide an overview and/or beginners introduction to a particular use of Django or a tool related to Django. Speakers should assume attendees have a basic understanding of Python/Django but no more. Possible topics at this level include "An intro to Django Forms", "Using South", "Testing your code", or "Designing better models".

Intermediate - Dive a bit deeper into a given topic. Assume that attendees have an understanding of Django, but may need an introduction to topic specific terms and concepts. Covering relatively undocumented features of Django may also fall into this level. Examples of intermediate topics include "Multi-db use cases", "Dynamically generating forms", "Advanced use of GeoDjango", or "Designing APIs for Complex Services".

Advanced - Time to go all the way. With advanced talks, speakers should assume the audience has a deep understanding of Django, Python, and the topic. Little or no time should be given to introductions. The talk should be entirely focused on going as deep as possible into the given topic. Possible advanced topics include: "Understanding the ORM internals", "Why is X slow and what can we do about it", or "How Eventlet/Gevent/etc can be used with Django".

When writing your proposal, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Make sure that the topics your proposal covers can reasonably be covered in 40 minutes. If you wish to speak about a big topic, be sure to include details on what parts of the topic you will and will not cover to stay within 40 minutes.

Make your proposal compelling, don't bury the lead. Take some time to think about what is the most exciting aspect of the topic you wish to speak about, and be sure to communicate that excitement in your proposal.

Keep your topic relevant - not every talk has to be of the nature "how to do X in Django", we're happy to learn about separate but related tools and topics. That being said, make sure that you talk is relevant to Django developers in a meaningful way.

Be ambitious with your topic - Intro level talks are great but historically we get way more proposals at this level than the advanced level. This means that there is more competition for the intro level slots. Accordingly you better have a killer intro level talk or you might want to aim for something a bit more advanced. Get working on those proposals! We can't wait to see what awesome talks will be given at Djangocon US 2011.

P.S. If you'd like to be involved in the proposal selection process, join the Djangocon Organizers mailing list for more info:

Welcome to DjangoCon US 2011!

2011-06-21T15:58:04Z

So, what will it be this year? We already know the venue, but there is so much more to consider than last year.

This year's move to the Portland Hilton and Executive Towers means that there will be no need to use the Maxx or a cab to get to Portland's many attractions: once the conference day is over Portland in all its glory will be on your doorstep. Don't expect to get away too early, though, as we are encouraging our sponsors to be even more generous about providing hospitality to those suffering from the rigors of the long conference day.

Pricing this year is very little different. We have made some minor adjustments to the ticket prices, but have attempted to keep the low community conference rates that people seem comfortable with. The hotel room rate, exceptionally, is the same as last year. If you choose (and subject to availability) you can upgrade to a room in the Executive Tower for an extremely reasonable $10 a day. We hope that all last year's delegates will join us again, and many who are attending DjangoCon for the first time.

Registration is underway; due to the late start this year, early-bird pricing will not last long. Register for the conference today and don't forget to book a room!

We want DjangoCon to be ever-new, changing to meet delegates' needs more effectively. If you have ideas for changes and improvements please email us at [email protected]">[email protected].