PyCon Poster Session will be Amazing

As the poster session chair, I’ve been watching poster proposals come in for PyCon over the past several weeks. I was very happy with the posters last year, but this year we have a truly amazing collection. Since the submission deadline has been extended until Tuesday, January 25, (which is also the Early Bird registration deadline) I won’t name specific posters yet, but the submissions cover the spectrum.

There are posters on Python in the sciences and bio-informatics, on Python for education and citizenship, on new packages and uses of Python, and even a couple of posters that showcase Python as a tool for hardware hacking “makers”.  And every single one of them looks great. Every. Single. One.

As I recall the excitement in the room last year for the first PyCon poster session ever, I can only smile as I think of what the reaction will be to this collection. I promise you, people will be wishing that the poster session could last all day to give them enough time to inspect each poster and chat with every presenter.

Better yet, you still have a chance to join this impressive company. If you want to submit a poster, just swing by the poster session CFP on the PyCon site by Tuesday to submit a poster proposal.

See you at PyCon!

My “Don’t miss” posters for PyCon 2010

I’m co-ordinating the first ever poster session for PyCon US in Atlanta this year and things are finally coming together. We have 18 posters set for our 90 minute session in the Expo Hall (with snacks!) Sunday morning. I wouldn’t have minded having a few more posters, but we have a strong collection, and the current numbers mean one can spend only 5 minutes per poster, less if you take into account standing in the snack line.

So I’m thinking about the posters I particularly don’t want to miss. If  you want to do the same, you can visit http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/posters/accepted/ and see the lineup. Here’s my list of “don’t miss” posters:

• P3. “Python 3.1, Unicode, and Languages of the Indian Ocean Region”, by Carl Trachte – I studied Sanskrit and Egyptian in grad school, and I’ve always been interested in languages and fonts. And I have to trade a few jokes with Carl.
• P9. “3to2”, by Joe A Amenta – the potential of 3to2 to help drive adoption of Python 3 is so great I just have to see this. And say “way to go” to Joe in person.
• P13. “Distributed Version Control in the Classroom”, by Dr. Daniel Rocco, Will Lloyd – as a teacher of programming I’ve tried (and not really succeeded) to introduce a DVCS before. I need to see how these guys make it work.
• P14. “Join Open Source! We need you – tips on finding a project”, Asheesh Laroia – How can I not want to see a poster from someone who would make a “Soylent Green” joke in his decription? 😉
• P20. “Teaching Programming with Python & Robots”, Jay Summet – Teaching programming with cute little blue robots – ’nuff said!