A week or so ago, the Dallas and Houston Python User Groups met online in a
chat room, to discuss the possibility of a regional Python conference. There
was interest on all sides. Some of the Dallas members had recently attended
their second BarCamp (http://barcamp.org), defined as an ad-hoc gathering born
from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.
From this interaction as well as the realization, after the Dallas group
hosted PyCon in 2006 and will again in 2007, that a conference is a *lot* of
work, we decided to try the idea of running an "unconference".
An unconference (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference) is a conference
where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants,
generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single
organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance.
And tossing around some names, we decided upon "PyCamp". There is much to be
discussed re dates, location and how it will operate, so I set up the website:
http://pycamp.python.org/
and a Mailman instance for mailing lists at:
http://pycamp.python.org/lists/
The rough idea is to hold a Texas-wide unconference, perhaps sometimes in
August and near Austin. There was also the idea of holding a rotating
unconference that moves between Dallas, Austin and Houston, say twice a year.
To minimize the impact on participant (not attendee - this is an
unconference after all where you are expected to get involved) schedules, it
was suggested we hold it over a weekend. We'd meet for dinner/drinks on a
Friday evening, hold our talks at some hotel on Saturday and early Sunday, and
then travel home Sunday evening.
You'll notice that I keep saying "maybe", "suggested" and other weasel words
above. This is because I'm not the conference chair (thankfully) and we're
not imposing the schedule/rules. Ralph Green of Dallas has volunteered to
wrangle the project and website, and is one of those who has attended a
BarCamp. We need the creative energy and participation by members of all
Python User Groups in Texas and invite you to join the Texas PyCamp mailing
list (see above URL).
Oh, and we didn't want to be the only ones having fun, so the PyCamp URL, wiki
and mailing lists are available to other states or regions than Texas.
Hopefully we can start a movement toward regional PyCamp Unconferences
everywhere. If you're unfortunate enough to not live in Texas, drop me an
email and I'll set you up your own regional section of the PyCamp site.
Jump in and let's talk. And with PyCon rapidly approaching, we'd like to meet
face-to-face with kindred spirits there. I'll make sure it gets on the
conference schedule.
Jeff Rush
Python Advocacy Coordinator
Dallas-Ft. Worth Pythoneers Coordinator
PyCon 2007 Co-Chair
