Announcing PyCon Pune 2017 & Call for Volunteers

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chandan kumar

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Oct 14, 2016, 4:02:01 AM10/14/16
to pytho...@googlegroups.com
Hi all,

While all of us are waiting for next year's PyCon India, a group of Python community members decided to meet at the beginning of the year  :)
It quickly became apparent this should also be open to the community. Therefore, another 4 days of PyCon will be held in Pune during 
February, 16-19th, 2017 so the Indian Python Community and friends can meet again during spring. :)

There will be 2 days of talks, and 2 days of devsprints. While the details are still being finalized, the call for
volunteers is open. PyCon is a community conference and run by volunteers. If you think you will
able to help out in some ways, feel free to submit your contact details in the following form [1]. The
organizing team is being formed from volunteers as well and will make sure everyone is contacted back.

There will be opportunities to join in as on-site volunteers, but this mail is going out early to give everyone
a chance to make a successful PyCon for the community.

Links:

Thanks,

Chandan Kumar

Thin Rhino

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Oct 17, 2016, 2:53:24 AM10/17/16
to Mailing list for the PyCon India conference, Python Pune


On 14 October 2016 at 15:21, Kushal Das <kush...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 1:50 PM, Noufal Ibrahim KV
> <nou...@nibrahim.net.in> wrote:
> >
> > I'm all for more conferences happening but I don't know if you should
> > call it PyCon. There isn't a PyCon Pune, PyCon Delhi or PyCon
> > Bangalore. There's just a PyCon India and it's held once a year (usually
> > towards the end of the year around Sep).
> >
> Correct, that is why it is not PyCon India, instead the name is PyCon
> Pune. The idea
> behind PyCon from the website of PyCon[1] "These Python conferences
> bring together developers, application designers and business people
> in the international Python communities."


Why cannot we have PyPune conference and end this debate?

Secondly, if this is a Pune conference, why is never being discussed with the
other stake holders in Pune?


--
"Ship is safe at harbor but it is not made for that."

Thin Rhino

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Nov 1, 2016, 5:19:34 AM11/1/16
to Python Pune

Would like to register a protest with the python community in general that, this "PyconPune" is being organised by a few select individuals without ever discussing it on the local community ML.

I see this as a clear effort of these select individuals to fragment the community. Request the community to boycott this conference.

Regards 
Aditya Laghate


_______________________________________________
Inpycon mailing list
Inp...@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon

Baishampayan Ghose

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Nov 1, 2016, 5:51:13 AM11/1/16
to Python Pune
Aditya,

C'mon, dude, we have better things to do than boycotting an event just
because we can't agree on a name. No wonder we are not able to produce
good programmers in this country... people are more interested in
petty arguments than worrying about how to spread the word and
teaching people programming in Python.

IMHO, irrespective of the disagreements we should all support the
event and take up the naming issue separately at PSSI/PSF/etc. level.

~BG
> --
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--
Baishampayan Ghose
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Kushal Das

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Nov 1, 2016, 5:56:40 AM11/1/16
to pytho...@googlegroups.com
On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 3:20 PM, Baishampayan Ghose <b.g...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Aditya,
>
> C'mon, dude, we have better things to do than boycotting an event just
> because we can't agree on a name. No wonder we are not able to produce
> good programmers in this country... people are more interested in
> petty arguments than worrying about how to spread the word and
> teaching people programming in Python.
>
Thank you for bringing the discussion back to the community, and the language
we all love.

> IMHO, irrespective of the disagreements we should all support the
> event and take up the naming issue separately at PSSI/PSF/etc. level.

The event is approved from PSF trademarks committee. That is only way
to get any subdomain in pycon.org.

Kushal
Fedora Cloud Engineer
CPython Core Developer
http://kushaldas.in

Thin Rhino

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Nov 2, 2016, 5:32:56 AM11/2/16
to Mailing list for the PyCon India conference, Python Pune, Shakthi Kannan

On 2 November 2016 at 14:52, Shakthi Kannan <shakt...@gmail.com> wrote:

* In a community, it does not matter what your designation is. All
that matters is what voluntary work you do. You cannot dictate
anything to others and vice versa. Sure, there are experienced people
who can guide others, but, everyone is still a volunteer.

My point exactly.

The question is who are the people behind this conference. Who decided how to and when to conduct the conference? etc.
Why was this never discussed on the Python Pune mailing list.
Why was it directly announced without letting the community know about the intentions of this said conference.

AND AGAIN I ITERATE, IT IS NOT ABOUT THE NAME OF THE CONFERENCE.

Regards
Aditya

Thin Rhino

unread,
Nov 2, 2016, 7:20:32 AM11/2/16
to Shakthi Kannan, InPyCon, Python Pune

On 02-Nov-2016 4:36 PM, "Shakthi Kannan" <shakt...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> --- On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 3:50 PM, Thin Rhino <thin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> | Thank you for clarifying that a certain set of people of the
> | community can decide things and take decisions
> \--
>
> Communities thrive with volunteers, and that is how they grow and flourish.
>
> ---
> | bigger community
> \--
>
> "bigger" and "community" are subjective and relative.

Thank you for promoting non-democratic  working of communities. May the community flourish.

Apologies for trying to get some transparency in the works of a community.

I just lost respect for a lot of people.

Anybody who wants to take over the Python Pune mailing list, twitter account and IRC Account let me know I shall hand over all passwords. Feel free to run the community in your own terms and conditions.

Kushal Das

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Nov 3, 2016, 1:49:12 PM11/3/16
to pytho...@googlegroups.com, Shakthi Kannan, InPyCon
Hi,

To begin, let me apologize for the delay in response - I was traveling
and wanted to take time to respond to this without escalating this
further.

The idea of having a PyCon in Pune started in July, before PyCon
India in Delhi when Chandan sent an email to the local mailing list about
hosting PyCon India in Pune next year. The email did not see a lot of
responses and the thread died more or less as soon as it started. We
(Chandan, Sayan, etc.) followed up that idea in Delhi and during those
discussions people (including those from PSF) reminded us that there
was absolutely no problem with doing more than one PyCon in one
country, and that was encouraging. The idea of having more than one
Python event in a year also seemed great because it meant we did not
have to wait till September next year to meet again. The idea seemed
great for another reason - we could have a slightly different focus
for this PyCon, with the possibility of hosting developer sprints that
will allow local developers to work with contributors to key Open
Source projects like Django, CPython, etc.

To see if this idea was even possible we reached out to some key
contributors early to see if they could join us. In parallel Chandan
sent out a call for volunteers in which he specifically mentioned that
an organizing committee would be formed out of the volunteer group.
He also sent out communication about the website initial draft and
later the CfP.

We have had almost 100 volunteers so far, some of whom have even
started sending pull requests for the website design. I can't see
what additional communication is necessary to urge those who have
refused to sign up as volunteers, to get them to join us.

That said, we would love to hear constructive feedback (that does not
involve calling people 'shameless' or other names) and would like to
know what else we can do to make the local community feel more
involved if they already aren't. One idea is to send out a summary
every week following our meetings for those who are unable to attend.
We also have #pyconpune channel on Freenode server (IRC), where we
are having live conversation among volunteers.

Kushal

Kushal Das

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Nov 3, 2016, 2:31:27 PM11/3/16
to Mailing list for the PyCon India conference, Python Pune
On Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 11:33 PM, Thin Rhino <thin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you Kushal for your email.
>
> a. The email you refer to sent in June 2016, even Chandan did not reply to
> suggestions given to him.
> (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/PythonPune/SGqbgfgv6iA)

There were only one positive reply along with venue suggestion. I know for sure
that Chandan made contact with the people we know from COEP.


>
> b. Once the idea was followed up in Delhi, it was expected that somebody
> would take the effort to update the community for the benefit of those not
> present in Delhi.

It was a work in progress raw idea we were floating about. Why do you feel
like we should be obliged to mail out every thought that we have before
acting on it?

>
> c. Call for volunteers was sent out only after most of the things were
> finalised by a small group of people minus any feedback from the community.
>

I already wrote in my mail how we reached out to the developers, and at the same
time asked for people to join in. To decide venue, and many other details,
it is not possible to wait for everyone to join in, and then discuss,
and decide. We
chose to fix a few problems of the conference as early as possible.

> d. Constructive feedback would had come if somebody would have made an
> effort of asking about it.

We did, that was the call for volunteers and subsequent emails. Over 100
people responded and are pitching in. What additional effort do you expect to
make you a willing volunteer? If it is reasonable we could try doing that but
if you're expecting a participatory democracy, i.e. asking for opinions on
every decision we take then that is not going to happen because of the
latency in doing that. If you really want to be involved and not just
complain then please volunteer, we would love to have more hands on board
in every aspect of the event organization.



Kushal



> Cheers
>> _______________________________________________
>> Inpycon mailing list
>> Inp...@python.org
>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
>
>
>
>
> --
> "Ship is safe at harbor but it is not made for that."
>
> _______________________________________________
> Inpycon mailing list
> Inp...@python.org
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
>



--

Sachet

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Nov 3, 2016, 3:00:52 PM11/3/16
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Hi Kushal sir,

Thanks for this mail.
I personally agree with you on all the points.

I remember Chandan had sent out a mail for call for volunteers.
And sending out a mail of every little idea/update is not feasible and not a valid expectation.

For a last couple of days I had been feeling that this mailing list is becoming very unprofessional.

The mails from Aditya are extremely bad and present a very bad picture of the Python community in general.

Sent from my iPhone

Shakthi Kannan

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Nov 3, 2016, 11:42:15 PM11/3/16
to Python Pune
Hi,

--- On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 1:24 AM, Thin Rhino <thin...@gmail.com> wrote:
| Your logic is absolutely flawed.
\--

You only agreed on October 17, 2016 that it was fine to use the
trademarked name (if approved) for the conference and it is the
legitimate approach,
and now you are disagreeing with your own statement! That is
self-contradicting and not logical.

"... can apply for the trademark and if ... gets permission ... can use it."

Source: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/inpycon/2016-October/010803.html

Consider reading "How to Prove It: A Structured Approach" by Daniel J. Velleman.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/739735.How_to_Prove_It

You have started to troll. I am going to forgive you for your
inexperience, and I am going to ask others to do the same.

Consider participating in community events first, so that you
understand how things work. Until then, I am going to add you to the
/ignore list, and I am going to request others to do the same.

I wish you the best in your career.

SK

--
Shakthi Kannan
http://www.shakthimaan.com

Mandar Vaze / मंदार वझे

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Nov 4, 2016, 2:06:29 AM11/4/16
to pythonpune, Mailing list for the PyCon India conference
if you're expecting a participatory democracy, i.e. asking for opinions on
every decision we take then that is not going to happen because of the
latency in doing that.

Well said.
If we keep "asking" and/or wait for a consensus, nothing will ever get done.

-Mandar

Kushal Das

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Nov 4, 2016, 5:18:50 AM11/4/16
to Mailing list for the PyCon India conference, Python Pune
> How in the world does, asking to get "PyCon India 2017" to Pune, translate
> to organising "PyCon Pune 2017", an additional or parallel conference to
> PyCon India?

Did you not read the section you quoted below? It translated because
we found out that it is not necessary to have just one Pycon in a
region and in fact we could have multiple Pycons.

> The raw idea some day did become firm, that your team went about finalising
> a venue, dates and inviting people to give talks. And you never felt it was
> necessary to inform the local or India community about your plans.

That's what initiative looks like - people (in this case, us) put
forward a plan and you had two options - pitch in and help (or make
constructive suggestions that move the event forward) or bikeshed over
name, allege that we are doing it out of malice, call us names, etc.
You chose the latter.

> How did you reach out to developers? A CC email to the list would have
> helped, right?

No, that is not how keynote invitations are made. There could be
emails asking for suggestions or leads, but we already had leads. Do
you object to any specific keynotes?

> Nobody expects all decisions to be taken on the mailing list. I ain't that
> naive. I too have organised large scale events for a few odd communities.
> But in all those communities, idea's were pitched, suggestions / inputs
> taken, and then with full clarity things were organised.

That was the Call for Volunteers. To repeat, you chose to take
offense to random things instead of signing up to volunteer.

> Why did PyDelhi pitch their idea first on InPyCon? They too could have
> taken a stand you take and just gone about organising PyCon India and
> directly announced PyCon India in Delhi.

Why are you pitching PyCon India repeatedly as if this event is
competing with it in any way? If you want a parallel to better
understand this, think about a second child - you don't love the first
child any less when you have a second one. We will be just as excited
about PyCon India wherever it is held and will be just as involved.

I feel like I am repeating myself so please let me know if you have
any real concerns and if you're really interested in being a part of
the effort. If you're only interested in trolling then I don't see
the point in repeating myself just to try and engage you.

Kushal

rahul bajaj

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Nov 15, 2016, 1:11:42 PM11/15/16
to Python Pune, shakt...@gmail.com, inp...@python.org, thin...@gmail.com

Hey Thin Rhino,

As discussed earlier, since Thin Rhino is not willing to handle the Twitter account and IRC account for Python Pune i had requested him to forward me the credentials. With due respect he has made me a contributor to the twitter account, through which i can only tweet and not perform many operations like changing the display picture, the twitter handle name, etc. Thus, has not shared the username and password of the twitter account with me, keeping the credentials with himself. It is my sincere request to Thin Rhino to share the credentials as soon as possible with me so that i can move forward with the work.

Thank you,
Rahul Bajaj
https://rahulbajaj05.wordpress.com/
 

Shakthi Kannan

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Nov 16, 2016, 11:56:05 PM11/16/16
to rahul bajaj, Python Pune, Mailing list for the PyCon India conference
Hi,

--- On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 11:41 PM, rahul bajaj <rahul...@gmail.com> wrote:
| As discussed earlier, since Thin Rhino is not willing to handle the Twitter
| account and IRC account for Python Pune i had requested him to forward me
| the credentials.
\--

Sad to hear that. I have stopped counting the number of times he has
gone back on his own words.

There is a suggested approach for "nonresponsive Package Maintainers"
in Fedora, for example:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Policy_for_nonresponsive_package_maintainers

I am sure other community projects have their own standard operating
procedures. You can try sending a gentle reminder after seven days to
this list, requesting for the same.

But, even if you don't get full access, I see this as an opportunity
to actually use the @pyconpune account with tags.

Many conferences use a single account, and it remains inactive after
the event. But, if you see @pyconpune as a brand, you can continue to
use the same account with the respective event tags throughout the
year. The organizers' participation in other meet-ups and events in
the region, throughout the year, can lead to the larger PyCon
Conference.

Just my two cents (or two thousand rupees :),
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