Pycon apac 2012 back in SG?

[Victor Neo]

Hey people,

I visited the Pycon apac http://apac.pycon.org/ site by accident and noticed that there is an update informing us that it will be held in Singapore again next year. Did I miss any announcements here?

Victor

[Calvin Cheng]

Hello Victor,

There's a delay with making this information public to the community but, yes, I can confirm that this is true.

There are some commitment issues with hosting the event in KL and so, PUGS committee have decided to run it in Singapore instead.

I am trying to get the committee meeting minutes published as soon as I have access to PUGS' server, so as to get information and decisions made by the committee published to the community as soon as a meeting is over. In my (personal) opinion, information sharing and encouraging discussion/participation by the community in general is key to growing a stronger and more involved community.

I apologise for the delay.

Regards,
Calvin

[Raymond Tay]

Hi all,

I was looking forward to traveling to KL for PyCON APAC since i thought there's a good chance of attracting more regional attendees (considering the costs involve in coming to Singapore). Does look like it's not going to happen. Would be good if we can understand what's were the issues that resulted in KL not able to take this on - perhaps the community can work something out ...

Regards,

Raymond

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[Calvin Cheng]

Hmm... my previous reply disappeared. Retyping.

From what I understand: no one in KL wanted to take up the leadership role to coordinate the event.

Also, unlike PUGS, they do not meet as regularly as we do. And they are not a registered society (with a bank account to manage the finances relating to the organization of the event).

All these factors make it difficult for the event to happen in KL, though at a personal level, I would definitely have loved it if it were held in KL too!

Regards,
Calvin

[Martin]

That's awesome news. While I was looking forward to visit KL, having it in SG will drastically raise the chances that I can attend again.

Cheers,

Martin

Regards,
Calvin

[Liew BengKeat]

Hi all

 

My apologies in the delay in informing everyone abt this. My schedule has been pretty tight coupled with me being away as well.

 

My thanks to Calvin for the replies. What he has indicated has been pretty much spot-on. Basically, the intended team in .MY had their personal issues with the commitment requirement in pulling thru with the conference. A decision was then made to bring it back here to SG.

 

As such, we are running tighter in terms of time but some of the immediate things that we are working out now include :

 

i) Confirmation of Keynotes. I wouldn't mention them yet until they are fully confirmed (confirmation expected in Jan 2012. We're just keeping our fingers crossed)   

 

ii) Venue. Cost is obviously a key consideration for us so getting a sponsored venue is desirable. (On this, I am hoping confirmation can be obtained in Jan 2012 as well.)

 

iii) Sponsors. We are presently in contact with potential sponsors and also looking for new sponsors. If anyone knows of any company that can sponsor the conference, we can work together with you on this. 

 

iv) Call for Presentations and Call for Tutorials. The plan is to open the call in Jan 15th. Announcements will be made thru this channel and the mailing list of various Python User groups globally. One way you can contribute is with spreading the message and in submitting proposals yourselves! :-)     

 

v) Set up the PyCon APAC website for 2012.

 

I hope the above gives everyone a bit of an idea of what's happening behind the scenes.

 

rgds

Beng Keat

[Luther Goh Lu Feng]

Just had a dinner discussion with some other hackerspace members about
Pycon coming back to SIN.

How can we try to move Pycon to other APAC countries? Already in SEA,
we have plenty of Barcamps. Is the challenge of organising pycons
mainly admin and finance?

On Jan 3, 5:11 pm, Liew BengKeat <bengkeatl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> My apologies in the delay in informing everyone abt this. My schedule has
> been pretty tight coupled with me being away as well.
>
> My thanks to Calvin for the replies. What he has indicated has been
> pretty much spot-on. Basically, the intended team in .MY had their personal
> issues with the commitment requirement in pulling thru with the
> conference. A decision was then made to bring it back here to SG.
>
> As such, we are running tighter in terms of time but some of the immediate
> things that we are working out now include :
>

> i) *Confirmation of Keynotes*. I wouldn't mention them yet until they are

> fully confirmed (confirmation expected in Jan 2012. We're just keeping our
> fingers crossed)
>

> ii) *Venue*. Cost is obviously a key consideration for us so getting a

> sponsored venue is desirable. (On this, I am hoping confirmation can be
> obtained in Jan 2012 as well.)
>

> iii) *Sponsors*. We are presently in contact with potential sponsors and

> also looking for new sponsors. If anyone knows of any company that can
> sponsor the conference, we can work together with you on this.
>

> iv) *Call for Presentations and Call for Tutorials*. The plan is to open
> the call in *Jan 15th*. Announcements will be made thru this channel and

> the mailing list of various Python User groups globally. One way you can
> contribute is with spreading the message and in submitting proposals
> yourselves! :-)
>

> v) *Set up the PyCon APAC website for 2012*.

[Calvin Cheng]

From what I know, admin and finance may be an issue for other user groups around the region. But really, admin/finance is a consequence of (community level) willpower, and not the actual limiting factor.

Around the time I was in Florence attending EuroPython 2011 last year, Jesse Noller wrote a very nice piece about the background details of running a PyCon (which is a little different from how BarCamps are organized, based on my limited understanding of BarCamp organization).  Details here - http://jessenoller.com/2011/05/25/pycon-everybody-pays/

In my opinion, the important question is that of "self-determination", on a country-by-country community level basis.  EuroPython is usually rotated around different European countries year by year.  And in so doing, the onus of the organizing of a particular year's EuroPython Conference falls on the community in that specific country.  i.e. when it's Italy's turn to run the conference, the Italian Python community rises to the occasion and community members volunteer their own time (and sometimes even money and running the risk of losing time and money "for nothing") to run the show.

Personally, as a member of PUG (Singapore), I don't see how I can "influence" Python User Group, Malaysia - or any other country's Python User Group for that matter - to run the show.  The spirit of volunteerism, willingness and motivation has to come from "bottom up" from a particular user group in question.

I would definitely love to see many robust groups of Python Users in each country, just like how EuroPython is a very matured event and is rotated from country-to-country in Europe, but that takes initiative and volunteerism from the respective Python User Groups.

If there's something I can do to help catalyze the growth of "Asia-Pac Python Conferences", that would be great! But I am also aware that whatever I can contribute will at best be a "catalyst" and not the main components of the "reaction".  The reaction has to begin at a Python User Group level in the specific country's community itself.

Do you have something in mind, Luther? Would love to hear your detailed opinions!
 
Cheers!

[Senthil Kumaran]

I think, the problem is we have not known the Python enthusiasts in
other areas well. We will have to connect together via mailling lists,
meetups and be open in organizational efforts (invite others to
volunteer and participate) so that APAC PyCon spreads to other areas.

I think, it is about "shared ownership". I am eager to see apac pycon
going to vietnam, cambodia, laos, thai, philiphines. Constantly I am
seeing a lot of good developers from these regions and I am amazed at
their talent. It would be so good to connect them all have a good
community in SE.

Let's try to spread the word and by mutual trust and recommendations
we can bring in perhaps more folks.

One guidline to follow could be - we cannot expect and should not
expect the next pycon to be better than previous one. Especially if it
is going to move hands. It should help ease some pressure as well.

BTW, are there still malaysian hackers who are like do a give a dig at
this? Perhaps we should work out some plans for future?

Thanks,
Senthil

[Luther Goh Lu Feng]

Thanks for the constructive feedback Senthil and Calvin.

One common point that has come across is getting to the various python groups in other countries. After Pycon last year, I have helped to create a python apac user group (https://groups.google.com/group/python-apac) and Eugene helped to create #python-apac on freenode (http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=python-apac). I have requested the organisers to publicise this channels but it probably didn't follow through for some reason. I believe that these channels would be great for connecting all the user groups in APAC and possibly a channel for discussing future pycons.

As far as I am aware, there wasn't any Call for Location for Pycon 2012. I would like to enquire the process on how Malaysia was chosen as the original venue for 2012. The Openoffice.org community (in the days before Libreoffice) decides the conference venue with a Call for Location (http://www.openoffice.org/marketing/ooocon2011/cfl/cfl.html) one year in advance. Is that something we should try to do for Pycon 2013 now?

One thing that has been lingering on my mind is the relative cost of attending Pycon for attendees who may be less well-off, especially those from outside SIN. I have been involved with the organisation of BarcampSG (http://www.barcampsingapore.com/), EducampSG(http://www.educampsingapore.com/) and GeekcampSG (http://geekcamp.pbworks.com/). Despite Pycon being very different from such unconferences. I would like to share one key mission of the teams: that is we are able to organise and run the event even if we have no budget, and the event will be free for attendees.

For BarcampSG and EducampSG, the only money was spent on markers and paper for sign postings, and stickers for name tags. For GeekcampSG, IDA and Microsoft were kind sponsors so we had catering, free t shirts and an after party. Maybe we should look at the models of how these unconferences are run to see how it is possible to make Pycon more affordable. I am more than happy to make introductions to Preetam Rai, the chief influencer of local unconferences and Barcamps in SEA region.

---

From: Calvin Cheng <linchua...@gmail.com>
To: pyth...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2012 10:18 AM
Subject: [pythonsg] Re: Pycon apac 2012 back in SG?

[Calvin Cheng]

I am definitely all for getting linked up with various Python User Groups in the region.

And I agree with Luther that we can definitely learn lots from Preetam.

But I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that the "committee" or "driving team" (whatever we call it) should comprise of people only in Singapore.

Shared ownership, to borrow the term from Senthil, isn't quite "shared" if the "team" organizing the "call for location" comprises mostly (90%-100%) of Singapore-based Python users or is basically the PUGS committee. I would personally prefer to see a more diverse "committee", first set-up, dedicated to organizing Asia-Pac events, in contrast with python user group singapore (society), which as its name suggests could be more for organizing Singapore-based Python user events.

And yes, getting Python users from various countries to join a mailing list to establish a "diverse group" of enthusiastic Python users is definitely a good start point!

[Victor Neo]

On the topic about cost, I have been throwing around an idea and I'm wondering what you guys think about it - Sponsorship of PyCon APAC for students. For US PyCon, they offer financial assistance (https://us.pycon.org/2012/assistance/), but I'm not looking at that aspect entirely (they are too large scale compared on us).

Instead, I am wondering if any companies would be interested in sponsoring (tertiary institutions', high school students are usually sponsored by our Ministry of Education) students to attend PyCon APAC. First, there would definitely be students who won't be able to fork out student price of $200 (inclusive of tutorials) to attend because of financial issues at home. Second, to build up the (Python) talent pool in Singapore, it would be great if we can get some students to attend the conference as they will be able to learn from and interact with developers all around.

Because the PUGS committee members are overloaded with getting PyCon up and running, I don't intend on proposing this to be part of PyCon APAC, but rather up to the individual companies to decide if they wish to sponsor a student.

Is this a feasible idea? Would any company be interested in such sponsorship?

[Calvin Cheng]

I think this is something worth discussing as part of the pycon organizing process.

And if I recall correctly, for the pycon sg conferences in the past, students (student volunteers) who help with the running of conference get to attend the entire conference for free, so that can be one of the ways students who cannot afford it can contribute back in kind.

These are some conference organization policy matters that is worth clarifying and publicizing. I think.

Regards,
Calvin

[Senthil Kumaran]

On Fri, Jan 06, 2012 at 09:03:33PM -0800, Luther Goh Lu Feng wrote:
> One common point that has come across is getting to the various python groups
> in other countries. After Pycon last year, I have helped to create a python
> apac user group (https://groups.google.com/group/python-apac) and Eugene helped

This is a good idea. One suggestion, it should better be "Pycon-apac"
instead of "python-apac" . Python and Pycon are different. First is
the language and second is a community conference.

Also, it would be a good idea to have discussions on 'organizing
aspects' in a separate list instead of here pythonsg.

I hope, we keep pythonsg as technical discussion list catering to
python language, frameworks and other stuff and singapore specific
things instead of apac specific thing.

Thanks,
Senthil

[Luther Goh Lu Feng]

Sure https://groups.google.com/group/pycon-apac/ has been created :)
Pls join the group.

[Luther Goh Lu Feng]

Btw, I think there is a group in Japan that announced their intention
to organise a Python mini con (or something like that) during one of
the lightning talks. Wld they be interested in handling Pycon-apac
2012 or 2013?

[Owen Jones]

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 7:24 PM, Luther Goh Lu Feng <elf...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Btw, I think there is a group in Japan that announced their intention
> to organise a Python mini con (or something like that) during one of
> the lightning talks. Wld they be interested in handling Pycon-apac
> 2012 or 2013?

There has also been a PyCon Australia for the past 2 years. Perhaps
they would be interested in hosting a future PyCon APAC.