From strombrg at gmail.com Wed Sep 2 06:17:00 2015 From: strombrg at gmail.com (Dan Stromberg) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2015 21:17:00 -0700 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? Message-ID: Hi folks. What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to bring their slides on a USB flash drive? Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? Thanks.; -- Dan Stromberg -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From darjeeling at gmail.com Wed Sep 2 10:17:36 2015 From: darjeeling at gmail.com (Kwon-Han Bae) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 17:17:36 +0900 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AFAIK 5 minutes is common, I heard PyCon SG allows only 2 minutes LT. 2015-09-02 13:17 GMT+09:00 Dan Stromberg : > Hi folks. > > What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? > > I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen > laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. > > Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to > bring their slides on a USB flash drive? > > Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? > > Thanks.; > > -- > Dan Stromberg > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://mail.python.org/pipermail/group-organizers/attachments/20150901/50772bd4/attachment.html > > > _______________________________________________ > Group-Organizers mailing list > Group-Organizers at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/group-organizers > -- ??? KwonHan Bae Kris Bae http://iz4u.net/blog Python Lover http://www.pycon.kr/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nelle.varoquaux at gmail.com Wed Sep 2 10:30:08 2015 From: nelle.varoquaux at gmail.com (Nelle Varoquaux) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 10:30:08 +0200 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References:

Message-ID: >> Hi folks. >> >> What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? It's fun but requires a bit of organization. >> I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen >> laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. >> >> Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to >> bring their slides on a USB flash drive? >> >> Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? Scipy does 5 minutes. Either you provide the slides in pdf on a usb stick, or you can use your own laptop. If you use your own laptop, the setup time is included in your 5 minutes. Euroscipy divides the allocated time by the number of people who suggested a LT. This year, it was 2.5 minutes per person. The slides were retrieved during the break just before and speakers did not use their own computers. I've also seen meetup consisting of only 5 minutes demo (no slides, only live demo of the product or librairy). It was followed by 5 minutes of questions, during which the next speaker would set up. Cheers, N >> Thanks.; >> >> -- >> Dan Stromberg >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: < >> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/group-organizers/attachments/20150901/50772bd4/attachment.html >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> Group-Organizers mailing list >> Group-Organizers at python.org >> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/group-organizers >> > > > > -- > ??? > KwonHan Bae > Kris Bae > http://iz4u.net/blog > Python Lover > http://www.pycon.kr/ > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > _______________________________________________ > Group-Organizers mailing list > Group-Organizers at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/group-organizers From mal at egenix.com Wed Sep 2 11:45:39 2015 From: mal at egenix.com (M.-A. Lemburg) Date: Wed, 02 Sep 2015 11:45:39 +0200 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <55E6C543.9080200@egenix.com> On 02.09.2015 06:17, Dan Stromberg wrote: > Hi folks. > > What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? For conferences, the standard 5 minute format works great. For the Python Meeting D?sseldorf we originally started only having lightning talks of 5 minutes each (even with timer :-)). This was fun for while, but then we often found that a topic would benefit a lot from receiving more attention, so we've since moved to a mix of short and long talks (from 5-20 minutes, sometimes longer). BTW: The main argument for initially using the shorter lightning talks was to get more people participate in the meetings by giving a talk. Preparing a short lightning talk simply doesn't require as much work as a longer more in-depth one. > I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen > laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. The compatibility is not much of a problem anymore nowadays. Projectors and notebooks have gotten a lot better in this respect. These days, you have more problems finding the right adapters to connect to the projector (VGA, DVI, Mini DVI, DisplayLink, HDMI, Mini HDMI, etc.) :-) > Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to > bring their slides on a USB flash drive? Only as fallback solution. > Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? 5 minutes is standard for lightning talks and having a timer adds some extra fun, but then: see above. -- Marc-Andre Lemburg eGenix.com Professional Python Services directly from the Source (#1, Sep 02 2015) >>> Python Projects, Coaching and Consulting ... http://www.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC Plone/Zope Database Adapter ... http://zope.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC, mxDateTime, mxTextTools ... http://python.egenix.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ 2015-08-27: Released eGenix mx Base 3.2.9 ... http://egenix.com/go83 ::::: Try our mxODBC.Connect Python Database Interface for free ! :::::: eGenix.com Software, Skills and Services GmbH Pastor-Loeh-Str.48 D-40764 Langenfeld, Germany. CEO Dipl.-Math. Marc-Andre Lemburg Registered at Amtsgericht Duesseldorf: HRB 46611 http://www.egenix.com/company/contact/ From pjf at maestropublishing.com Wed Sep 2 08:43:32 2015 From: pjf at maestropublishing.com (Peter J. Farrell) Date: Wed, 02 Sep 2015 06:38:32 -0005 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1441176212.5879.2@smtp.gmail.com> We've done a couple of things at PyMNtos (http://python.mn) ... 1) A designated laptop with suggestion to use something like Google Slides or other online service. This has a couple pitfalls -- people either have to login to get slides or make them public in advance. And, no terminal / live examples. 2) A Google Chromecast. The only prereq is to have Chrome and Chromecast plugin installed. A Chromecast can cast an entire screen (not just a tab). It works with Linux, Windows, and OSX. Pitfall fall has been *one* laptop that due to security restrictions couldn't install Chrome / Chromecast plugin. Also, bad wifi can cause issues, but that hasn't been a problem for us. HTH, Peter Manager of PyMNtos On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 11:17 PM, Dan Stromberg wrote: > Hi folks. > > What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? > > I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen > laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. > > Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters > to > bring their slides on a USB flash drive? > > Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? > > Thanks.; > > -- > Dan Stromberg > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > _______________________________________________ > Group-Organizers mailing list > Group-Organizers at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/group-organizers -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ned at nedbatchelder.com Wed Sep 2 14:50:30 2015 From: ned at nedbatchelder.com (Ned Batchelder) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 08:50:30 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <55E6F096.3010802@nedbatchelder.com> On 9/2/15 12:17 AM, Dan Stromberg wrote: > Hi folks. > > What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? > > I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen > laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. > > Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to > bring their slides on a USB flash drive? > > Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? > > Thanks.; > For a local user group, I don't find much need to be strict about time. About using a shared laptop, there's a trade-off: I'm surprised at how many people are completely baffled by using a machine with a different operating system than they are used to. Sometimes it's just better to spend the 30 seconds up front to let them use their own machine, and then they can present smoothly from a laptop they are used to. Also, as someone else mentioned, the laptop-switch time can be used for Q+A by the previous speaker. --Ned. From doug at doughellmann.com Wed Sep 2 15:54:38 2015 From: doug at doughellmann.com (Doug Hellmann) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 09:54:38 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: <55E6F096.3010802@nedbatchelder.com> References: <55E6F096.3010802@nedbatchelder.com> Message-ID: <6663F2CE-F881-41A4-B303-FDCEEA266352@doughellmann.com> > On Sep 2, 2015, at 8:50 AM, Ned Batchelder wrote: > > On 9/2/15 12:17 AM, Dan Stromberg wrote: >> Hi folks. >> >> What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? >> >> I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen >> laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. >> >> Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to >> bring their slides on a USB flash drive? >> >> Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? >> >> Thanks.; >> > > For a local user group, I don't find much need to be strict about time. About using a shared laptop, there's a trade-off: I'm surprised at how many people are completely baffled by using a machine with a different operating system than they are used to. Sometimes it's just better to spend the 30 seconds up front to let them use their own machine, and then they can present smoothly from a laptop they are used to. Yes, the only time I encourage the use of a shared laptop is if the presenter can?t make their system work with the projector. That?s unusual, but it does come up from time to time. > > Also, as someone else mentioned, the laptop-switch time can be used for Q+A by the previous speaker. In Atlanta, we use the time to let the wait-staff offer a round of refills. :-) Doug From adriennefriend at gmail.com Wed Sep 2 15:54:42 2015 From: adriennefriend at gmail.com (Adrienne N. Lowe) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 09:54:42 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: <55E6F096.3010802@nedbatchelder.com> References: <55E6F096.3010802@nedbatchelder.com> Message-ID: I agree with Ned - for a local user group, you can be more flexible on the length of the talks. For example, if you say 5 minutes, and they're still not done at 7, you can give a cue to wrap up so they'll be done by 10. The idea of a lightning talk is a great way to encourage someone who is nervous about speaking, but is interested. A lot of time folks think that speaking at a user group means signing up for some 20, 30, 40 minute engagement with three hundred slides. If you let your members know that they can talk on a shorter topic of their choosing, they may be more inclined to try something they find intimidating. As for setting up devices, I just check in with the event host ahead of time, ask what kind of hookups they have available, and then communicate that to my folks who are giving talks. It hasn't been an issue yet. I also ask that anyone giving any talk of any duration spend a few minutes before the user group starts making sure everything looks good and connects properly. FYI, I manage PyLadies in Atlanta :) On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 8:50 AM, Ned Batchelder wrote: > On 9/2/15 12:17 AM, Dan Stromberg wrote: > >> Hi folks. >> >> What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? >> >> I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen >> laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. >> >> Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to >> bring their slides on a USB flash drive? >> >> Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? >> >> Thanks.; >> >> > For a local user group, I don't find much need to be strict about time. > About using a shared laptop, there's a trade-off: I'm surprised at how many > people are completely baffled by using a machine with a different operating > system than they are used to. Sometimes it's just better to spend the 30 > seconds up front to let them use their own machine, and then they can > present smoothly from a laptop they are used to. > > Also, as someone else mentioned, the laptop-switch time can be used for > Q+A by the previous speaker. > > --Ned. > > _______________________________________________ > Group-Organizers mailing list > Group-Organizers at python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/group-organizers > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From chris.arndt at web.de Wed Sep 2 16:59:30 2015 From: chris.arndt at web.de (Christopher Arndt) Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2015 16:59:30 +0200 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References: <55E6F096.3010802@nedbatchelder.com> Message-ID: <55E70ED2.8000906@web.de> One thing I try to encourage potential speakers to consider is giving a lightning talk not about one of your own projects or some code you've written but also about projects from other people, that you find interesting. This could be: - Some cool (Python or coding-related) website you found. - An interesting blog post you read. - A new or not-so-well-known Python language feature. - A new or not-so-well-known Python (third-party) library. - An interesting algorithm or software engineering solution (e.g. design patterns). - Software development tools (editors, documentation systems, code review and refactoring tools, ...). - Interesting hardware (ergonomic keyboards, mobile computers or microcontrollers running some flavour of Python). Many people seem to (mistakingly, IMHO) think that you are only "allowed" to give a lightning talk when you have "produced" something. Offering up some of the above ideas might encourage some of them to try their first lightning talk. Chris From trey at treyhunner.com Fri Sep 4 00:18:30 2015 From: trey at treyhunner.com (Trey Hunner) Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2015 15:18:30 -0700 Subject: [group-organizers] Lightning talks? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <55E8C736.6070407@treyhunner.com> Sorry for the wall of text. I have been meaning to write a blog post on my experiences hosting lightning talk-oriented meetups but I haven't done so yet. Here's my experience, which seems to parallel much of the other feedback given. For our meetups we have always allowed speakers to use their own laptops, but we also make sure we have a loaner laptop ready for speakers that show up with slides but no laptop. For time limit, I prefer 5 minutes if possible. This doesn't allow a lot of in-depth talks requiring detailed introductions, but it does seem to encourage more first-time speakers and new programmers to give talks. We remind our audience multiple times that we want to encourage new speakers and talks from new programmers and that we're here to help. We often say "if you have done even 1 hour of research on a topic, you are probably more knowledgeable than at least some of your audience members." We also have a spreadsheet we use to keep track of speaker information so we can follow up with them and to make sure that our various co-organizers don't overbook or underbook talks on any given night. We started lightning talks at our meetup without a strict time limit or a cue to speakers to wrap it up. We found this was a big problem because if we had 8 lightning talks scheduled they could range anywhere from 40 to 120 minutes depending on how long each speaker took. We have tried two different formats which have both worked well. 1. Hard 5 minute cut off At our JS meetup we have a hard five minute cut off. I signal the speakers at 4 minutes using some audience participation (everyone golf claps to signal 4 minutes). Then at 5 minutes I signal the audience to applaud which results in a somewhat abrupt cut off. 95% of speakers end before 5 minutes, either because they realize they're going too slow and wrap it up quickly after 4 or they wrap it up naturally with time to spare. At 5 minutes, we ask speakers to unplug their laptop, move off the podium, and answer questions for about 2 minutes. The next speaker then has plenty of time to setup as questions are being answered. We usually do about 8 speakers this way and call it a night because at this point there is plenty of material to seed discussions with after the talks. We like to end with socialization. 2. Speaker-imposed cut off At our Python meetup we recently decided to counter the long lightning talk problem by asking each speaker how long their talk will take. I ask them when they want me to signal them and when they want me to kick them off the stage (which has not happened yet). All of the speakers have estimated their talk time appropriately so far, so this seems to have worked well. On 09/01/2015 09:17 PM, Dan Stromberg wrote: > Hi folks. > > What are people's experiences with doing lightning talks at a meetup? > > I guess the thing that concerns me the most is setting up a half dozen > laptops on a projector they've never been hooked up to before. > > Do people do a "designated laptop" for the talks, and ask presenters to > bring their slides on a USB flash drive? > > Also, what's a good duration? Maybe targeting 5-10 minutes? > > Thanks.; > -- Trey Hunner http://treyhunner.com -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 490 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From dinaldo at gmail.com Fri Sep 11 19:42:53 2015 From: dinaldo at gmail.com (Don Sheu) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 10:42:53 -0700 Subject: [group-organizers] T-shirts Message-ID: Saw a message Brian Ray shared with the ChiPy email list that prompted me to share our t-shirt plans for PuPPy. We plan to use the logo that Jen Pierce designed for us to use for t-shirts. These t-shirts will be used to anchor our voluntary member contribution drive. If we used Teespring, it looks like about $13 for cost of the t-shirts. I think CustomInk can offer a per unit cost of less than $10. Here's a link to the design, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x7hspexjmn0op91/AAA8RZsk24y-5dYa12YgSO2Ja?dl=0 Also, for purposes of fulfilling our commitment to our code of conduct, we're going to make an Organizer t-shirt that will have shirts clearly marked so anybody reporting an incident can find an organizer. -- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Join my Python user group, we meet every 2nd Wednesday http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.* ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dinaldo at gmail.com Wed Sep 23 23:50:03 2015 From: dinaldo at gmail.com (Don Sheu) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 14:50:03 -0700 Subject: [group-organizers] New PuPPy Efforts for October Message-ID: Two new programs we're planning and will launch soon: 1) Career Coaching Session; and 2) study sessions in conjunction with Coursera Machine Learning Specialization. On October 6th, we're running an engineer-to-engineer career coaching session. Participants will meet with five coaches during a 30 minute slot. I've asked that coaches not pitch a position or opportunity and instead tune advice for the individual seeking coaching. WeWork Holyoke is hosting us for free in their new Downtown Seattle location. Anthology is sponsoring food and beverages. Seattle nano-breweries have limited supply, but we were able to secure 1/6bbl from Stoup Brewery of their Mosaic Pale. We're serving b?nh m? from Saigon Vietnam Deli. Some claim it's amongst the best b?nh m? in the US. Anybody interested in the results of this experiment, I'm happy to collect your contact and share when we complete the event. Here's a list of our coaches: Alan Vezina, Founder and CTO Jydo Avilay Parekh, Founder AvilayLabs LLC Carter Rabasa, Product Manager Twilio Colin Dietrich, Research Scientist NOAA George Murray, Delivery Lead Indeed Ian Shafer, Founder Anthology Joel Grus, Engineer Google John Helm, CTO OmniRetail John Hunter, Founder Push Agency Nick Denny, Founder and CTO APImetrics Phil Kimmey, Founder Rover Rahul Singh, Founder Distelli Yannick Gingras, Engineering Manager Facebook Dusty Phillips, Production Engineer Facebook Andrew Chalfant, Production Engineer Facebook Ben Reilly, Technology Lead Reup Dan Simmonds, Engineer Amazon Charlotte Tan, Engineer Extrahop Brenden West, Founder Tech Mentors Jason Foote, Lead Engineer Offerup Robert Mao, Founder Pixotale Cris Ewing, Owner of Cris Ewing, Developer, LLC, Instructor Code Fellows, UW Python Certificate Kody Kochaver, Founder and CEO of Jydo Carlos Guestrin founder of Dato and Amazon Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Washington in collaboration with a fellow Amazon Profession of Machine Learning created a Coursera Machine Learning specialization. About 30 PuPPy members have committed to taking the course, attending a keynote delivered by Carlos, and participate in study sessions hosted by General Assembly in Seattle. Link to Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/machine-learning Seattle D/A/ML in Seattle organized by Jake Mannix of the Allen Institute for AI, Alice Zheng Director of Data Science at Dato, and Trey Causey Data Scientist at Dato, will recruit their members to join PuPPy in the study sessions. Also, Alice is recruiting colleagues from Dato to help tutor our PuPPy members joining the study sessions. Also, anybody with interest in the results of this experiment, let me know and I'm happy to update with a report. Warmest wishes, -- Don Sheu 312.880.9389 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Join my Python user group, we meet every 2nd Wednesday http://www.meetup.com/PSPPython/ *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE*: *The information contained in this message may be protected trade secrets or protected by applicable intellectual property laws of the United States and International agreements. If you believe that it has been sent to you in error, do not read it. Please immediately reply to the sender that you have received the message in error. Then delete it. Thank you.* ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brianhray at gmail.com Mon Sep 28 18:04:41 2015 From: brianhray at gmail.com (Brian Ray) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 12:04:41 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] core-dev and/or non-core-dev sprints cPython Message-ID: I saw Barry Warsaw held a sprint in DC yesterday. I would like to do the same thing in Chicago. I am not really sure where to get started so starting this thread in hopes someone can shed some light on what I need to do to make this happen. Step 1: decide if there are enough core-dev contributors Step 2: if not, what do we do as non-core-dev Step 3: decide on location and sponsorship... Step 4: .... -- Brian Ray @brianray (773) 669-7717 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brian at python.org Mon Sep 28 18:11:40 2015 From: brian at python.org (Brian Curtin) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 11:11:40 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] core-dev and/or non-core-dev sprints cPython In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 11:04 AM, Brian Ray wrote: > I saw Barry Warsaw held a sprint in DC yesterday. I would like to do the > same thing in Chicago. > > I am not really sure where to get started so starting this thread in hopes > someone can shed some light on what I need to do to make this happen. > > Step 1: decide if there are enough core-dev contributors > Step 2: if not, what do we do as non-core-dev > Step 3: decide on location and sponsorship... > Step 4: .... Anyone who wants to sprint on improving Python, whether CPython or any other Python-related project (frameworks, tools, etc): get a group of people together, figure out what you want to work on, figure out what you need to make it happen, and email the Sprints Committee at sprints at python.org. We can reimburse* up to $250** per event, typically used for food/drink but has sometimes been used to rent meeting space. * We require receipts after the event in order to process payment, either by check or PayPal. We can wire but prefer not to due to higher percentage of overhead, specifically for US-based reimbursements. ** We use $250 as a rough guideline, but if you need significantly more than this we would probably help you to re-propose as an up-front grant direct from the PSF rather than having you front something like $500+. From rdmurray at bitdance.com Mon Sep 28 19:34:45 2015 From: rdmurray at bitdance.com (R. David Murray) Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:34:45 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] core-dev and/or non-core-dev sprints cPython In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20150928173445.C6E27251047@webabinitio.net> On Mon, 28 Sep 2015 12:04:41 -0400, Brian Ray wrote: > I saw Barry Warsaw held a sprint in DC yesterday. I would like to do the > same thing in Chicago. > > I am not really sure where to get started so starting this thread in hopes > someone can shed some light on what I need to do to make this happen. > > Step 1: decide if there are enough core-dev contributors > Step 2: if not, what do we do as non-core-dev > Step 3: decide on location and sponsorship... > Step 4: .... If you don't have any local core devs, you can try to recruit a remote one via core-mentorship and/or #python-dev on irc (we used hangout successfully to include me in the DC sprint). But you don't *need* even that level of core dev participation to make progress on reviewing/updating/fixing bugs, just to get the results committed, which can happen later. --David