PyCon Preliminary Program Announced!

[Steve Holden]

Timothy Fitz wrote:

>>I don't care much for "parallel tracks" myself, because I want to hear
>>basically everything.  But we had more proposals of higher quality
>>this year than ever before, so it came down to scheduling more talks
>>in parallel than ever before too, or rejecting perfectly good
>>proposals.  
> 
> 
> Will there be recordings of any of these presentations? There are
> quite a few times when I want to be at all three tracks at the same
> time.

There are currently loose plans to have each session recorded. This 
will, however, require massive volunteer effort which so far nobody has 
offered to coordinate, so unless someone steps up to the plate with a 
sound plan to ensure that at least the initial capture takes place this 
may remain a pipe dream (there are limits to the chairman's powers that 
he is starting to treat as actual rather than theoretical ;-)

What's actually required?

Someone needs to start a resource, with a copy of the schedule ( and a 
Wiki page might do, its source can be lifted directly from the Wiki 
source of http://www.python.org/moin/PyConDC2005/Schedule) that allows 
volunteers to sign up to record specific sessions.

We also need a release form that speakers can sign to allow the 
recording to take place and for it to be published under a suitable 
Creative Commons license.

We need advice on file formats and software for Linux, Windows and Mac 
(plus any other platforms that may be used): experience says that 
apparently it's possible to make acceptable recordings with an external 
microphone such as a lapel mike from the front of the room, without 
involving the University. If someone wants to liaise about electronic 
feeds I'll certainly facilitate interaction with GWU as long as the cost 
is acceptable (zero would be best).

Finally we need someone coordinating at the conference to make sure this 
all happens, that the release forms are collected, and that the sound 
files are made available - probably on www.python.org.

This is a /community conference/, guys. I *know* the Python community 
can collectively take this task and eat it for breakfast, but please 
don't believe it will happen as a result of a few newsgroup posts saying 
what a nice idea it would be. Things don't happen that way, and I have 
the grey hairs to prove it. Please, make this happen!

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden               http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming  http://pydish.holdenweb.com/
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