Dougma (dŭg·mə) n.

We are hoping to start accepting proposals for PyCon 2008 on October 1st. The problem is, the software is not ready. A delay in accepting proposals will cause a chain reaction in the schedule we cannot afford. So here I am pleading for help. It could be something as simple as adding pygments integration to ReStructuredText, or just chatting with me about possible schema changes to support tutorials, panels and maybe even Pier-Review (for EuroPython). Not everything will get done (which is expected), but the core requirements are… well, requirements after all.
There will be a Meeting (with a capital ‘M’) tomorrow at 2pm EST, on Jabber or IRC (or both), to try to get a handle on the work which needs to be done. Even if you cannot attend, please sign up to the PyCon-Tech mailing list and sign up for some work. Even just writing a wiki page would be helpful.

If you don’t feel you can help with something so time constrained, please help out on any of the other issues we have (ignore the ‘assigned’ part if the name is ‘dougn’). If none of those are to your liking, add something else and work on that instead. ‘Conference Management’ covers a massive spectrum, and there is something for everyone. Don’t believe me? What other project has an app for controlling views from the admin, admin driven navigation, loaders for PHP, complex schedule management with talk interest monitoring and ical integration, complex proposal review and voting, badge and graph/chart generation, credit card processing (TBD), and (with a little more work) the only full featured, multi-site aware, wiki framework with full history, diffs, RSS feeds, recent changes, and page index for django which can be used as a site builder, multiple public and private wikis, personal notebooks, and do full ReStructuredText publishing all on the same or across multiple sites! (I need to catch my breath…) The source is under the very liberal Python 2.5 license so please feel free to use it on your own projects.

The world of fantasy has suffered a great loss in the passing of James Oliver Rignley Jr., also known as Robert Jordan, the prolific author of the Wheel of Time series (among others). Robert Jordan was the third fantasy author I read, behind Tolkin and Eddings.  As such his words have left an indelible mark on my perception of both the fantastic and reality. His works over the past near two decades have punctuated my experiences; adding a period to freshman year finals, a comma to wedding preparations, some hyphens to long nights watching over a new born son. Though I have never met the man, he has enriched my life and changed the way I view the world. A world that is a little less magic, a little less vibrant, with his passing.

Well I have been rather busy lately and have not had time to post about anything. There has been a lot going on with ODF, and Py3K, but I have nothing of value to add on those fronts. There is a lot going on with PyCon 2008 Chicago, and I have been neck deep in Django for about six weeks now, but that will wait for another day. The big thing I want to mention is the Django World Wide Sprint! I have been on the fence about attending this as I am already overwhelmed with work, and this weekend is going to be particularly busy with stART on the Street. But the draw is proving too much.

So I will be taking part in the sprint. I have no axes to grind, so I will most likely focus on bug reports. I live in western Mass, and work in the Burlington area, so my ‘Boston’ location is a bit disingenuous. I know there are a number of Django people in the Mass area, and I would love to meet up somewhere to coordinate. My current plan is to commute into Burlington and camp out at Borders at WaySide Commons (google map). I picked this location for many reasons, but am not committed. (Reasons include: away from home, coffee, free internet, coffee, public transportation, coffee, across the street from work, coffee.) So if anyone is interested in meeting up, let me know!