diff --git a/_posts/2017-03-14-pycon-pune-2017-a-wonderful-python-experience.md b/_posts/2017-03-14-pycon-pune-2017-a-wonderful-python-experience.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..685210c --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2017-03-14-pycon-pune-2017-a-wonderful-python-experience.md @@ -0,0 +1,222 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Pycon Pune 2017: A wonderful Python conference" +date: "2017-03-14 18:18:02 +0530" +tag: python conference +--- + +![pycon_pune_group_photo]({{ +site.url}}/assets/images/pycon_pune_group_photo.jpg) + +## tl;dr + +The conference is worth attending if you are a student, programmer or a +hobbyist. If you are a swag-hungry then don't expect much as a swag from this +conference. If you are a Devsprint lover, then this conference has the coolest +Devsprint. A great number of keynote speackers are invited for this conference. + + +## Detailed Experience + +Because I was volunteering for this conference I reached Pune one day earlier +than the conference days. The volunteer meeting was happening at Reserved-bit. + +### Volunteer + +#### Reserved-bit + +[Reserved-bit][reservedbit] is the best hackerspace I have ever come across. It +has a large collection of programmable boards. You will find boards like +[Raspberry Pi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi), [Bana +Pi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Pi), +[Dragonboard](https://developer.qualcomm.com/hardware/dragonboard-410c), +[Bigalbon](https://www.bigalsmods.com/product-p/1001.htm), +[BBC-microbit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Bit) and the 3D printer. +Furthermore, this space has a great collection of books on Compilers and +Embedded programming. I managed to found few on open-source too. The owners are +great hackers. You will love to interact with hacker [Siddhesh +Poyarekar](https://siddhesh.in/). Hacker [Nisha +Poyarekar](https://twitter.com/nisha_poyarekar) is volunteering the [PyLadies +community](https://www.meetup.com/PyLadies-Pune/) at Pune. + + +#### Pune to Mumbai + +I spent my half day in this space. I got the responsibility of receiving one of +the keynote speakers who was landing at Mumbai airport midnight. To be frank, +estimation of Google Maps between Pune to Mumbai is wrong. It showed nearly 2 +hours but it took almost 4.5 hours to reach Mumbai. It took few more minutes to +reach the airport. The road is impressively smooth. You will encounter the +beautiful mountains of [Lonavla](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonavla). The +task of moving from Pune to Mumbai airport, receive Katie and come back to Pune +was completed in almost 13 hours. I left from Pune around 4.30 PM and came back +at nearly 5 AM next day early morning. + +#### Illness during conference + +Because I did a huge amount of traveling at that night, I was unable to get +enough sleep. Such tiredness resulted in an eye infection. I managed to attend +the first day of the conference, but I was not in a condition to attend the +second day. Treatment from local doctor healed me in two days and then I was +able to take part into Devsprint. + +### Conference + +The conference was a total of 4 days where the initial two days were for the +talks and the end was assigned for a Devsprint. It didn't overwhelmed me with +many tracks but gave the quality talks presented in a single track. The talks +were set from 9 AM to 5 PM which was taken little lightly by the attendees. + +I was pretty impressed with the keynote speakers of this conference. + +#### [Katie Cunningham](https://twitter.com/kcunning) + +Katie is the O'Reilly author. Her +[book](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024514.do) on Accessibility +depicts her area of expertise. She is fun to talk to. She likes to listen about +developer communities, writing and most importantly computer games. Her broad +vision on product development is amazing. She is an avid reader. I enjoyed +listening to her experience of being in India for the very first time. + +#### [Honza Kral](https://twitter.com/honzakral) + +Honza is the dude who loves contributing to +[Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/). He is a core contributor of Django +too. He hacks on Python drivers at [Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/). I was +impressed with his suggestions on a code design problem I was trying to solve +from the past few months. His suggestions on code design are worth noticing. He +is a vimmer and maintains little [vim](http://vim.org) plugins as a part of his +interest. + +#### [Stephen J. Turnbull](https://twitter.com/yasegumi) + +Stephen professes the Dismal Science of Economics. His knowledge is deep-rooted +just like his beard. You will enjoy discussing computer science, books and +his experience of programming. He is authoring few books written in the Japanese +language. Stephen is [Emacsite](https://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/). + +![stephen_turnbull]({{ +site.url}}/assets/images/stephen_turnbull.jpg) + +#### [Terri Oda](https://twitter.com/terriko) + +Terri is a security nerd. She spent most of her time exploring tools at Intel. +Terri knows how to hide from the spying of the U.S. Government. She is leading +[Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/) section from +[Python Software Foundation](https://www.python.org/psf/). Terri is PSF +community service award winner. If you are a student and want to take part in +GSoC choosing PSF as your organization then she is the right person to talk to. + +#### [Florian Fuchs](https://github.com/flofuchs) + +His knowledge on [ReST +API](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer) construction +is the best. He is a [Falcon](https://falconframework.org/) nerd too. I enjoyed +discussing various authentication mechanisms for ReST API with him. He is a +Redhatter. + +![gnu_mailman_team]({{ +site.url}}/assets/images/gnu_mailman_team.jpg) + +#### [Nick Coghlan](https://twitter.com/ncoghlan_dev) + +Nick listens more than he speaks. I will advise you to not disturb him if he is +coding. He enjoys concentrating while coding. Getting his mentorship was a great +experience. He has been contributing to [Core +Python](https://github.com/python/cpython) for a few decades now. You will +enjoy discussing on interesting code compositions with him. He is a Red Hatter. + +#### [Praveen Patil](https://twitter.com/_gnovi) + +Unfortunately, I didn't get much time to talk with Praveen during this +conference. He is a math teacher who teaches concepts of mathematics using +Python programming language. You should feel confident to speak with him on +Python in education and mathematics with him. + + +#### [John Hawley](https://github.com/warthog9) + +John is the wittiest person that I know. His lines always end with humor. He +hacks mostly on hardware and GNU/Linux. Micro Python and GNU/Linux should be +considered as part of his interests. + +I am sad to declare that I was unable to attend any keynote speeches because of +the illness. Mostly I rested at the hotel or talked with people during the +conference days. + + +![pycon_pune_2017_keynote_speackers]({{ +site.url}}/assets/images/pycon_pune_2017_keynote_speackers.jpg) + + +#### Volunteer Party + +If you are volunteering for this conference, then you will be invited to a +volunteer dinner party. We enjoyed party colored disco lights dancing on the +bits of the DJ. Punjabi food was served, and if you were above 25 than you were +allowed to take a sip of a beer. + +#### Devsprint + +Devsprint happen at the [Redhat Headquarters, +Pune](https://goo.gl/maps/mXeirzQhPFz). I found the building has tight security. +You will find an individual pantry section dedicated to each department. We were +instructed to hack at a huge cafeteria section. I myself contributed to Core +Python. Nick Coghlan was mentoring for Core Python. I reviewed one PR, found one +broken test case and wrote a fix of an existing issue with his help. Honza was +leading the development of Django web framework. A team of [Anand +Chitipothu](http://anandology.com/) mentored for [Web2py](www.web2py.com/). +[Farhaan Bukhsh](https://twitter.com/fhackdroid) mentored for +[Pagure](https://github.com/pypingou/pagure). John Hawley encouraged +contributing to [MicroPython](https://micropython.org/). Terr Oda, Stephen +Turnbull and Florian Fuchs mentored for +[GNU/Mailman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Mailman). + + +![cpython_devsprint]({{ +site.url}}/assets/images/cpython_devsprint.jpg) + +#### Why attend this conference? + +* This conference has the coolest Devsprint. The organizers understand the value + of the Devsprint in a conference. I have never observed such an importance of + Devsprint at any other Python conference happening in India. + +* If you are a student, then this is a beginner friendly conference. Don't be + afraid to attend if you are a Python noob. You will receive a student + concession for the tickets too. + +* If you are a developer, coming to this conference will inspire you to grow + from your present level. You will meet core contributors, lead programmers, + owners of startups and project managers. You will find a huge scope of + opportunities to network with people. + +* The conference is single track event. This decision helped me to not miss the + interesting talks. In my previous experience, parallel tracks forced me to + choose between talks when I was interested in both, which killed me. + +* I have never seen such a huge amount of keynote speakers at any conference + happening in India. Keynote speakers were the main attraction of this + conference. + +#### What was missing? + +* If you are a swag-hungry fellow than attending this conference won't be worth + it. The conference attendees have to be satisfied with the conference T-shirt. + +* I observed there were fewer corporate stalls than at other Python conferences. + A stole from Reserved-bit, Redhat and PSF community stall was there. + +* A workshop section was completely missing. In my opinion, the workshop helps + the beginners to start. There were a few topics which can be better + represented as workshop rather than a talk. + +* I was unable to observe any dedicated section for an open space discussion. + This section is helpful for communities and contributors to discuss + interesting problems and think together. + +###### Proofreader: [Benaiah Mischenko][benaiah], [Chameleon][chameleon] + +[reservedbit]: https://reserved-bit.com +[benaiah]: https://benaiah.me/ +[chameleon]: https://chameleon.kingdomofmysteries.xyz/ diff --git a/assets/images/cpython_devsprint.jpg b/assets/images/cpython_devsprint.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f98b15 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/cpython_devsprint.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/gnu_mailman_team.jpg b/assets/images/gnu_mailman_team.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b80db1 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/gnu_mailman_team.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/pycon_pune_2017_keynote_speackers.jpg b/assets/images/pycon_pune_2017_keynote_speackers.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..894379c Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/pycon_pune_2017_keynote_speackers.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/pycon_pune_group_photo.jpg b/assets/images/pycon_pune_group_photo.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02e18f7 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/pycon_pune_group_photo.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/reserved-bit.jpg b/assets/images/reserved-bit.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ae6a8c Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/reserved-bit.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/reserved_bit_1.jpg b/assets/images/reserved_bit_1.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb17c92 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/reserved_bit_1.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/reserved_bit_boards_box_1.jpg b/assets/images/reserved_bit_boards_box_1.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1458d7b Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/reserved_bit_boards_box_1.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/reserved_bit_boards_box_2.jpg b/assets/images/reserved_bit_boards_box_2.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfae3c0 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/reserved_bit_boards_box_2.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/reserved_bit_dragonboard.jpg b/assets/images/reserved_bit_dragonboard.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5975f90 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/reserved_bit_dragonboard.jpg differ diff --git a/assets/images/stephen_turnbull.jpg b/assets/images/stephen_turnbull.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3c95d4 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/stephen_turnbull.jpg differ