I thought this discussion was closed... anyway.... Hello Jacob,
first of all thank you for your response. We all appreciate the hard work you put into Django, into the PSF and into PyCon. I know it is hard work and a responsibility. As I stated in my previous post it was not my intention to start a discussion on PyCon rules. This is not the time nor the place. Yet, since you bring it up, I do stand by my statement. I was part of the review process two years ago. Each round of reviews consisted of 2-5 minutes discussion per talk and a vote +1, -0, +0, -1. Reviewers are not randomly assigned therefore a motivated reviewer could make sure to pitch in his +1 or -1. A -1 at the right time could kill a talk. Anyway... you are addressing the wrong issue. This is not the issue here. web2py is not the issue here. The issue is that in 2013 somebody can attend PyCon and not will not be exposed to any other web framework but Django (12 talks + tutorials) and Pyramid (2 talks). Personally I do not held you responsible for this. I am sure that process has been followed and I am sure that in every individual vote all reviewer did what they thought was best. Yet there is this outcome, an epiphenomenon if you like. I think this outcome is bad for PyCon. That is all I am saying. I hope you recognize that this outcome is a problem and you will consider revising the rules in the future to make sure attendees are exposed to a larger variety of technologies. I agree with you that web2py users should have submitted more proposals and I encourage them to do so in the future. Love & Peace, Massimo P.S. I also encourage web2py users to be polite in their responses and respectful of the work of Jacob, pycon-organizers and the PSF. On Thursday, December 6, 2012 1:11:30 PM UTC-6, Jacob Kaplan-Moss wrote: > > Hi folks -- > > I'm the program chair for PyCon 2013. I can see you've got some questions > about how the talk selection works, so I'm hoping I can chime in and answer > some of the questions. > > First, Joe Barnhart asks "[w]ho in the overall structure of PyCon decides > these things? Do they live in the Bay Area?" > > There isn't a single person who makes decisions; the decision is made by > the PyCon Program Committee. This year we had about 80 members on the > committee. I know we had at least a couple who lived in the Bay Area, but I > think most don't. Membership on this committee is open to anyone who wants > to join. We had a call for membership in July ( > http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-want-you-for-pycon-program-commitee.html) > and started our work in August. Everyone on the committee (myself included) > volunteers their time, and the time was substantial -- we met daily for > most of August and all of September and October. > > It's a lot of work, and made quite hard by the volume of submissions we > have to weigh, but it's actually quite fun most of the time. If anyone > here's interested, please consider joining next year. It's a great way to > give back to the Python community! > > Next, let me try to answer questions about how the process itself works. > I'll point you to https://us.pycon.org/2013/pc/guide/, where I've done as > good a job as I can documenting how the review process worked this year. If > anyone has questions about specifics after reading that I'd be happy to > answer them; fire away. > > I do specifically want to address something Massimo claims: he writes that > "one negative vote by a self appointed reviewer could kill a talk". This > isn't true: the decision really is made by the committee. We have several > rounds of voting, and it takes a strong majority of votes to decide a talk > in either direction. It has to be this way: no single person can be counted > on to be totally dispassionate, so when we pull together a large committee > we can hopefully balance out our various biases. > > I understand there's a lot of disappointment about web2py not being on the > program. We had nearly 500 proposals for just over 100 slots on the > schedule, so we simply couldn't fit in all the good talks that were > proposed. We did the best we could, but ultimately some things are always > going to be left out. Many of my favorite topics aren't represented in the > program, either. > > However, the main conference track is just a part of PyCon -- and a > relatively small one at that. We have many other events, including > lightning talks (short, informal presentations), open spaces (ad-hoc talks > and gatherings) and sprints (focused development efforts). For many people, > these less formal parts are actually the highlights. I'm one of them: my > favorite part of PyCon is the annual testing meetup, and event you won't > find on the official schedule because it's far from formal. I expect web2py > to be represented in this spaces, and I'd encourage you to come and help > make that happen. > > In the end, though, I understand your disappointment, and I doubt there's > much I can tell you that'll change that. I hope you'll consider this added > impetus to submit awesome web2py talks to PyCon next year. Ultimately, > that's the only way to make sure your favorite topic is covered: submit > proposals! > > Once again if you've got any more questions I'm happy to answer them -- > either here or in private email (ja...@jacobian.org <javascript:>). > > Thanks for your understanding, > > Jacob Kaplan-Moss > Program Chair, PyCon 2013 > --
