Python Conference 2008 to Showcase Google, One Laptop Per Child, and YouTube Successes with World’s Fastest Growing Open Source Development Language

Chicago to host premier Python event with keynote addresses from Python creator Guido van Rossum and One Laptop Per Child Director of Security Architecture Ivan Krstić

CHICAGO — November 14, 2007 — PyCon 2008, the sixth annual Python community conference, will be held in Chicago from March 14 to 16, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel. Business leaders, developers, and enthusiasts will gather for the largest and most comprehensive Python meeting in history. Python, the popular open source programming language that is increasingly seen as an alternative to Java, is currently used by thousands of organizations including Google, Industrial Light & Magic, iRobot, NASA, and YouTube.

“Almost from the start, Python’s development has been community-driven,” says Python creator Guido van Rossum. “I always look forward to PyCon to find out what the community has in mind. It can be as educational for me as it is for the other conference participants. For my part, I will present Python 3000 and discuss how it differs from Python 2.x, why you should care, and last (but not least) what to do with your existing code. I expect this to be the best PyCon yet.”

With sessions on everything from an introduction to Python to advanced topics, PyCon 2008 provides an opportunity for audiences of all levels to gain invaluable insight and learn about new tools, and techniques. Everyone from casual users to avid fans, and even business leaders can attend talks and tutorials to fit their conference goals or hone their Python skills.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Python creator Guido van Rossum, who will discuss the upcoming release of the highly anticipated Python 3000, the new version of Python that has been in the works for two years. Ivan Krstić of the non-profit association One Laptop Per Child, designed to provide laptops for children in developing countries who receive little or no education, will also address the audience in a keynote.

“This is an exciting time for Python. We’re going to see some significant growth and changes in the coming year,” says PyCon 2008 chair David Goodger. “This conference is the place to be to hear about them first.”

“What makes PyCon so exceptional is the instant immersion in the brilliant, vibrant, and friendly Python community, which is the real draw for me,” says PyCon 2008 publicity coordinator Catherine Devlin.

PyCon is unique in that it is truly a community event. It is run entirely by volunteers. Not just enthusiasts, scores of Python programmers, or “Pythonistas,” are dedicating their personal time to the weeklong event. PyCon 2008 kicks off with a tutorial day on March 13, where attendees can learn in-depth from the experts. The expo hall, where sponsors and exhibitors will be giving away free goodies, will be open March 14 and 15, while the conference itself takes place from March 14 to 16. The conference will be followed by four days of “Development Sprints,” from March 17 to 20. These are meetings where peers can meet in person, collaborate on projects, and learn in an informal setting. Sprints have been a major part of PyCon since its inception in 2003.

For more information or to register for this event, please visit http://us.pycon.org.

About the Growth of Python

Although the open source nature of Python makes usage data difficult to obtain, it is clear that the language has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Python use in popular products such as One Laptop Per Child and iRobot put Python applications into the hands of millions of people while use in web-based applications at Google and YouTube let hundreds of millions of people run Python applications daily. Many people consider Python to be one of the fastest growing and possibly the fastest growing open source development language in use today.

About PyCon

Presented by the Python Software Foundation, the world’s largest Python conference brings together a diverse group of developers, enthusiasts, and organizations to explore new challenges, launch new businesses and forge new connections within the Python community. PyCon provides attendees with the opportunity to delve into the dynamic programming language employed by well-known companies such as Google, iRobot, and YouTube. PyCon helps people learn new tools and techniques, showcase projects, and meet other Python fans.

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Google and White Oak Technologies Latest Sponsors of World’s Largest Python Community Conference

Chicago open source conference to showcase Python’s emergence as an industry standard dynamic programming language

CHICAGO — February 11, 2008 — Business leaders, developers, and fans of the Python open source programming language used by Google, Industrial Light & Magic and YouTube meet March 13 to 20, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel for PyCon 2008. This annual community conference showcases the numerous advantages and exceptional usability of Python, which is rapidly becoming the industry standard dynamic programming language.

“We use Python throughout our infrastructure,” says Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager at Google. “Making extensive use of it and other open source languages and libraries allows us to rapidly build and deploy highly scalable systems.”

PyCon 2008 crams hundreds of talks, tutorials and presentations into the week-long conference. Featured this year are three days of conference sessions, a day of tutorials, in which attendees learn firsthand from Python experts, and four days of development sprints, where participants brainstorm and collaborate on projects in person. Presenters from organizations such as Google, Lockheed Martin, Red Hat, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Oxford University will give talks on a wide variety of topics ranging from programming Python for the One Laptop Per Child project to Python use in games such as Counterstrike. Other notable sessions discuss Microsoft's open source implementation of Python for the .NET Framework, Python 3000, scripting for the Microsoft Office system, and Jython, an implementation of Python on the Java platform intended to bring dynamic language features to existing Java code base.

“Python is consistently the ‘glue’ that brings White Oak custom software solutions together," says Alan Broder, President of White Oak Technologies. “Our business has grown by leveraging the power of dynamic languages and open source solutions. Python is a standard part of our toolbox for a variety of purposes, including data analysis, text processing, cluster process control, web applications, rapid prototyping and system administration.”

Python has recently been in the spotlight as the engine behind some of the most recognizable sites on the Internet.

“Python has been critical in allowing us to develop and scale the YouTube site efficiently,” says Cuong Do, engineering manager for YouTube. “There have been many cases where urgent issues were resolved through a few lines of carefully written Python code.”

Python's use by news organizations like the New York Times, by movie makers such as Disney and Industrial Light & Magic, and by game manufacturers like Valve puts Python in front of millions of people on a daily basis. In the scientific world, the use of Python by NASA, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, and AstraZeneca illustrates the practical relevance of Python to the world’s leading scientific centers. Activities at PyCon will show why Python was selected as the "Programming Language of 2007" by the TIOBE Index, a measurement of language popularity across industries.

“Microsoft is excited to support the industry standard Python language on the .NET Framework and in Silverlight,” says Dave Mendlen, director of Developer Marketing in the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. “Dynamic languages are of growing importance to developers, and we are glad to provide comprehensive support for these languages, and particularly Python, on the Microsoft platform.”

“I decided to write Zenoss in Python not just because of the elegance of the language but because it makes me happy,” says Erik Dahl, Co-founder and CTO of Zenoss. “In Switzerland they say that the chocolate is good because it is made with milk from happy cows who spend their days feeding on grassy alpine slopes. Zenoss is good because it’s made by happy programers who snack all day on tasty bits of Python code.”

Due to its versatility and ease of use, many organizations are turning to Python in order to write quality software in an efficient and timely manner.

“The role of the Python language for Enthought clients is evolving from a ‘useful tool’ into a critical framework at the center of their technology strategy,” says Travis Vaught, CEO of Enthought, Inc. “Scientists increasingly see Python as the best way to do numerical computing with an extensible framework.”

Some of the leading technical organizations are proud to sponsor PyCon 2008. Google and White Oak Technologies are sponsoring at the Diamond level and Enthought, Microsoft, and Zenoss at the Platinum level. Gold sponsors include Accense Technologies, ITA Software, Leapfrog Online, Predictix, Resolver Systems, and Wingware. Activestate, Canonical, Fivedash, Imaginary Landscape, Nokia, Nuance Communications, O’Reilly, PSC Consulting, Symbian, Tummy.com, and ZeOmega are Silver sponsors. Chicago-area sponsors consist of Leapfrog Online and PSC Consulting.

Early bird registration is available through February 20, 2008. Admission prices are $400 for corporate, $220 for standard, $125 for students, and $60 for a tutorial-only pass. Regular registration up to March 7, 2008 costs $500 for corporate, $300 for standard, $180 for students, and $80 for a tutorial-only pass. At the door, the cost rises to $600 for a corporate pass, $400 for standard, $250 for students, and $100 for tutorial-only passes.

For more information or to register for this event, please visit http://us.pycon.org.

About White Oak Technologies

White Oak Technologies, Inc. (WOTI) provides the next generation of solutions to massive, information-intensive, strategic intelligence challenges. WOTI's industry leading WAREMAN® software has entity-resolved one of the worlds largest databases. WOTI is also a premier provider of advanced custom software solutions, and uses Python as a primary programming language for solving many development problems. As a past sponsor of PyCon , WOTI is honored to further support the Python community through PyCon 2008. For more information, visit www.woti.com.

About Enthought

Enthought is a privately held scientific computing company based in Austin, TX. Founded in 2001, we have built a business around providing custom applications using the Python programming language. Enthought fosters the development of the SciPy scientific library and as a matter of practice release well over half of all code we write as open source (code.enthought.com). We work on extremely interesting problems in the fields of Geophysics, Finance, Electromagnetics and Fluid Dynamics--all in a fun environment full of extremely bright people. This Spring we are offering an Enterprise-class distribution of the Python language (Enthought Python Distribution) which includes many scientific and application-building packages in one bundle.

About Zenoss

Zenoss Inc. delivers open source IT management solutions to organizations across the globe. Flagship product Zenoss Core is a complete network monitoring and systems management platform that discovers networked IT resources, monitors them for performance and availability, and tracks changes through a configuration management database (CMDB). Through our integrated, model-driven product and by taking a new approach to management software that combines the benefits of open source with the best aspects of commercial development, we offer an alternative to large proprietary software vendors. For more information visit www.zenoss.com.

About PyCon

Presented by the Python Software Foundation, the world’s largest Python conference brings together a diverse group of developers, enthusiasts, and organizations to explore new challenges, launch new businesses and forge new connections within the Python community. PyCon provides attendees with the opportunity to delve into the dynamic programming language employed by well-known companies such as Google, iRobot, and YouTube. PyCon helps people learn new tools and techniques, showcase projects, and meet other Python fans.

Google and YouTube are trademarks of Google Inc. All products, logos, or brand names are service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks, and are the property of their respective owners.

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Chicago Geeks-Out With Dynamic Languages

CHICAGO — February 21, 2008 — Well over a thousand Open Source programmers will be invading Chicago in 2008 as two of the world's largest dynamic language programming communities have chosen the Windy City as the location of their annual conferences. PyCon and YAPC::NA, the premier North American events for the Python and Perl programming language communities, have each announced three-day conferences, both surrounded by scores of training and development events. PyCon takes place March 14-16 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare and includes many featured events and speakers including Guido van Rossum, the creator of the Python language. YAPC::NA (Yet Another Perl Conference North America) is to be held June 16-18 on the main campus of IIT and will also host many luminaries in the Open Source world including Larry Wall, the creator of Perl.

Dynamic languages have long been valued for the productivity gains they can provide programmers for quick-and-dirty solutions and rapid prototyping. In recent years, however, many businesses have demonstrated their suitability for large-scale and enterprise-class software as well. Dynamic languages are now seen as a key advantage in IT strategy.

Python is a wildly popular programming language that prides itself on a very clear, readable syntax with intuitive object orientation. Local companies Leapfrog Online and PSC Group LLC have joined industry giants like Google and Canonical to sponsor PyCon 2008.

"We're participating in PyCon because it's the event where the people leading the Python community are sharing the projects, plans and ideas that will make our development efforts even more effective. It's where the truly talented Python developers will be", said Joel Grossman, VP Technology at Leapfrog Online.

Perl is a time-tested powerhouse of programming languages, often referred to as a Swiss-Army Chainsaw. It is approachable to even non-programmers, yet is powerful enough to deliver some of the most demanding applications of today. Businesses such as TicketMaster and Amazon.com are heavy users of Perl for their systems.

Of course, the choice of Chicago did not happen on a whim for either conference. In both communities, there is an extensive bidding and review process that takes place in order to select a host city for an event. Chicago was also the host city for YAPC::NA in 2006.

"When we held YAPC::NA in Chicago in 2006 we had a record-breaking turnout and helped revive the Perl community in the area. Now that our community has gotten stronger, it seemed wrong not to try to bring the conference back to town." said Joshua McAdams, conference chair for YAPC::NA.

Though this is PyCon's first time in Chicago, the organizers are excited about the potential of the Mid-coast.

"Chicago has a thriving and energetic Python programming community. The Chicago Python users' group (a.k.a. ChiPy) stormed PyCon 2007 in force and made a great case for bringing PyCon 2008 to Chicago. With the ChiPy team helping, I have every confidence that PyCon 2008 will be a great success" says David Goodget, PyCon chair.

Both conferences are technically advanced, while also being community centered. The both offer very low cost options for attendance and yet a professional-grade experience. For more details about PyCon, to sign up for the conference, or to learn how to become a volunteer please visit http://us.pycon.org/. For more details about YAPC::NA, to register for the conference, or to see how you can contribute please visit http://yapc.org/America/.

This release was a joint effort of the PyCon and YAPC::NA planning committees. For any further details or for quotes or interviews, please contact:

World's Largest Python Community Conference Kicks Off March 13 in Chicago

Registration for premier Python developer event jumps a third over 2007 — most tutorials already sold out; number of sessions boosted to more than 100

CHICAGO — March 11, 2008 — PyCon 2008 kicks off Thursday, March 13 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel featuring talks and tutorials from Caltech, Google, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, One Laptop per Child, Red Hat, and the University of California, Berkeley. Organized by the Python Software Foundation, and staffed entirely by volunteers, this annual community conference boasts more than double the number of tutorials compared to 2007.

From Lockheed Martin’s talk on Jython in the Joint Strike Fighter to Microsoft’s presentation of IronPython and Silverlight and Red Hat’s session on GUI testing, PyCon 2008 is packed with presentations on various uses and implementations of Python. The rapid expansion of PyCon 2008 is due to the growth of Python as the dynamic language of choice for both small and large-scale projects in many different industries. In a keynote talk, creator and “father” of Python Guido van Rossum is presenting a preview of Python 3000, slated to be released mid-year and is currently in its third alpha release version. Van Rossum currently works at Google, devoting half of his time solely to Python development.

“Individuals and organizations are increasingly adopting and using Python for every day purposes,” says van Rossum. “It’s great to see PyCon, a true grassroots movement, expand into such a large and vibrant community.”

Python activities span a full week, with the conference itself preceded by a tutorial day, in which attendees can choose from a variety of topics taught by experts, and followed by four days of free “sprints,” high-intensity workshops where developers work on projects with peers. Tutorial day has been expanded this year to three time-slots — morning, afternoon, and evening — due to the overwhelming demand from last year’s participants. Attendees have about 10 possibilities each time period, with options ranging from introductory Python courses to “Internet programming with Python” and even a class on modern game development with “Pygame.”

“Because of the huge success of past tutorial days where most classes were full and attendees begged for more room and more topics, coupled with the tremendous flood of proposals this year, we decided to add a completely new tutorial track,” says PyCon 2008 chair David Goodger. “Now ‘Pythonistas’ will not only have a plethora of options at their fingertips but will also be able to attend extra sessions.”

Four days of the conference are allotted for hands-on coding workshops with the world’s best Python developers in what PyCon calls “sprints.” A long-standing tradition in the Python developer community, sprints gather project participants into one place for short bursts of intense, face-to-face cooperation. The sprinters are supported by sponsors, who provide resources for them to come together and code.

“Python represents a substantial (and growing) piece of the open-source ecosystem, and Sun is committed to building tools and infrastructure for open-source developers. To do a good job of this, we need to be a part of the Python community; we think hiring Ted Leung and Frank Wierzbicki is a good start. In addition, it makes me happy that we are sponsoring the Jython and PyPy sprints at PyCon 2008,” says Tim Bray, director of web technologies at Sun Microsystems. “In the world of Open Source, code talks.”

Development sprints have long been a regular feature in the Python community, but until recently they have been less familiar to developers in other languages. For many, the opportunity to work side-by-side with friends from across the world is one of the highlights of PyCon.

“At sprints, we collaborate in an informal and productive atmosphere,” says Steve Alexander, collaborative tools manager at Canonical. “Sprints are one of the most important parts of the conference, one of the main reasons we’re here.”

If interested in attending, admission passes will be available at the door. For more information about this event, please visit http://us.pycon.org.

About PyCon

Presented by the Python Software Foundation, the world’s largest Python conference brings together a diverse group of developers, enthusiasts, and organizations to explore new challenges, launch new businesses and forge new connections within the Python community. PyCon provides attendees with the opportunity to delve into the dynamic programming language employed by well-known companies such as Google, Cisco, and the New York Times. PyCon helps people learn new tools and techniques, showcase projects, and meet other Python fans.

Google is a trademark of Google Inc.

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World’s Largest Python Conference Sees 70 Percent Jump in Attendance

Python Community Conference in Chicago shows massive growth in Python community

CHICAGO — March 27, 2008 — PyCon 2008, the annual community conference for Python developers, business leaders, and fans showcased the tremendous increase in growth among the community last week in Chicago. Attendance jumped 70 percent from 2007.

Over 1,000 people gathered at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel for PyCon 2008. The influx of proposals was so great this year that organizers could only accept half the proposals received, simply due to lack of space. Demand for tutorials, in particular, rose so high that organizers added an extra timeslot full of new sessions. Twenty-five of the 28 tutorials were sold out and there were 22 open source development sprint projects available for attendees to participate in, up from 13 in 2007. More than 270 people took part in the development sprints, which is more than attended the entire first PyCon in 2003.

“As jam-packed as the week’s events were, a number of attendees and speakers remarked to me that they felt the conference this year was the best yet,” said PyCon 2008 chair David Goodger. “It’s great to see months of work come together and have people really enjoy it.”

PyCon 2008 is organized and run entirely by volunteers. A true grassroots movement, it is a community conference put on by the community for the community. Many attendees enjoy the numerous sessions, but more importantly, they believe the real value of the conference is the community all being there together.

“The best part about PyCon is the people you get to meet,” said Chris McAvoy, founder and president of the Chicago Python Users Group, which hosted PyCon 2008. “That, coupled with more than 1,000 attendees, compared to the 600 last year, says to me that Python is really building a market here in Chicago and elsewhere. It’s an exciting time to be a Python developer.”

PyCon 2009 will also be held in Chicago. For more information about PyCon, please visit http://us.pycon.org.

About PyCon

Presented by the Python Software Foundation, the world’s largest Python conference brings together a diverse group of developers, enthusiasts, and organizations to explore new challenges, launch new businesses and forge new connections within the Python community. PyCon provides attendees with the opportunity to delve into the dynamic programming language employed by well-known companies such as Google, Cisco, and the New York Times. PyCon helps people learn new tools and techniques, showcase projects, and meet other Python fans.

Google is a trademark of Google Inc.