PyWorks 2008 Nov 12-14

MTA is putting the finishing touches on our plans to host the first annual combined PyWorks and php|works conference Nov 12-14. This year’s conference builds on the past success of php|works events by adding 2 new tracks of presentations for Python developers and a cross-over track with topics of interest to everyone.

The tutorials on Wednesday offer an excellent introduction to four of the popular frameworks available for Python web applications. Mark Ramm promises a fast paced introduction to TurboGears and its related components. Travis Cline will be presenting Django from the perspective of a PHP developer, comparing and contrasting the approaches used by both. Brandon Rhodes’ Grok tutorial is sure to create a few Zope converts, and Noah Gift will show how to build and deploy AJAX applications on Google’s AppEngine platform.

The keynote Thursday morning will be given by Kevin Dangoor, well known in the Python community for his leadership of the TurboGears project. Kevin will talk about the aspects of running successful open source projects aside from the code itself. Managing developers is challenging enough, but when your project is run by volunteers there are unique aspects to consider. He will offer suggestions for how to increase and manage the participation in a project based on his experiences with the TurboGears project.

Illustrating the broad spectrum of applications areas where it is used, the subjects of the Python talks on Thursday and Friday include topics such as language internals, artificial intelligence, user interface tools, scaling multi-threaded applications, and systems administration. Of course, there’s a healthy dose of web development as well.

I’m really looking forward to the the conference, and I hope to see you there!