After weeks of work, we have finalized a schedule for PyCon 2011. In designing this schedule, we found that there are actually 10 different conferences happening in parallel at PyCon. We are going to tell you about them all.

In our earlier blog post, I mentioned that part of the fun of each conference is discovering the themes inherent in what the Python community is doing. We then try to schedule the talks in "virtual tracks" so that people with different interests can attend and see the conference that is personalized to their particular interests, without having all the talks on the same topic scheduled against each other.

This year, we organized the talks in ten different virtual tracks. For the most part, the talks in each track should be sequential, so that each person can see most or all of the talks in one virtual track.

For this year, the virtual tracks are:

Django

Web working

Python and NoSQL

Networking and Concurrency

Community

Python Implementations

Deep Voodoo

Testing, Debugging, and Documentation

Algorithms, Big Data, and Cloud Computing

Working with Python

Virtual Track #1: Django

Django is the best-known and most widely used web framework for Python. Coming out of the Lawrence-Journal World's internal development efforts, it has evolved from a news-focused system to a full-fledged web development environment in use all over the web. It is not by mistake that one of our Startup Stories focuses on the use of Django at DISQUS.

In this track we have six different talks:

Distributed Tasks with Celery by Ryan Petrello. Celery is an open source task queueing system based on distributed message passing, especially using the AMQP protocol. Celery is usable for all sorts of things, but it has become prominent as the go-to backend queuing system for use with Django. This talk will focus on the need for task distribution, the tools celery provides to meet those needs, and an in-depth discussion of how they have used celery at ShootQ to improve the efficiency and reliability of their background processes. [ShootQ doesn't use Django - showing how this is applicable across the web working space. Nevertheless, it is best known for its easy-to-use Django integration - ed.]

Django Packages: A Case Study by Daniel Greenfeld. Since launch Django Packages has become the place to find and compare apps, frameworks and projects produced by the Django Community. Through the use of public APIs, Django Packages constantly fetches hard data from PyPI, Github, and Bitbucket, aproviding a powerful mash-up of real-world data on the volume of usage of a particular package. At a glance you can see which package is the most downloaded, which is the most used, and which has seen ongoing development. This talk is for everyone, including non-Django users, and covers everything from architecture, API development, to interacting with PyPI, Github, Bitbucket, etc. It will include tools, lessons learned, and projects that fork the code to save the world and will finish with an overview of the forthcoming pypackages.com.

Pluggable Django Patterns by Corey Oordt. (Extreme) Pluggable or reusable applications are a key feature of Django, but there is little guidance on writing them well. This talk will dig into the different types of Django applications and coding patterns that make writing a reusable application easier. This talk also covers ways to avoid common implementation gotchas.

Best Practices for Impossible Deadlines by Christopher Groskopf. Django's tagline is "The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines." Christopher Groskopf takes that to the next level with this talk. At the Chicago Tribune he helps develop, test, and deploy production web applications on schedules that range from two hours to two months. This talk will discuss the tools and techniques that allow us to make our deadlines, including automated deployments, frameworks, just-in-time testing, and more. Attention will be paid to the projects in their Github repository and the problems they solve.

Django: Pitfalls I Encountered and How to Avoid Them by Luke Sneeringer. This talk helps those who are new to the Django framework by helping them gently up the learning curve. Are you starting a moderate to large sized Django project? Do you need to plan ahead and build an application that will react to unanticipated needs? This talk covers some techniques and pitfalls Luke encountered in writing his first reasonably large Django site, and what he did differently the second time he started a project.

Running Django Apps on Google App Engine by Wesley Chun. In the past, Django users couldn't run apps unmodified on Google App Engine. Some tools helped with integration but required you to change your data models. Django-nonrel removes this requirement letting you run native Django apps on App Engine with only config changes if you bear in mind its restrictions like no JOINs. This talk will discuss Django-nonrel and porting App Engine apps to Django.



Is this the conference you want to see? Then, register for PyCon and book your room now! We have picked up a few more rooms - including a few at a lower rate a block away. You can email (pycon4-reg@cteusa.com), or phone (847-759-4277). We have very few spots left.

Edit: Blogger Link and Hacker News discussion link.

Edit 2: Go to part 2 of this series on the PyCon site or on Blogger.