Call for Projects

Python-related projects: join the PyCon Development Sprints!

The development sprints are a key part of PyCon, a chance for the contributors to open-source projects to get together face-to-face for up to four days of intensive learning and development. Newbies sit at the same table as the gurus, go out for lunch and dinner together, and have a great time while advancing their project. Sprints are one of the best parts of PyCon; in 2010 over 250 sprinters came for at least one day!

If your project would like to sprint at PyCon, now is the time to let us know. We'll collect your info and publish it so that participants will have time to make plans. We'll need to get the word out early so that folks who want to sprint have time to make travel arrangements.

In the past, some have been reluctant to commit to sprinting: some may not know what sprinting is all about; others may think that they're not "qualified" to sprint. We're on an ongoing mission to change that perception:

We'll help promote your sprint. The PyCon website, the PyCon blog, the PyCon podcast, and press releases will be there for you.

We will be featuring a "How To Sprint" session on Sunday afternoon, followed by sprint-related tutorials, all for free. This is a great opportunity to introduce your project to prospective contributors.

We will have sprint spaces ready and waiting for you on Monday, and will do our best to provide any special equipment you may need. Want to run a guitar sprint? We'll make it happen.

Those who want to lead a sprint should add the following information to the projects page:

Project/sprint name

Project URL

The name and contact info (email and/or telephone) for the sprint leader(s) and other contributors who will attend the sprint

Instructions for accessing the project's code repository and documentation (or a URL)

Pointers to new contributor information (setup, etc.)

Any special requirements (projector? whiteboard? flux capacitor?)

Projects should provide a list of goals (bugs to fix, features to add, docs to write, etc.), especially some goals for beginners, to attract new sprinters. The more detail you put there, the more prepared your sprinters will be, and the better the results you'll get.

In 2010 there were sprints for Python, TurboGears, Repoze, Django, Twisted, Trac, and many others. We would like to see all these and more!

Sprints will start with an introductory session on Sunday, March 13; this session will begin immedately after PyCon's scheduled portion ends. The sprints themselves will run from Monday, March 14 through Thursday, March 17.

You can find all these details and more at http://us.pycon.org/2011/sprints/. If you have any questions about sprinting or PyCon in general please don't hesitate to email us at pycon-organizers@python.org.

Thank you very much, and happy hacking!