28th June - 4th July, Birmingham UK

Some time ago I heard about the EuroPython 2009 Conference and it seemed really interesting. Even more so because it’s being held in Birmingham, UK; somewhere I can get to reasonably easily. I contacted the organisers and we discussed my coming along to cover the event for the podcast. They were great and even made us official media partners, how cool is that? In my infinite wisdom (sic) though I decided to leave it a few weeks before beginning to really promote the event, and me being me, in that intervening time, I forgot. #facepalm

Fortunately, the event isn’t on until the end of next month so I hope some of you will still have plenty of time to book. Particularly if you live in the UK. There will be tutorials and classes in Python available, along with some great keynote speakers like Cory Doctorow and Professor Sir Tony Hoare, to name just two. There will also be many other great things to do and I think it could be really valuable to anyone who develops in Python, even those just looking to get started. I’m a big fan of Python and I make no secret of that. I also love Django (the Python web framework) for rapid and effective web development. The EuroPython event website is actually written in Django, so they immediately won points from me there. Without any further ado (waffling on my part) I should get to the vital event details:

EuroPython 2009 – 28th June to 4th July, Birmingham, UK

There’s even a promotional video (download link) on the website, along with much more information

It should be a lot of fun and I hope some of you will make it along. You can come and say hello to me as well of course, though that may be less of a promotional incentive. I’ll stay out of your way if you’d prefer So get booking now if you’re interested, the Early Bird sign up rate finishes very soon!! Hence my timing FAIL. Get it while you can and I hope to see you in sunny Birmingham in the summer.

Dan

(WARNING: Actual sun of the warm yellow variety may not be included, see pack for details)

openstreetmap.org

This is very, VERY last minute but we were contacted by some of the guys from OpenStreetMap about an event this weekend and I wanted to pass it on. We would have mentioned it on the show this week but unfortunately it was already too late by the time we heard. There’s a mapping party happening this weekend, 4-5th of April, in the Black Country, which isn’t at all as forboding as it sounds; in fact it’s a rather lovely place with some fine people, honest. It’s an area in the midlands of the United Kingdom – otherwise known as LugRadio country – and they hope to get as many people involved as possible improving OpenStreetMap data for it. The event is being held in The Public, West Bromwich and it’s sponsored by Cloudmade. So if you’ve got a bit of free time over the weekend, you’ve cut the grass, walked the dog and you’re kicking your heels. Why not have some fun and help map the area? You can find all the information you could need on their wiki. You don’t need any special skills, previous experience or equipment to get involved. The guys will sort you out, just turn up and say hello.

Apologies to our readers in other countries for whom this is probably a bit far to travel but you may be able to help OpenStreetMap map your area, wherever in the world that happens to be.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend everyone,

Dan