Pycon talk thoughts

This was originally posted on blogger here.

Back at the start of this month I posted my thoughts about sessions I was considering giving at Pycon 2010. They ones I've killed are:

• How to suffer through [SOAP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomiting) web services using Python even though [REST](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REST) is so much better (I might be too bitter for this one).

  The general response to this one has been that SOAP is icky. I think SOAP is icky. Why should I present on a topic I loathe and I'm mildly bitter about? So I'm not going to do this presentation.

  • Why I like stupid template languages (expanding on a tangent of this [article](https://pydanny.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-i-would-change-in-plone-templates.html)).

    I think this might make for a good NOVA-DUG talk or a blog rant but I don't think it would work for a pycon talk. So we'll consider it nixed.

    • Lets move widgets into HTML templates and out of python code! Modern JavaScript libraries makes this easy!

      I think this design pattern makes for a good NOVA-DUG talk or a blog post. Not enough for a pycon talk.

      The one I submitted to Pycon:
      • A reprise of the Pinax tutorial at [DjangoCon](https://djangocon.org/)

        I've already submitted this to Pycon. It went well enough at [DjangoCon](https://djangocon/) and we've already made changes to things so its just plain better.

        The one I'm considering:
        • Why and how to make accessible508 compliant AJAXified python applications.

          Actually, this one is interesting. The focus would be on things and focus on 508/accessibility issues and degradable AJAX. I would explain why 508/accessibility is important. I would demonstrate how to construct an examples using several python frameworks (Django, TurboGears, and repoze.BFG come to mind) and maybe more than one JavaScript framework (JQuery, YUI, et al).

          I could certainly give that talk in 30 or 45 minutes. My concern though is just plain getting ready for the talk. It would be a lot of work in research of unfamiliar frameworks and just plain coming up with working material. Add to that selling of the house, work on a professional side project, running NOVA-DUG, working a full time job, my normal teaching schedule, leading the Django Education Foundation forward, maybe starting up Capoeira, and maybe doing some things for the Django Software Foundation, and I'm not seeing it in my schedule.

          One more thing: at Pycon I want to learn! I'm not sure I want to be involved in giving too many talks since those will eat precious listening time.

          I think what I will do for now cook this up as a Django + JQuery + 508 presentation for NOVA-DUG and see where it takes me.

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          2 comments captured from original post on Blogger

          Jeff said on 2009-09-21

          I'm all for the Python 508 compliance talk. Not that I'll ever get to use in the government, but maybe I could use it "for" the government.

          Doug Hellmann said on 2009-09-21

          I like the 508 and Pinax talk ideas. The "moving widgets to templates" idea sounds like a good article for PyMag, so shoot me an outline if you want.