Python Ireland Blog entries

Mick and I met up with HK Python User Group (HKPUG) at Oursky’s office located at the awesome Hong Kong Science and Technology Park on Thursday, January 5th, 2012.

I gave a talk about Python Ireland and how we got to where we are today, followed by lots of food courtesy of Ourky’s followed by Mick’s talk about how he set up the backend of python.ie and why he did it that way and also how he handled printing PyCon Ireland’s conference booklet.

Everyone was friendly and everyone spoke in English, which was a relief to me as I was wondering how will I understand tech talk in Cantonese.

And here’s some proof that we were there (I should really get more photos of our Python Ireland meetups, people are so camera shy):

• http://blog.oursky.com/post/15342228314/hong-kong-python-user-group-having-a-sharing-with
• https://twitter.com/#!/PythonIreland/statuses/154944320787591170
• https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100597718409320&set=o.296752710359762&type=1&theater

Here's the presentation I gave that evening: Python Ireland - Who, what, how

• Introduction to Python and Advanced Unit Testing
• Introduction to Pyramid
• Vim & Python
• Making Reusable Django Apps

Of course, one of our most successful events this year was PyCon Ireland in October, it was completely sold out. With the support of our sponsors and the community, we were able to host a bigger conference in a fantastic venue, The Radisson Blu Royal Hotel. Not forgetting PSF for sponsoring us the grant of US$1500 enabling us to invite Raymond Hettinger over as one of our keynote speakers. Again, a big thank you to everyone who were involved and came along to the conference. We will have another PyCon Ireland, it will be in the same venue on the weekend of 13th & 14th October 2012, so mark your calendar and watch out for our announcements via the mailing list, tweets, etc. We are open to sponsors interested in sponsoring PyCon Ireland.

Alongside our regular meetups, to integrate with other user groups, there were other events like Code Retreat, the entertaining Battle of the Backends (thanks, Alan, for representing us) at GTUG and the most fun-filled table quiz that was Quite interesting jolly guessing game for code monkeys like you . The government's Open Data Initiative and Hack the City for Dublin City of Science 2012 are still ongoing, and I will still pass on any information to the group for anyone who wishes to participate.

With 2011 coming to an end, the Python Committee 2011 was dissolved recently and a new committee has been formed recently. I present to you the 2012 Python Ireland Committee:-

• Chair - Vicky Lee
• Secretary - Secretary
• Treasurer - Diarmuid Bourke
• Officiers - Brian Brazil, Sean O'Donnell, Nic Roland

With 2012 just around the corner, if you haven't made a resolution yet, maybe you might like to give a talk some eventing, or you might like to help out with the organisation of Python Ireland events, let me know, I'll be glad of a helping hand (or two).

On behalf of Python Ireland, I would like to wish one and all an eventful, adventurous, funfilled 2012.

I attended a breakfast meet organised by Microsoft with Gianugo Rabellino (Senior Director, Open Source Communities at Microsoft) which was followed by an interview by Karlin Lillington (The Irish Times) about Microsofts Openness campaign. I was invited to the press interview to discuss how Python Ireland and Microsoft got involved with each other and how we interacted with each other since. Here's the article - Ushering in era of openness.