If you haven't heard, Kiwi PyCon 2010 is to be held in the beautiful Bay of Islands, just outside the Waitangi Treaty grounds at the Copthorne Hotel on the weekend of November 20-21.
So far we've had 6 financial sponsors commit to the event and 6 schwag sponsors, which puts us in line for an excellent event with a substantial grab bag of goodies the likes of which any IT professional would drool over.

On the talk content side of things, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, co-founder of the Django project, will give Saturday's keynote, Amazon Web Services will be presenting and Weta Digital have also got a couple of their team coming along, just to name a few. If you'd like to have your name alongside this impressive lineup, the due date for talk submissions is this coming Monday, August 2nd so head on over to http://nz.pycon.org/submit-talk today and get submitting and help contribute to the success of Kiwi PyCon 2010!
Alternatively if you'd like to come along and soak up the python goodness - further pricing information can be found here and the registration form is available here. Early bird registrations close September 1 so don't delay!

I was interviewed by Claire McEntee for an article for The Dominion Post last week and just realised it made it into last Monday's InfoTech Weekly section. Reproduced here for your viewing pleasure. Please ensure you come along on April 28th at the Treasury's offices! More info here: http://plone.org/events/wpd/2010/wellington-new-zealand.

THE Treasury will host a demonstration of open source content management system Plone for government departments this month.

Tim Knapp, from the Python User Group – which is running the April 28 event – says Plone, which lets users manage their websites, has already been adopted by the Treasury, the Office of the Auditor- General, the Electricity Commission and the Women’s Affairs Ministry.

Plone differs from other content management systems in that it lets organisations manage security granularly, he says, specifying the powers various users have to make changes and run different versions of websites at the same time, so users can easily edit websites and publish updates.

Sigurd Magnusson, chief marketing officer at open source firm SilverStripe – which has developed its own content management system, says he supports government agencies working together and sharing their experiences.

However, he said it would be inappropriate if the demonstration turned into a sales pitch for Plone.

‘‘If it has some type of involvement with government then best practice would be to have a neutral position and say, ‘These are the things that have gone well and these are the things that haven't gone well’.’’

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

April 6, 2010

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Currently a number of different content management systems are being used across government with most departments working independent of each other.

Therefore all government departments are invited to a seminar to showcase how the enterprise content management system, Plone, is being used in a number of government departments locally as well as in Australia.

"A coordinated approach to ICT web services seems to be missing in New Zealand" says event director, Tim Knapp. "Many of the government departments I've spoken to are in dire need of an organisation that can provide independent advice on open source web technologies, particularly as there's so many to choose from. Australia are far ahead of us on this front, where they've setup the Open Source Business Cluster to fill this need".

Mr Knapp goes on to say "Plone is particularly suited to government as it is an enterprise-level content management system, exceeds the E-government standards for government websites, and therefore was officially sanctioned by the State Services Commission back in 2005".

The New Zealand Python User Group, is organising this free event - World Plone Day, on April 28th from 12:00pm at The Treasury department's offices in Wellington. All those interested in attending are encouraged to register on the event's website.

-------------------------------Ends-------------------------------

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: info@emergetec.com

Website: http://plone.org/events/wpd/2010/wellington-new-zealand

Expect the same great lineup of talks regarding how Python is being used in the fields of science, maths, games, animation, web development and much much more.

Again we'll have a couple of world class keynote speakers and an 'unconference' aspect to the event where you, the delegate, can get involved.

Add to all this the fact that it'll be in the beautiful Bay of Islands at an excellent venue and we're set for an even better event than last year.

Keep an eye on the conference website for updates as planning for the event unfolds.

• Darryl Cousins: "Demo: Building a web application using repoze.bfg"