[Zope] Representation for Zope at PyCon 2007

[Jeff Rush]

PyCon 2007 will be held in Addison (Dallas) from Feb 23 to 25, and we're fast
approaching the talk submission deadline of Oct 31.  I'd like to encourage
talks about Zope, particularly "how to get started with Zope" and also the new
technologies coming out of Zope 3.  Information on both of those topics has
been in very short supply at PyCons.

We're also approaching the deadline, Nov 15, for half-day tutorials taught on
Feb 22.  Attendees register separately for these and teachers can earn up to
$1500 per half-day, depending upon the number of students.  The tutorial
format would be ideal for getting someone up to speed on either Zope 2 or Zope
3.  Teach a basic intro in the morning and advanced material in the afternoon.
 And if you're nervous about such a commitment, tutorials are a great
opportunity to partner with another teacher or class helper.

As a longtime advocate of Zope (both 2 and 3) I'd very much like to see
extensive coverage this year of getting started with Zope 3.  Zope has a PR
problem, partly from the immense power that comes with it, and the difficulty
in getting your arms around it all.  It evokes strong feelings and has a
distinct philosophy and design tradeoff that you have to understand before
you're productive.  And with the recent formation of the Zope Foundation,
putting forth your best image and getting new members into the community
should be a priority.  PyCon is a significant opportunity for the Zope
community to evangelize.

In the PyCon's I've attended one challenge is breaking Zope down into teaching
chunks that can be taught in 30-40 minutes.  It is very easy to leave the
audience behind in the buzzwords and concepts of Zope.  So please don't try to
teach all of Zope + Plone in 30 minutes. ;-) ;-)

One possible talk I think would fit, would help someone just getting into Zope
3 and I wish someone would tackle is the Zope 3 component architecture -
nothing about the web or databases or security.  Start with the abstract
concept of interfaces and adapters, as exists in the zope/interface package,
and then layer on it the idea of registries, as implemented in the
zope/component package.  And wrap up with the reasons why interfaces are
better than abstract base classes and what kind of problems adapters are good
at solving, including some _non-abstract_ examples.

If you'd like to get involved, check out the following conference pages:

  http://us.pycon.org/TX2007/CallForProposals

  http://us.pycon.org/TX2007/CallForTutorials

Django and TurboGears will be at PyCon in force; I hope Zope will be too.

Jeff Rush
PyCon 2007 Co-Chair