[Events] Boston Python Workshop 2 feeler e-mail

[Ned Batchelder]

Jessica, thanks for continuing to inject energy into this process, it's 
amazing!

I've sent out an email asking for other possibilities for space to a 
couple dozen possible sources, mostly local companies that have in the 
past posted jobs to the Python meetup list, plus a few other 
connectors.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that something will pan out to 
give us more flexibility.

About madlibs: another trajectory through the exercise is on my site: 
http://nedbatchelder.com/text/madlibs.html.  Reading it now, it seems to 
move kind of quickly, but there are some ideas there that might be useful.

About APIs: this page (http://www.programmableweb.com/apis) seems to be 
an overwhelming portal to APIs of all sorts, maybe a quick spin through 
it will produce something useful?

--Ned.


On 3/27/2011 9:38 PM, Jessica McKellar wrote:
> Hi folks!
>
> I'd like to start thinking about the next iteration of the Boston
> Python workshop, since we'll need about a month's notice to snag space
> in MSNerd again, if that's something we want. If you are interested in
> staffing this workshop, I have a few questions for you:
>
> 1. What is your availability on the Friday evenings, Saturdays, and
> Sundays in late April and early May? I know that's too far away for
> most people to know their plans, but please mark days you already know
> you aren't available on this Doodle poll:
>
> http://doodle.com/zur5whq2y7chgrdk
>
> 2. Do you want to use MSNerd again? We discussed some alternative
> sites at one of our early meetings for the first workshop, but I don't
> seem to have an e-mail with this information. Does anyone have our
> list of alternative sites?
>
> 3. As we discussed at the wrap-up, I would like to try making the
> project portion of the workshop 3 or 4 ~1-hour "modules" on different
> applications of Python, instead of the larger projects we used during
> the first run. To that end, I've written 3 demo modules, which are up
> at https://github.com/jesstess/BostonPythonWorkshop. These modules
> are:
>
> 1. Using the Twitter API to programmatically access Twitter data.
> 2. Plotting data with matplotlib.
> 3. Madlibs (well, this is really half a module -- it'd be paired with
> something else, probably another text-based game, to round out an
> hour)
>
> Each module comes with a sample workflow for instructors and suggested
> exercises. In my mind, the instructor-directed part takes 30-45
> minutes, leaving 15-30 minutes for suggested exercises.
>
> These modules and their documentation haven't been fine-tuned yet, but
> thinking big-picture: do you want to use these kinds of modules for
> the project portion of the workshop? If not, what would you like to
> do?
>
> 4. If you do like the idea of modules, please fork and add more, or if
> you have ideas for module topics but don't want to code them, send the
> ideas to the list! It would be awesome have enough candidate modules
> that we really get to pick which ones work best for our curriculum and
> audience, and then have some left over for a bonus project day or
> something.
>
> I'm particularly interested in finding more social websites with
> public APIs (preferably no developer signup required) that have Python
> bindings that return text (to avoid the overhead of discussing
> data-interchange formats like JSON). I'm also going to shore up the
> ColorWall and add suggested exercises so that it's on the table too.
>
> ==
>
> I am really excited to apply what we learned in the first workshop to
> the next one!
>
> -Jessica
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