I included information along these lines when I submitted my tutorial proposal. Worth noting for next time.

The feedback comes from the feedback forms at the end of the conference.

I’ve put up a presentation that describes simple wiiMote headtracking and even includes some sample code. Hooking up to bluetooth with depend on your platform

Thanks

I wonder how such feedback gets transmitted back to decision makers. My talk last year was very popular and I was told my lots of people that it was the best PyCon talk they’d ever seen. Two people said it was the best talk they’d seen at any conference. I realize that I’m tooting my own horn here and that perhaps people were just being effusive to be kind. But this subject is so out of left field that of course people aren’t going to state on a survey that they’d want to see it, but if it is presented it will generate lots of interest. I really doubt that the organizers are aware of how popular this stuff is or how well the talk went over. So on one hand I can see how it is that they wouldn’t know, but on the other it is their job to know.

The difficulty of the Open Space versus a tutorial is that it is much harder to promote and those that might be interested (and willing to bring/buy a wiiMote) won’t hear about it until the conference begins. I guess I’ll have to try to do a lightening talk to promote it, which isn’t ideal (especially given the difficulty of getting a slot) but I don’t see a better option.

I guess the ones accepted (I wasn’t on that committee) were mainly based on feedback from PyCon attendees as to what subjects they would *like* to see tutorials on.

Personally I would *love* to see hardware hacking tutorials – but I wonder if tying the talk too closely to a single device (the wiimote which is probably seen as being a proprietary device) hurt your chances a bit?

Anyway, you should *definitely* go for an Open Space and if you bring a ‘bag of bits’ could even turn it into an evening event. We are trying to have more of a focus on Open Space this year as many people feel they can be more effective than talks (I’m not convinced yet but willing to be convinced!).