I think that's a great idea!  I was at the Sunlight Foundation's Open  
Government sprint at PyCon Chicago.  A lot of people were on the 50  
states project (which is mostly just screen scraping legislative data,  
but it's a great opportunity to learn lxml), but I worked with a few  
colleagues of mine on pvoter.org, a tool for an involved constituency  
and crowdsourcing government representative data (It ties in nicely  
with mobile commons, votesmart, and the new CIVX project (civx.us))

Doug

On Apr 14, 2009, at 3:05 PM, Julie wrote:

> I'd like to do a lightning talk on the Sunlight Foundation and data
> transparency (using Python and other langs) -- including specific ways
> we can all get involved to help make government data more open.
>
> Julie
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 8:12 PM, David Christian
> <[address removed]> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, April 21st, at 7PM
>> LOCATION: Return Path, 304 Park ave South (map: https://tinyurl.co...­)
>> Note: Enter on 23rd St, and it's on the 7th floor.
>> TOPIC: Lightning talks!
>>
>> So folks at the last meeting were interested in doing shorter talks  
>> on
>> a broader variety of subjects.  For the next meeting, we're planning
>> on doing lightning talks.  These can be fun, but are best when
>> everyone gets involved.
>>
>> Q: What is a lightning talk?
>> A: In short, a lightning talk is a 5 minute talk about anything.  It
>> should likely be something that your fellow python developers would
>> find interesting, but that's about the whole of the guidelines.  But
>> you have to give your talk and be done in _5 minutes_, or you will be
>> cut off.  The beauty of this is we can get introduced quickly to a
>> number of new topics, and folks can present on something without
>> having to be willing to give a 45 minute long presentation.
>>
>> If things are going well, a beautiful thing can happen - while the
>> initial lightning talks are going, more people will realize they have
>> something to say and they'll start prepping a lightning talk in the
>> back of the room.  This can create a kind of conversation that can be
>> fun to follow and be a part of.
>>
>> Q: Should I give a lightning talk?
>> YES!   The only way an evening of lightning talks work is if people
>> sign up.  THIS MEANS YOU.  Especially if you're an experienced
>> developer.  I'm sure you have something to say - it's time to share  
>> it
>> with us; we want to know.
>>
>> Q.  What do I do if I want to give a lightning talk?
>> A: Just respond to this email with a sentence describing your topic,
>> and you'll be on the list.
>>
>> Q: What's a good topic for a lightning talk?
>> Anything that you're wanting to get off your chest.  But if you're
>> struggling for topics, here are some that work well:
>>  1.  Why my favorite module / add-on package is X.
>>  2. I want to do cool project X. Does anyone want to help?
>>  3. Successful Project: I did project X. It was a success. Here's
>> how you could benefit.
>>  4. Failed Project: I did project X. It was a failure, and here's  
>> why.
>>  5. Heresy: People always say X, but they're wrong. Here's why.
>>  6. You All Suck: Here's what is wrong with our community.
>>  7. Call to Action: Let's all do more of X / less of X.
>>  8. A Funny Thing happened to me on the Way to the Mailing List /
>> Newsgroup / Web Forum.
>>  9. Wouldn't it be cool if X?
>>  10. Someone needs to do X.
>>  11. Wish List
>>  12. Why X was a mistake.
>>  13. Why X looks like a mistake, but isn't.
>>  14. What it's like to do X.
>>  15. Here's a useful technique that worked.
>>  16. Here's a technique I thought would be useful but didn't work.
>>  17. Why add-on package X sucks.
>>  18. Comparison of similar add-on packages X and Y.
>>  19. Why we should be paying more attention to X.
>>  20. My Favorite Feature
>>
>>
>> Ok, so by now you're thinking that one of those topics is something
>> you can talk about.  So just hit reply-all and let us know what it is
>> you've got to share with us.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Dave
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Please Note: If you hit "REPLY", your message will be sent to  
>> everyone on this mailing list ([address removed])
>> https://python.mee...­
>> This message was sent by David Christian  
>> ([address removed]) from The New York Python Meetup Group.
>> To learn more about David Christian, visit his/her member profile: https://python.mee...­
>> To unsubscribe or to update your mailing list settings, click here: https://www.meetup...­
>> Meetup Support: [address removed]
>> 632 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 USA
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Please Note: If you hit "REPLY", your message will be sent to  
> everyone on this mailing list ([address removed])
> https://python.mee...­
> This message was sent by Julie ([address removed]) from The New  
> York Python Meetup Group.
> To learn more about Julie, visit his/her member profile: https://python.mee...­
> To unsubscribe or to update your mailing list settings, click here: https://www.meetup...­
> Meetup Support: [address removed]
> 632 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 USA
>