[Linux-aus] PyCon Australia 2013 announces wide-ranging financial aid programme

[Chris Neugebauer]

Following in the footsteps of PyCon North America, PyCon Australia is
introducing a generous financial aid programme, so that some attendees
and speakers have some, or in rare cases, all of their expenses such
as flight, hotel and admission provided to them from the conference
bud­get.

PyCon Australia strongly encourages people to apply for financial aid
-- even if we can’t cover all of your expenses, we will give you free
admission based on need. The application process is simple, and
straight­ for­ward. It’s also very liberal -- the only caveat is that
speakers at the conference "get bumped to the top" of the applications
so that we don’t lose a good talk because of financial need. We also
don’t ban any­one from apply­ing.

Essentially, the financial aid programme is the PyCon Outreach program
- it's the community holding up the community and making itself
accessible at this major event through these financial grants. It is
the very spirit of the conference; make the information, knowledge,
friendships and connection available to everyone.

The generous contribution of the Python Software Foundation has helped
us in kicking off this programme. Financial aid is core to the mission
of the PSF -- The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to
promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to
support and facilitate the growth of a diverse
(http://www.python.org/psf/diversity/) and international community of
Python programmers.

Google Australia has also generously contributed to the financial aid
programme, so that we can increase the pool of financial aid available
to deserving women, in order to help reduce the barriers to attending
PyCon Australia.

To apply for financial aid to attend PyCon Australia, applicants must
fill out the application form found at,http://2013.pycon-au.org/grants
- the first round of aid applications will be awarded after Friday 17
May.


== Eligibility ==

Anyone interested in attending PyCon Australia is eligible to apply
for financial aid. Grants are allocated on the basis of need, and
applications will be assessed by our financial aid panel.

Cases that will be looked upon favourably include, but are not limited to:

- Presenters with accepted proposals, who would otherwise not be able
afford to attend the conference.
- Contributors to Python Open Source projects, looking to participate
in the post-conference sprints.
- Members of Python-related user groups, looking to bring knowledge
back to their local community.
- Members of groups that encourage diversity in computing and
technology, including PyLadies groups, looking to bring knowledge back
to their local community.
- Students interested in Python, who can contribute knowledge of
Python back to their peers.
- Teachers looking to contribute knowledge of the state of the art in
Python back to their students.

In short, anyone whose attendance at PyCon Australia will help improve
the Python community in Australia, or around the world, is invited to
apply.

For more information on the grants programme, and for information on
how to apply, see our financial aid programme page:
http://2013.pycon-au.org/grants


=== About PyCon Australia ===

PyCon Australia is the national conference for the Python Programming
Community. The fourth PyCon Australia will be held on July 5--7, 2013
in Hobart, Tasmania, bringing together professional, student and
enthusiast developers with a love for developing with Python. PyCon
Australia informs the country’s Python developers with presentations,
tutorials and panel sessions by experts and core developers of Python,
as well as the libraries and frameworks that they rely on.

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at
http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact at pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and
acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer
Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors,
Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government
Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of
our sponsors, see our website.


--
--Christopher Neugebauer

Jabber: chrisjrn at gmail.com -- IRC: chrisjrn on irc.freenode.net --
AIM: chrisjrn157 -- MSN: chris at neugebauer.id.au -- WWW:
http://chris.neugebauer.id.au -- Twitter/Identi.ca: @chrisjrn