PyCon 2015 ran on Dropbox
Dropbox had a significant presence at PyCon this year, both as the Financial Aid Sponsor and through a hands-on workshop demonstrating the Dropbox API. The conference also showcased a practical, behind-the-scenes use of the platform: keeping speakers and captioners in sync by moving presentation materials through Dropbox.
Workshop demo: PEP8 Squad
The workshop materials, including the slides and the complete source code for the demo app, are publicly available. The app, called PEP8 Squad, was built to reformat any Python file placed into a Dropbox folder according to PEP8 style guidelines. You can test a live version of the app on Heroku.
Managing conference content with the API
Beyond the workshop, PyCon used Dropbox's API to handle the distribution of speaker decks and closed captions. The workflow was straightforward:
- Speakers uploaded their slide decks to Dropbox and shared them with caption writers.
- Caption writers submitted their changes using DBinbox, a platform app built on the Dropbox API.
- Raw caption files were then shared with attendees through a public Dropbox share link.
The code that powered this workflow is available in David Wolever's PyCon Slides repository, providing a reference for anyone looking to build similar Dropbox-driven content pipelines.
