The class has proven to be very motivating.

Although my current role is MySQL DBA, I have been a professional web developer since 1995. I was really amazed by what I was able to do with Django by the end of this class. I have gone on to learn about Python in general.

I was able to take what I learned about Python and modify this open source script for uploading to Flickr so that I can use it as a plug-in to export from Bibble to Flickr in a batch workflow.

I have been reading Learning Python, and am really looking forward to using Python and Django both personally and professionally.

So far, so good

It's still the middle of our first day of training, but it's going well.

Our instructor, Juan Pablo-Claude, did a good rundown of what Django is -- probably could use a bit of background on its history, but maybe later as we get into specific design decisions the core team made.

Our first day, so far, has been setup and install of Python, the DB drivers, Django, etc. Personally, I've realized how quasi-painful that can be (esp. when I sat down with our summer intern to do this the other day) -- I'm thinking it'd be cool I could build a Parallels image (maybe VM?) of something like Ubuntu/CentOS that has everything you need and the ability to mount it onto your Mac as a filesystem, so you can use your favorite Mac text editor (Textmate, presently).

Also, Juan's done a good job of pulling together some Python basics for folks new to Django (and thus Python) -- though I may be biased as I've got about 4+ years of Python experience...