Just read your article (http://www.pault.com/zope.html) and really enjoyed it (besides comparing Java to Macs... yikes!). I agree that DC needs to really work with Zope Product Developers and help them as much as possible.
Have you looked at the Zope Directions document recently posted on dev.zope.org? http://dev.zope.org/Resources/ZopeDirections.html Dramatically lowering the bar for developers to create quality components is our number one priority going forward. It will be evolutionary and not happen all at once, but it will be happening.
DC should encourage and then force developers to be a bit better about documentation. I have seen product developers put up a new product with the full amount of documentation about it being "here it is... have fun." This certainly does not help all of those people who want to install and use Zope products. DC can encourage better product development and documentation by doing simple things such as T-shirt contest for best product documentation, tip, how-to and all the rest.
One idea we've kicked around is to make the eventual "components area" on zope.org such that component users can provide some +1 -1 type feedback that is incorporated into the way that components are listed on the site. This would let the most popular / best components appear at the top of listings etc. Brian Lloyd brian@digicool.com Software Engineer 540.371.6909 Digital Creations http://www.digicool.com