I haven't used OpenACS or anything of the like, but I would suggest that Zope offers a much more flexible system for developers with a few things you won't get with ACS: 1 - An object database - much more natural for non-programmers to work with content directly within its repository. 2 - Python - which should be easier to develop any sizable application than TCL on any day 3 - ACS seems to have been hijacked by Java terrorists within AD. Python is almost always going to yield much quicker class development than Java: likely twofold or better. 4 - There is a lower barrier for maintaining a Zope installation, because you can develop a solution that is free of RDBMS or the need for an external web server. So I guess what I am getting at is that, in theory, Zope has a lower entry barrier for folks to make modifications to the applications developed on top of it, and a lower TCO; this would be a crucial thing for non-profits, I would think... Sean -----Original Message----- From: Michael Ward [mailto:mward@techrocks.org] Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 7:50 AM To: zope@zope.org Subject: [Zope] Zope v OpenACS and nonprofit application developers Hello all: I work with a nonprofit organization that helps other nonprofits with technology. We do everything from developing a free desktop database application, www.ebase.org, to providing strategic consulting to progressive activist groups on how to further their mission. Currently, there is a very active discussion about building applications for the nonprofit world in open source tools. 2 platforms are being discussed OpenACS and Zope. The discussion has quite a few champions/developers of OpenACS, but there aren't any people that seem to have real experience with Zope. A couple have played with it or done small projects. The discussion is taking place on a listserver sponsored by the Nonprofit Open Source Intiative, www.nosi.net, which isn't much of anything beside the discussion that I am referring to. If there are some people in this community that have an interest in nonprofit organizations and would be willing to share their expertise on zope, it would be greatly appreciated at this important decisionmaking time for us. Not to mention I think there will be some development power spawned out of this discussion. So...You can subscribe from here => http://www.nosi.net/mailman/listinfo/nosi-discussion . (If you look at the archives, the discussion gets interesting around the post with the subject "The problem of picking a programming language/framework". And honestly, I don't think Zope sucks as badly as the OpenACS people say ; ) (That is a total joke trying to bait people into participating.) m -- Michael Ward Senior Consultant TechRocks, A supporting organization to the Rockefeller Family Fund mward@techrocks.org 212-812-4255 http://www.techrocks.org _______________________________________________ Zope maillist - Zope@zope.org http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev )