[Zope-dev] Open Letter to zope-dev

[seb bacon]

* Lennart Regebro <lennart@regebro.nu> [011130 11:24]:
> From: "Andrew Kenneth Milton" <akm@theinternet.com.au>
> > Noone from Zope Corp seems to monitor the list to help out.
> 
> That is not my experience at all. I have received answers from Zope corps
> several times. But sure, most of the answers you get come from the community
> members. Thats what a community is all about, and thats the hallmark of a
> good community.

I agree.

> The best community I have seen is for the Clavia Nord Modular synthesizer.
> Clavia contributes abolsutely NOTHING to that community. They do, however,
> listen to it, and implement several of the features that are most requested
> in that community. And that is not an open source project, so the community
> can't contribute anything else than ideas.

Personally, I think ZC are trying very hard, but are not getting it
right.  I'm also very sure they are taking this conversation
seriously.  Brian responded very quickly to the userfolder 'api'
issues.  They commit a *lot* in terms of software and support (IMO)
but little in terms of fostering a community.  But then, why should
*they* be responsible for this? 

If we think we're a community, then we should all be responsible for
building on it.  I think we should have a conversation about what
makes a community work, and then come up with some positive
suggestions about improving the community *ourselves*.  ZC will
follow, for sure.

There must be members of various OSS communities knocking around
here.  Python, XML things, Apache Foundation, GNOME.  What are
peoples' experiences?  Which are the best?  Why?

I'm not sure about the ideal community, but here's some practical
ideas to start off with.

1) Just because no-one can ever agree about splitting up the
   mailing lists, what's to stop somebody setting one up unilaterally? 
   Perhaps the people who care strongly about this should just set up
   an egroup?  I'm sure ZC would link to it from zope.org.  Come on
   somebody, set up a forum at zope-newbies@yahoogroups.com, today,
   right now, and continue the discussion there. 

2) How about the responsiveness of ZC?  Granted, it could be much
   better, but they're *trying*.  Let's help them with suggestions.
   Look at the fishbowl. It's an open process, but doesn't get
   contributed to that much.  What are the problems with it?  How can
   we improve it?  I think it should be linked from zope.org more
   prominently, for a start.  I think the wiki format puts people off
   because they're not familiar with it.  How about a familiar-looking
   discussion board on each proposal, too?

3) Another thing mentioned regularly: the zope.org community site is
   pretty bad.  
   I think, just as the respository is beginning to
   open up, so should construction of zope.org.  There should be a
   mailing list, some members of the community should be appointed to
   some kind of committee, and ZC should always have some
   representation on it.  But it should be led by the people for whom
   it exists in the first place, IMO. Collectively, we have a vast
   array of talented designers, programmers, information
   architects, etc, at our disposal.  Will ZC countenance this
   proposal? If not, should we be working on our own community site? 

These may be crap ideas, I don't know; but I think we *can* do
something about these issues, collectively.  We shouldn't just ask ZC
to do something about it.  Carpe diem and all that.

seb