[Zope-dev] How do I get involved in volunteering?

[Christopher Lozinski]

I am interested in volunteering, but I am somewhat lost.

And I say that even though I have been developing in Zope for years, and 
reading this email list avidly for a year.

I think that I am going to go and buy and read the Zope 3 book.  Beyond 
that I do not know what to do.

The problem is that I have no idea what direction Zope 2 is taking.

Although I have poked around on the web, I do not get Zope 3.

The Zope 3 class seems a bit expensive, for those of us who are 
self-unemployed and who want to volunteer on Zope 2.

I would love to read an architectural document, if it exists.  If not 
maybe I could write it.

It would start off by describing the different target markets and 
competing products.   It would then define the requirements for those 
target markets, and it would finish by describing the architecture for 
zope 2 and 3 that meets those target markets.

Of course that is the reverse of how it actually happened, but it sure 
makes a good story.

I even think that in the process of creating such a high level view of 
this industry, I might come up with an additional market or two, and an 
additional architecture for Zope n to meet the requirements for that 
market.
For example, I know that I like ZClasses and versionning, and they are 
not part of the plan. 

Then I could figure out how Zope development figures in with my product 
plans, and could figure out the best place to apply my energies.

Maybe there is a internal group of zope 2 developers who have these 
conversations and who know which way things are going.  Maybe no one 
knows, and as changes get delivered, they get approved. 

I am not even sure who is in charge of approving the cvs changes, and 
who is allowed to contribute to the cvs.  Is there a list of the 
annointed high priests somewhere?  Who annoints the approved code?

Maybe there is a trade show where all the key players show up once a year.

I think in the Plone world, at least there are the two key players, and 
then the board, so there is some visible structure.  In the Zope world 
it is not so clear.

So here are my questions.  How does one get involved?    Who is in 
charge? Who approves cvs submissions?  What is the target architecture?  
What are the target markets? 

Regards
Chris