[Zope] - Selling Zope to your organization

[Gabe Wachob]

Hey folks-
    Has anybody here had to go through the experience of selling Zope
(and Python) to your own organization over another technology (esp.
Perl/CGI)? At Findlaw, we are largely an open-source shop (though, we
find our selves still using NT/IIS for a few reasons), and the folks we
have all use Perl. I've tried to extoll the virtues of Python to the
team members, but usually the response is "Bah, Perl works, I know it,
and I don't want to learn something new".

    I could take the dictatorial stance and say 'learn it', but thats
not my style. I'd rather "sell it" to the folks so that we have buy in
and enthusiasm.

    Zope seems like it could be a big part of that "sales pitch". That
is, I'd like to be able to sit down with someone and show them how to
write a "send mail to the webmasters" page without having to learn much
Python at all. Has anyone had any success doing this? Has anyone used
Zope as a way to get people using Python?

    What sort of resistance have people experienced in moving from
Perl/CGI to Zope? Is performance ever cited as an objection? Having to
learn a new language? The newness of Zope and Python? The relative lack
of popularity of Python and Zope? Open-sourcedness? Single-sourcedness
(of Zope), even if open source? Licensing issues (particularily the
"logo" license requirement)? Apparent complexity?

    -Gabe