[Zope] Front door on the Zope web site (Was Re: [Zope] SmartWorker)

[Rik Hoekstra]

>
> Ironically if you did a survey of Zope users, most would probably say
> the same tale of woe.  "I found out about Zope, downloaded it, worked
> like hell to understand it, then the light bulb turned on."

Quite so, but not exactly stimulating to start with is it?

>   o What questions should the Zope.org home page, and pages
>     one click away, answer?
>
>   o What are some effective ways to answer those questions?

1. What can I do with Zope.

Present a quick tour, preferably in a slick slideshow. This should show of
some of the 'what can I do with it' stuff, but present it from the more
technical features point of view that make Zope outstanding. THe point with
the technical features is that they are just busswords until you show what
they mean (I know, a slideshow is still fake, but at least it gives an
impression). And anyway a story told from a concept is more convincing.

Outline the highlights of the tour in a static presentation (for the
impatient or those with slow connections)

2. Make it attractive and easy for people to get started:
- Put downloading _prominently_ on the opening page.

- Prepare a 'beginners download'. This should include documentation,
preferably a grounds up tutorial.
Ideally this beginners download should come with an example database with a
builtin interactive tutorial. The tutorial should be in Zope, and the
described examples shoould be observable right away. This would be a
Quickstart on steroids (an example is Macro Media Authorware that has a help
system with examples and the examples can be adapted and included right away
in your own product)


I know, a lot of work, but that was not question, or was it?

Just my two cents

Rik