[Zope] Factoids for supporting zope

[Spicklemire, Jerry]

Albert said:

> Our client thought that the recent VC money was about 1/2 what would
> be needed to make it fly. My argument is that money is leveraged by
> the active Zope community so a crux in my logic is how strong this
> community is.

The "1/2" the capital needed" part is a puzzling assumption. 
Is your client trying to map some business school model onto 
DC / Zope? If so, you are absolutely correct to point out that 
Zope is Open Source, and has excellent support from DC, and the 
Zope Community, which by the way includes lot's of other folks 
using Zope in real world enterprises. 

Most of all, it's very important for your client to understand 
DC's business model, and the fact that the new VC Capital will 
be used to scale DC to meet the already explosive demand for 
Zope based solutions. As a services company, no doubt DC has 
grown accustomed to meeting paycheck schedules by fulfilling 
the requirements of an expanding client list. The investment, 
based on the press release, etc., will be applied to making 
more of the same happen sooner. This is just my take on the 
public information, I have no ties to DC, other than as a 
Zope and Python fan (and hopelessly bedazzled groupie).

If your client is sketchy about these details, it may be up 
to you to help them fill in the blanks. Have they checked out 
the Zope.org site, specifically Testimonials

 http://www.zope.org/Resources/Testimonials

and Case Studies?

 http://www.zope.org/Resources/CaseStudies

Some of these are old, but there are some pretty good hints 
there re. what folks have done with, and think about, Zope. 

Open Source in general can be disorienting at first glance. 
There are several "pages" out there with interviews where Paul 
Everitt answers questions about DC's business model, etc.

Check these out:

 http://www.zope.org/Resources/Media

 http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/1999/05/24/focus4.html

and other articles here

 http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/199906/_digcreate.htm

and elsewhere on the Web.

Later,
Jerry S.