[Zope] Factoids for supporting zope

[J. Atwood]

>I am reading between the lines here.  I think that the original poster
>has an argument inside his company.  He wants to use Zope, and some
>office droid did financial research and concluded that Zope was
>undercapitalized.
>
>I think there are two questions to be posed here:
>
>1) Does Zope, in its current state, do what the poster needs to have
>done?  If so, it is capitalization should have no effect on the
>decision whatsoever, he has source, even if DC folds Zope will live
>on in some form.

I agree. DC and Zope are connected but if DC were to fold tomorrow 
(and trust me they are no where near folding) Zope would live on. 
There are thousands of active developers out there that would take it 
and run with it if DC decided not to. There are websites and 
structures to help in this day of Open Source 'openness'.

>
>One worthwhile observation is that DC claims to have been
>profitable prior to the VC investment.  I am not privy to strategy
>or details of DC's capitalization.  But, they do have a track record
>of profitablity and reasonable prudence.  With good management and
>luck, they will remain profitable, and that is the end need for a
>business.  If they stay profitable, they remain a business; if they
>never become profitable, it does not matter how they are capitalized,
>they will not survive.

I am sure that DC was profitable (I think they said two quarters 
before the 12 Mil). They were doing a lot of consulting and if you 
check their rates "2,300/day for work at a customer site and 
$1,800/day for work performed on Digital Creations premises" that is 
pretty darn good. They obviously had something to do with 
http://www.cbsnewyork.com and I am also sure that CBS has some nice 
deep pockets.

DC has been very smart in this market by creating and backing a good 
product, getting developer and designer buy-in and creating an 
undercurrent. Selling Zope would have been foolish, as proven by open 
sourcing ZEO.

At the end of the day Zope is going to be around as long as it is a 
powerful open source tool that can solve so many problems with such 
ease. There is no question that Zope and DC are about to take a big 
turn in the market. I say hold on to your hats.

J