[Zope] RE: [ZCommerce] RE: Philip leaves Arsdigita (was:Re:[Zope]kerberos ? + LDAP + ecommerce + ZEO replication etc)

[Chris McDonough]

> > I'd like you to figure out whether you'd like to mow my law, Michael.
> > There's big things in it for you.  Get back to me in a week, please.
;-)
>
> YO, dude:  Analogies are odious, but this one really stinks.  Neither
Albert
> nor Michael, nor anybody else in attendance here asked you to analyze the
> opportunity of mowing his lawn, or anything of the sort.  While we all see
> something to gain in the opportunity arena we've been attempting to scope
> out (else why are we even talking?), let us not kid ourselves about who it
> is that stands to gain the most.  Yeesh.

I'll revise this analogy (I realized it wasn't accurate after I had sent
it).

Walter, you're a florist.  I'd like you to plan the planting of a garden in
a public park.  You should "own" this effort, which implies you should
actually mow the land and plant the flowers if nobody else is willing to do
it.  Then I'd like to you then water it and weed it for perpetuity (you own
it don't you?).  I can't pay you, but I'm willing to provide input on which
flowers should be planted.  There's big money to be made in gardening, and
people will be able to see that you did a great job on the garden.  We all
know you want to be a gardener, and you're the one who stands to gain the
most from this garden, because you sell flowers.

To a certain extent, the pattern desribed in the analogy makes sense.
Perhaps you could make money as a florist planting a garden in a public
park.  Perhaps you *do* want to be a gardener.  But (describing the 81
dangling fishbowl proposals), what if you had 81 people ask you to be things
you're not at the same time?  What if you didnt actually want to be a
gardener?  Or a landscaper?  Or an exterminator? What if you had decided
that being a florist was just fine?

I'd *love* to see this project scoped out.  I just bristle at the notion
that *DC* absolutely, incontravertably has to "own" it when it's just not an
area that we've decided to do battle in.  We've decided to concentrate on
the content management space, which has so far only proved to be
tangentially related to ecommerce.  If you don't like this, I'm sorry, and
we'll need to agree to disagree.

Furthermore, I don't even think you and Albert are talking about the same
problem.  I believe Albert is talking specifically about porting ACS'
ecommerce module to Zope.  You want collaborative filtering and
personalization.  They aren't necessarily even related.  We've been talking
about OpenACS' ecommerce module as if it's the holy grail, but are you sure
it solves your actual problem?  Have you thought about what it doesn't have
that you want?  It's a major job just to decompose all the problems exposed
in these gargantuan email replies.

To address the rest of your mail, I don't doubt your experience nor do I
think that having a Zope "ecommerce story" is a bad idea.  My problem is
understanding how it's possible that DC *needs* to do this.  Do you think
we're just a bunch of guys sitting around without a plan who need to have
some structure put in to our lives or what?

I will reiterate that Zope is a platform.  You can build on it what you
like.  Please, go ahead!  Don't wait for us!

- C