[Zope] Zope Projects in NL/Europe?

[Rik Hoekstra]

(Writing from the Netherlands)

>
> Just wondering: are there any Zope projects are available in the
> Netherlands/Benelux/Europe? We did one last year but they seem hard to
> find. Are there commercial projects available or is Zope mostly used on
> internal projects? Is there any demand for Zope expertise around here?

From the (spontaneous) requests I have had over the last year about Zope
expertise, I can assure you that there is plenty of demand for Zope
expertise. The problem is mainly that it is harder to find (commercial)
expertise than to have projects available. Zope not (yet) being such a
widespread Web developing alternative, needs are less visible. We are using
Zope in our institution and there is too much work for me to handle, but I
have had a hard time finding developers who can help me out. I'm sure this
applies to more institutions and companies in the Netherlands (and Belgium
for that matter).

And, btw, not to be nitpicking, but how would people know you have Zope
expertise? Is it in your company profile, are you on the Zope service
provider page, have you offered your services somewhere visible.

The second point is of course that you could also prove Zope to be a viable
alternative over other web developing tasks, by just doing projects in Zope.
Or are all you customers asking for applications in specific technologies
rather than solutions with the highest quality/for the best price/in the
shortest time possible?


>
> Reason I'm asking is that I'd love to continue working with Zope, but
> it's hard to justify in a company focused on Microsoft and Oracle,
> especially if there is no money to be made. I can learn Perl on company
> time and Linux is our internet server OS of choice, but JSP/Java and
> .NET (the latter is not that bad, uses SOAP/XML-RPC) is next if we don't
> find a use for our Zope expertise.
>

I'd say: just do it and make yourself heard. You might be surprised.


Rik