[Zope] Re: [ZPT] ZPT advocacy

[Peter Bengtsson]

Hi again Andreas
> Hi Peter,
>
> your advice is much appreciated. I'll spend some time reforming it
> and trying to get clear on its purpose.
> For the moment I think it should develop into a general analysis
> of what it takes to build a business based on zope.
> This assesment should include Zope's strength and weaknesses,
> how one can capitalize on the former and ameliorate the
> latter.
> Further there could be proposals on how to do client
> acquisition. How to contact prospective clients and which
> ones are the those that have the most to gain and are therefore
> the most receptive for this technology?

Loved that! That is really interesting, make that a long chapter. Explicit
aquisition in Zope (when you sell one instance only, right) is not for too
small clients and unless you are prepared to get your hands dirty with ZEO
stuff, Zope will fit in among the averaged sized ones.
Note that it is wrong, but you should try to say where you're aiming.

> Which Zope-aspects should be emphasized in marketing - how?

What Zope needs the most is a well-known name.
The people who decide to pay for things, like CEO's and other suit-wearing
people want to have things that have a strong and robust name.
Look at Vignette. Their name is all over the place at exhibitions and such.
Even though you don't get much for a $1.000.000 (compare to what you would
with say Zope) companies are willing to pay that amount because they think
they are buying something very very special.

Zope is getting there. I more often hear that people have heard of it.
"Yeah, I've heard of it" "It's supposed to be pretty ok" (but almost all of
my friends are technical and read slashdot).
Try to (in your text) answer the question: "How to make Zope a strong and
recognized name?"
If you can answer that, and DC do something about it, we will _all_ benefit.

>
> Given time and interest chapters regarding financing,
> marketing, hiring ... could be added.

Oh, and don't forget the hiring resources problem there is with Zope.
And, following up my own email from yesterday, think about how to charge the
client for the features that come for free with Zope already (like the
security model). Should one?

> I'll alert you when I'm ready with rearranging things a bit.
Excited!


Don't forget to check out all the text they have over at www.digicool.com

Peter
> Andreas
>
>
> your message:
> > No, don't make it an open ZWiki. Take responsibility of it (lock it) and
> > let logged in Zope Members add comments at the bottom of the page.
> >
> > If I ask you: "What is your little text about?" What would you answer
then?
> > I meant that it isn't very clear what it's about or it's purpose. Why
have
> > you written it and what do you aim to conclude?
> > Perhaps you should more precisly decide where you want to pour the
cement
> > before we start reshaping it (with comments) when it has dried in the
wrong
> > place :)
> >
> > You mentioned CMF, not a product, but a framework. I see that more and
more
> > products tend to store their "data" part in Python and "view" part in
> > templates of some kind.
> > That way you can use the "data" part as framework and rewrite the "view"
> > part yourself for your own needs. And that's a very very big step in the
> > right direction I reckon.
> >
> > Take care, Peter
> >
> > PS. Please don't cross post emails. Send only to zope@zope.org or only
to
> > zpt@zope.org
> >