[Zope] Lifting the profile of Zope - Down Under (ie Australia)

[Richard Volpato]

Hi,

I am looking for Australian Zope developers and would also like to get an
estimate of the current state of the Zope developer base in Australia.  I
have gone to the new Australian Users group site OzZope.org but it's too ne=
w
to give a good indication.

A reasonably large organisation in Australia is currently exploring whether
to fund a major Zope based application. It is probably the largest such Zop=
e
project in Australia.  The key business units within that organisation need
to manage complex documents whose schema changes at various times.  Zope's
distributed authoring, object database, role based delegations, LDAP adapte=
r
and, of course, zero license fee make it ideal. As the IT infra-structure a=
t
the periphery of this organisation is very uneven a web-based approach is
particularly appropriate.

A prototype has already revealed the power of Zope.  However the enthusiasm=
s
of the users in these business units who need it, have generated disquiet
and then resistance from others in the organisation =8B  particularly those i=
n
Head Office who have invested in a 'one-size fits all' platform based on
Lotus Notes.  The failure of this platform to deal with the complexities of
the content management problem in the first place led to a Zope based
solution appearing so compelling.

Other, smaller Zope based applications in other organisations, are also
generating similar 'divisions'.

As an Australian Zope users group OzZope has been formed, it will help me
and presumably other organisations, if developers in Australia, would go to
OzZope.org and register.  In this way, those interested in exploring Zope
solutions can make contact with a developer base.  If you are keen to offer
services for Zope related work, please contact me.

The more we can show that a developer community exists in Australia, the
more likely I can convince corporate skeptics that Zope is part of somethin=
g
vibrant, growing and here for the long term.  And, of course, if I can
assist in getting this larger project running, then further spin off
projects will emerge as well.

Look forward to hearing from you - and see you over at OzZope.org.

Richard Volpato