[Zope3-Users] Generations of Zope and Enterprise Culture

[Edward Pollard]

Hi all,

I work for a post-secondary institution in Canada that has deployed a 
lightly-featured proprietary CMS developed in Zope 2. We are currently 
outlining the next-generation of our website which will involve much 
broader integration of campus data. There are phenomenally unusual 
enterprise environmental factors (read: internal politics) around our 
website so it is very hard to explain what has happened, why it has 
happened, and what we are trying to accomplish. All you really need to 
know is that we are at a place where their will be some considerable 
development "from scratch".

The question hanging at the committee level right now is Zope 2, Zope 
3, or something else?

I've read the Zope 2 vs Zope 3 threads, and the Zope 3 readiness 
discusion, and both were educational. It would seem that since we don't 
have a really strong need to keep our Zope 2 codebase, Zope 3 is the 
place to be. However, non-Zope development groups on campus have asked 
me: So, what will we do when another version of Zope comes along that 
will completely break backwards compatibility again? They find the 
transition from 2 to 3 intimidating, cavalier, and hostile to the 
userbase. I don't entirely blame them, as on the surface it is a 
compelling perspective.

Certainly this discussion has to have taken place somewhere before. How 
has Zope 2 vs 3 been sold to the management level? How has it been sold 
to people who are skeptical of the future roadmap based on the past 
change in paradigm? How has it been sold to people that prefer 
commercially supported software? We have as much invested in ColdFusion 
as we do Zope 2 and there is a perceptual issue here I'm not certain 
how to correct via education. Clearly Zope 3 does so much more out of 
the box to support the standards based semantically driven web site we 
are saying we want in our needs assessment documents, but it is a hard 
thing to sell.

Since I really can't explain the environmental factors in any depth, 
let me rephrase: How do you sell Zope 3 as a solution? And what do you 
do to overcome the perception that our investment in Zope 2 will have 
little to no payoff in a Zope 3 developed project?

There are two side issues:
First, ColdFusion and ASP are the other candidates, so while I don't 
want to encourage and dwell on specific comparisons, I would be lying 
if I said they wouldn't come in handy.

Second, the existence of Zope 3 has completely shot any support for 
Zope 2 continuation out of the water in our environment. Is this fair, 
or is there life left to the Zope 2 tree we've developed some 
experience in? Should I be considering pitching a Zope 2 solution 
instead?


Thanks for your time,

---
Edward J. Pollard, B.Sc
Webmaster, University of Lethbridge