My partner and I are participating in the Plone Strategic Planning Summit on Friday.

As we head in to 3 days of heavy discussion and yummy Google food... I thought I'd take a few minutes to provide a high-level view of what Plone means to myself and my client base.. (please keep in mind this is a brain dump if any statements are inaccurate..it's because this is what I understand right now.. I can most certainly be reeducated)

When we started working with Plone in 2001.. we started because Plone was touted as a CMS. OH look.. we can create this page template and our client can log in and update their own content with this neat little WYSIWYG (at the time it was epoz). Epoz was Plone to our clients.

Flash forward 6 years later.. different clients ... and Kupu is Plone (or FckEditor for our clients who opted for that) to our clients. But does that make Plone a CMS? We don't think so.. that just means that Plone is providing one of the key features requested. A browser based WYSIWYG is an expectation now.. not a "gee whiz" component like it was 7 years ago. The ability to add folders, images, documents.. is an expectation. Does Plone manage content well... it depends on who you ask. For the medium sized company that doesn't have 100,000+ documents to process and archive.. it does just fine.. but do we really want to stay in the CMS-only arena.. ?

90% of our implementations are intranets and extranets with custom applications built on top with AZAX and Python.

In 2001 our client base was small business brochureware sites and Plone was just too much for that even back then. The attraction, giving control of the content to the website owner. So yes, in 2001, I would have called Plone a CMS.. today... 7 years later.. Plone has evolved into a whole nother beast. It's a framework... a base for creation of online environments that allow business to be conducted in a centrally accessible secure location.

I always appreciated the "modularity" of Plone.. the ability to add and take away components as needed. We either integrate everything that's needed for a quickly running ootb experience... including Varnish or Squid preconfigured.. or keep Plone "Core" ..clean, light and modular...and allow the users to add what they want.. Our biggest complaints from clients are performance .. "but our other site wasn't this slow" and to that I usually say " but you didn't have membership or security.."  That doesn't always work.. especially when their competitor is lightning fast and has membership (don't know about security). I know there is someone out there saying, "then don't use Plone". Why shouldn't we? We are primarily a Plone shop only because 90% of our calls are for Plone.

Example of a call from potential client:

"Hi, I'm Joe from Medium Size Company here in the Bay Area, we did a bunch of research on possible applications for our corporate intranet. We have narrowed it down to Sharepoint or Plone, what can you tell me about Plone?"

From here we launch into, "What features do you need.. etc etc" and usually Plone fits really well... and then they ask,
"During our research we ran into a lot of discussion about Plone performance issues, can you respond?"

From here we launch into, " Plone isn't slow, it does a lot (thanks Joel Burton)" and we explain how, we optimize our sites using Varnish, etc.

We don't get, "Hi, we need a website where we can update our content without paying a webmaster" - that is the kind of call we received in 2001...

As was mentioned by Chris McDonough. We never use Plone as is..it is always customized and always requires development because each and every client has their own vision of the "right" way to setup their online process. Telling clients to "change their way" of doing business to suit the application.. (well you've heard what they've said about trying to fit a square peg into a round hole). Having the capability to meet the clients needs... and be able to utilize all the strengths of both zope and plone.. that would be ideal.

The calls we get these days are for intranet installations.. and non-profit community sites (where they want levels of access). We turn away brochureware.. send them to Joomla.. do we really want to be a CMS or a high quality intranet/extranet/corporate framework for building any application required? Plone is just too feature packed to limit itself to advertising "one" main feature of the framework. 

We are looking forward to getting together with the other 48 participants of this summit. Our goal is to learn more about how the "other side" thinks.. we are integrators....we have the day-to-day interaction with our clients.. we build applications for clients based on the code base provided by the hard working core development team... and maybe... we've been wrong all this time and need to readjust our idea of what Plone is....we just need to know.

Plone is just one of many tools we use to build rich internet applications.. but we love Plone (and the community) so while we sit amongst other Plone type people we will absorb(listen) and contribute(engage) in an activity that is unprecedented in the Open Source industry. How exciting is that..!?

We are heading into our last day of the Plone Strategic Planning Summit.

Our laptops have been packed away and our focus has been to be "present" and involved. It is amazing to see just how many here have dug in to the task at hand and are doing it without bloodshed (ok we are adults but there are some passionate opinions). The overall event has been fantastically well organized.

The only thing that I'd do different is allow for some free discussion with the entire group that allows true debate on some of the hottest issues. OK some feelings will get hurt.. but I think there is an undercurrent here of "let's get this resolved and get the real work done". Who wants to invest the next six months to a year working on an application only to find out that everything is going to change?

The discussion about whether Plone is a product or framework.. has been pushed aside a few times and I'm hoping today is the day where we get to really pin this down.. just like we have so many other issues related to the "framework/product/thing that is Plone. I still cannot answer the question: "What is Plone?". (I mean I can tell you conceptually, I can tell you what it is capable of.. but I can't tell you what it is in an "elevator speech")

Overall, this summit has been an eye-opening experience. There is a real desire from the developers to connect/engage with the integrator (which always benefits the end-user as they are the beneficiary of our content .. err happiness) I'm feeling more a part of the overall community rather than on one side or the other and truly believe the Plone Strategic Planning Summit is the best thing that has happened to Plone in a long, long time.

I'll provide more details as to what has happened over the last couple days. Right now it's off for our last day together (I'm feeling like this needed to be a full week.. because there is so much to do.. but this has provided us with a solid jumping off point) Here is to continued momentum in this direction.

Off to summit, blog at you later!

As was mentioned in Chris's post the end result of two days of brainstorming, synthesizing and story telling was the assignment of "champions" or "proxies" for getting our whittled down list of initial priorities "out of the gate". Rather than an amorphous blob of "sure we'll get to this...uhhh.. someday" we sat in our circle (and yeah.. we twinkled.. californian's do twinkle) and started the most important hour of the entire weekend.

There is no way in h-e-double-toothpicks (my 10 yo might run across this on the web.. can't be too careful) we could have addressed all the topics that came up during brainstorming, synthesizing (sticky dots.. basically a visible way to put +1 on each topic) and story telling. This was not a decision making exercise.. this weekend.. it was an "ok, look, we have a lot of issues out there.. let's figure out our audience, pin down their needs and get started on the ones we can address in the near future." At least that was my impression. No way we can possibly represent the entire community but there was an even amount of "consultants/integrators to developers" and one of the turning points.. "at least for me" was when Alec Mitchell pulled me into his work group today to discuss possible TTW content type creation and seemed sincere in wanting to disseminate what would be a dream situation for the integrator.

On Saturday, I had been invited to participate in an Integrator's panel with the likes of SteveM (moderator), Matt Bowen, Jesse Snyder and David Glick (OneNW).

I was the veteran having started using Plone in 2001.. pre-1.0 actually.. we had used Silva previous to experimenting with Plone.

Although a veteran I managed to avoid learning how to program but I have implemented many Plone sites.  The learning curve for a non-programmer/designer/integrator was steep to begin with and then with the current changes (after I'd gone and learned how to create file system theme products) created a whole new set of things for me to learn.
I was a little miffed.. honestly.. and frankly being told.. just use paster..just use buildout only made me feel like I was on the outside looking in.. after all the years committed to learning best practices and I was finally doing it right (and then it changed? ouch)!

And so I sat there in front of everyone and I felt.. relief.. ok so now you guys know and you are listening. The best part? I'm not alone.. this is not me standing on a pulpit all by my lonesome, crying over the fact that I have to do a little work... there was a strong "theme" (sorry) amongst integrators/consultants that creating a Plone look & feel is hard.
Take a look at http://plone.org/products and you'll note the lack of themes.

The ability to say, "hey we really love Plone, but let me tell you about our experience.. " well it was powerful.. to say the least.

My overall "attitude" has changed since day 1 of this event. I walked away today with the following:

1. I committed to Champion(ing) the Integrator Story. Acting as a liaison of sorts, reporting back to integrators and getting a feel for the pain points (not just mine). What this means is I'll be focusing on bringing in more Integrators like myself to participate in testing of pre-releases and provide feedback.  It tends to be the same people testing bugs and reporting back.. we need "real world" integrators to test with client sites (especially migration) and let the dev team know what breaks.. and what works really well.

2. I've committed to learning Plone 3 theming and quit whining (partly because of the 14 yo rock star that showed up on our last day and proved that maybe.. the fear of the unknown has rendered me frozen in 2.5 theming purgatory..although I do like the 2.5 way to theme at the moment) Granted I have to "unlearn" some things that I've gotten used to but I can live with that.

3. I've committed to start creating 2 minute screencasts for TTW customization..(thank you Nate Aune for your commitment to "teaching" us how to create screencasts)
I think my first one will be how to change the Plone logo TTW

4. I've committed to learning more about deliverance (it's still got some way to go but it shows tremendous promise)

5. I've committed to learning how to play darts (killer) better so next time I'll beat Mr Baekholdt (I almost won!)

Plone Strategic Planning Summit 2008 was a fantastic success and I'm looking forward to PSPS 2009!

Blog about it, digg it.. just let the world know.. we're protecting the planet from waste and bridging the digital divide .. how cool is that..??

I'm copying the email to the BayPIGgies mailing list verbatim:

On Saturday March 1st, Untangle and the ACCRC are organizing a massive
installfest for Bay Area schools.  We are refurbishing hundreds of
older/discarded computers with Ubuntu and donating them to Bay Area
schools.  We need your help from Linux users installing Ubuntu at the 4
locations, which are San Francisco, Berkeley, San Mateo & Marin County.

Signup sheets for each location are here:

 http://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/Installfest

If you can make the installfest, you can still help by driving
participation by blogging about the event or voting for it on Digg or
Slashdot.

http://slashdot.org/bookmark.pl?url=http://www.untangle.com/installfest

http://www.digg.com/submit?url=http://www.untangle.com/installfest&phase=2

More info on the installfest here:

 www.untangle.com/installfest

Why the event is cool:

 Helps spread F/OSS (Ubuntu, Firefox, OpenOffice & more)

 Helps bridges the Digital Divide with underprivileged users

 Keeps toxic computer equipment out of landfills (Aprox 25,000 pounds)

 Is a cool community effort

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Andrew
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http://snowwrites.com

I'm almost done moving all my old posts across.. and then I await the redirect by planet.plone.org..

C2E is going through a massive rehaul of our website (moving to Plone 3.0.. new content.. etc).

Look for a new design and new copy in the next 30 days! We also brought in 3 .. Plone 3 projects so now it's time to bite the bullet and dig in to Plone 3 integration... here we go... :-)