[NGO] Re: plone vs drupal at Greenpeace UK

[Duane Raymond]

> > It seems to me that they could be doing themselves a
> > disservice by not talking to the Plone community. What if
> > they'd come on this list, or on plone-users? I bet there
> > would've been dozens if not hundreds of responses
> > from people
> > eager to share experiences and dispel myths.

Actually - as I also know Rob (who project managed the GP
requirements process) I tried to get a few Plone networks to
respond.  I both emailed ZEA Partners and the ZopeUK Association
lead 3-4 weeks before the presentation happened - and on the
issue of GP UK bid I heard nothing back as to if someone acted on
it (someone obviously did - but I don't know if it came via one
of those networks) - all despite chasing several times.

My company - FairSay - does work with Zope-Plone, but more as a
secondary objective as the primary one is around supporting
e-campaigning (as in activism).  We've developed a number of
e-campaigning products that are in production and will be
released soon (need to find time to finish off the documentation
and other stuff).  But we weren't in a position to present or bid
for this as we focus just on activism and this was a wider CMS
project.

I'd have loved to have GP UK use Zope-Plone (and agree they
under-rated Plone in a wide range of areas) - but there need to
be an obvious place to announce these opportunities which I
suppose this list is (and it didn't exist when the opportunity
arose)

Martin Wrote:
> It's a bit difficult, I guess, to adjust to the idea of talking
to a
> community.

Not for the GP web team - they are all very open source friendly
people and Drupal is also a community so equivalent there.
Drupal just mobilised and evangelised better this time.

Martin Wrote:
> But if they were open about their requirements anyway, a post
> to plone-users would've gone a really long way.

Rob posted everything on the www.importantproject.com site and
this was referenced in the emails to Zea Partners and ZopeUK
Association.  Has I known a post to plone-users would have gone
further I'd have done that too (note I wasn't formally involved
in this - just trying to help ensure Plone was selected).

> They claim that they DID talk to Plone-folk, but I
> don't know who.

According to Rob's web site (
http://www.importantprojects.com/ ) - it was "Jean-Paul Ladage of
Zest Software" ( http://www.zestsoftware.nl/ )

> Someone from their team (Becky?) was at Ploneability, FWIW.

Tracy actually - and both I and Sisi (Friends of the Earth
International who are also Plone users) were at Ploneability and
chatted to her at various times over the day - but by this time
it was almost too late as we both sensed their decision was
already made and just hoped the show of strength from the Plone
community would help sway things.


I think we should use this to look forward and galvanise the
Plone-NGO community around developing the few gaps that the GP UK
proposal identified and other that people have identified on this
list.

It is known that GP Intl will be looking to replace Planet2
(OpenACS) in the next 1-2 years and many other NGO are
considering Plone.  Drupal sells itself on having existing
products (vs potential ones) and this is one of the reasons GP UK
made its decision.  If Plone is to compete (and it better IMHO)
Plone needs to offer similar 'certainty' to potential clients.

Cheers,

Duane

PS - Perhaps we should have regular Plone NGO meetings (physical)
in various countries  and chats (virtual) to organise for the
next time.  I'm up for organising one London/Oxford UK

===========================================================
Duane Raymond
FairSay
http://www.fairsay.com