Category: Plone

Plone 1% manifesto

Posted on by in Plone

photo (CC) mrtopf on flickr.com

Lately I’ve been coaching a team with the talented Jordan Baker and Rob Jackiewicz of Scryent, the driving force behind Plone in the Toronto area. When they left for the just finished Plone Conference 2009, I wished I was going with them, not so much because of Plone (though I did watch some of the talks online – 4.0 looks awesome thanks to Dexterity and Deco) but because of the amazing community that surrounds the product.

Last May I shared a commitment to give 1% of all Plone-related earnings this year to the Plone Foundation. I was inspired to give after reconnecting with friends in the Plone community at the 2009 Plone Symposium East, as a way to give back to a community that has given me so much.

Time to tally up the total thus far me thought, and to some surprise discovered most of my coaching work this year has Plone connections: Web Collective, training at Plone Symposium East, Good Steward who attended the training, and now Scryent.

That 1% is now over $500, with two months left in the year. Looking forward to leaving a cheque in the Foundation’s Christmas stocking.

If you are looking for a financial way to give back, come join me in this manifesto.

The future of Plone looks bright because there are caring, talented, committed people behind it. Hope to see some of you again, maybe at the next North American Symposium.

Live coverage of SSMARt Awards 2009

Posted on by in Plone, Social Media

On Wednesday, June 9 at 6:00 pm we’ll begin live coverage of the Sault Ste. Marie and Region Awards for Science and Technology. Come back here to see live photos and blogging of the event.

Plone-attitude of gratitude

Posted on by in Plone
Photo courtesy Mr. Topf http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrtopf/
Plone Conf 2007. Photo courtesy Mr. Topf http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrtopf/

How can I continue to stay connected and to give back to a community that has given me so much?

I’ve been wrestling with that question for a while. My connection to Plone the product is becoming less and less. I don’t use Plone in my work any more, now that my focus is on training and coaching Scrum, an Agile software development framework.

Meanwhile, my ties to Plone the community remain. I’ve been fortunate to work for companies that do build Plone solutions: Jazkarta, ifPeople and currently Web Collective, and am exploring options with a few others. Each company is doing amazing work, progressive in spirit and deed. That higher purpose thinking pervades the community, and is another tie that binds me.

So I find myself in this awkward situation – how to contribute and remain connected without immersing myself in the technology that binds everyone else together?

plone-1
Then, my last day at the Plone Symposium, an idea came to me – donate 1% of all Plone-related earnings to the Plone Foundation. Yeah, I like that. Any time I work with an organization offering Plone-related services, the 1% pledge applies. And just for fun, let’s make it retroactive to the start of this year, So far, then, that donation totals over US $125, maybe enough for printing some new Plone schwag from the great minds at SixFeetUp.

I don’t know where my Plone-enabled journey will go from here. After 6 years, I hope we’ll dance for a few more. We’ve got more world changing to do.