Catch all the action as World Plone Day travels across the globe!
- Live video streams – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/world-plone-day
- IRC – #worldploneday at irc.freenode.net
- Follow http://www.twitter.com/worldploneday
Tag: Plone
10 Reasons To Choose Plone CMS for your Web Solution
Digg this post Plone is an open source CMS (Content Management System), recently awarded the Best Other (non-php) Open Source CMS award.
Plone, together with an array of add-on components is used for a variety of needs:
- Websites, extranets, intranets
- E-commerce
- Workflow management
- Blogs, podcasting, videocasting
- Collaborative workspaces like Open Plans
As part of World Plone Day, Friday, November 7, here are 10 compelling reasons for choosing Plone as a web site solution:
- Stable future. Plone is owned, supported and protected by the Plone Foundation, similar to the Apache Foundation. Growth of Plone in code and community has risen at a steady pace since inception in 2000.
- Avoids vendor lock-in. Plone uses the same open source license as Linux. This avoids vendor lock-in, expensive licenses, and gives you a predictable future — and the freedom to innovate.
- Easy to use. Plone’s focus on usability makes it easy for users to manage content. Watch a video to see for yourself.
- Secure. Security is considered one of Plone’s key strengths. Fine-grained role-based security model secures your content. Plone’s sandbox architecture ensures that intruders will not have access to your server or your network.
- Standards compliant. Optimized for search engines, works in all major browsers, supports Open ID, support for web services and relational data storage.
- International. Translated into over 35 languages, including Chinese and right-to-left languages like Russian and Arabic.
- Solid documentation. Hundreds of how-tos and tutorials. Screencasts on plone.tv. Seven books published on Plone, including an end user manual. A new book on how to get the most out of Plone without touching code on its way. No other Open Source CMS has an end user manual. You can buy the hard copy or download the PDF for free.
- MS Desktop integration. No other Open Source CMS has a Microsoft Windows Desktop integration for free. Enfold Desktop enables everyone to have a first class Windows desktop experience.
- Nestle Plone inside an MS shop. Enfold Proxy enables people to deploy Plone in a possibly hostile to linux IT department. How many Microsoft organizations want to run Apache? Enfold Proxy is *not* free. It costs money. But you get support.
- Separate content management and delivery. Use *any* software to deliver the content from the Plone CMS. Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby. Whatever presentation-tier technologies the customer is most comfortable with can be used.
Static publishing. Look at http://www.cia.gov/ and http://www.fbi.gov/
Dynamic delivery. Look at http://www.povertylaw.org/ and http://www.aci-na.org/ for examples of Entransit. Using very very simple and fast technologies to serve Plone content dynamically.
Want to know more? See if there is a World Plone Day event happening near you, or visit online:
- Plone.org – is the main site to read more information, download copies, access documentation and products (add-on functionality)
- Plone.net – find a provider that supports Plone, read case studies and press releases, browse the directory of Plone based sites.
- Plone.tv – a diverse collection of training and interview videos about Plone
- Plonegov.org – a collaborative software ecosystem where government organizations, NGOs and private enterprises work together to share the cost of enhanced capabilities.
World Plone Day: Show Your Pride
World Plone Day is almost here. This is one day of the year we celebrate and promote Plone worldwide as a community. Are you ready to make some noise for your favourite CMS? Come on everyone, gimme a P, L, O, N, E!
Before Friday, Easy Ways to Promote Plone
- If you are on Twitter, follow twitter.com/worldploneday and encourage others to do so.
- Post a link to worldploneday.org on Facebook, Twitter so people can see if there are events happening in their area.
- There is a Facebook event. Join and invite people you think might be interested. Show your pride by becoming an official fan on Facebook.
On World Plone Day, Ways to Promote Plone
- Vote for and comment on Plone articles on sites like Slashdot.org. Follow or check twitter.com/worldploneday on Friday, November 7 for links to posted articles. There will also be information on Planet Plone.
- Write a blog post on anything Plone: tips, sites, useful docs, how you use Plone, experience of the community, etc. Be sure to tag your post with ‘worldploneday2008’. Add a link to your post to Delicious, Reddit, Digg, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Who knows, we might get noticed on Techmeme.
- Take pictures of WPD activities, post to Flickr, use tag ‘worldploneday2008’.
- Invite others to watch live streams of Plone events. Check worldploneday.org later for more details.
After WPD, Share What Happened
So what was the response in your area? Online? What questions / comments did people make about Plone? Share what you saw, felt, experienced through blog posts, photos.
Thanks again to Roberto Allende for coming up with the WPD idea and working so hard to make it happen. Let’s help Roberto make the first ever World Plone Day an amazing success!
Have a question or idea? See the contacts for World Plone Day, or leave a comment here.
Plone Conference 2008: My Session Picks
Ok, time to start figuring out what sessions I want to go to at the Plone conference. I work mainly as a project manager / scrum master, so I tend to avoid the techy stuff. Here is my preliminary list:
Wednesday
- The 10% manifesto and further — Methods for organized contribution to strategic development of Plone. I need to get better at this, interested in approaches to “building in” time to contribute back to Plone.
- Usability Testing: From High End to the Dirt Poor. An area I don’t have formal knowledge in, always interested in how to better capture what users need.
- Real world intranets. It’s Joel Burton. ‘Nuff said.
Thursday
- Hybrid Vigor: Plone + Salesforce Integration. We (ifPeople) have done a couple of Salesforce + Plone projects, thanks to Andrew and ONE/NW’s fantastic contributions. Interested in doing more of these projects.
- What Makes a Great Development Team? I’ve heard great things about Michael, who works with Martin Aspeli. I’m passionate about Agile, so interested to hear his talk, which I expect will have an Agile flavour to it.
- The Future of Plone’s User Experience. Being Alexander Limi, I expect something entertaining and visionary.
- Simplifying Plone. Some bleeding edge thought and real examples from Martin Aspeli and those attending.
- Using Deliverance to Theme a Website. Ok, finally getting my geek on here. I’ve been wanting to understand Deliverance better, never got my head wrapped around it. There is your challenge, Mr. Bicking, one really smart cookie.
Friday
- Repoze.bfg – a Zope explosion. Geek fix #2. Probably won’t ever code with it, but want to understand when it is a good solution.
- Plone.org Documentation Team Panel. Interested in how the panel wants to make documentation on plone.org rock even harder. Hope to contribute some thoughts.
- High performing teams: What’s the secret sauce? Good idea to attend my own presentation in case no one else does.
So that’s my list. What interests you? Let’s get some discussion going.
Of course, the discussions that happen outside of sessions are valuable also. I’m looking forward to seeing *so* many people, this being my first Plone conference after 5 years of being in the Plone community. Lunch anyone?
Plone Conf 2008: The unofficial social calendar
Part of what makes conferences like Plone Conf 2008 so great is the chance to meet and hang out with many of the people we only “see” online from a distance. This is especially true for me. I’ve been involved with Plone since 2002 but have yet to attend any conference / sprint. Thankfully, that will soon change!
My organizational personality twitch wants me to make it easier for people to meet and do stuff, so I created a page for people to suggest and sign up for activities to do, things like ultimate frisbee (maybe we can design a Plone disc – yeah!).
Maybe you want to visit the Smithsonian, tour the national monuments, or go for a walk up Mt. Vernon after sitting on your butt all day in sessions.
To add something to the page, request access to the project.
5 free things you should do to promote your blog
I noticed that a few Plone bloggers registered their blog at Technorati, having read Mr. Topf’s recommendation to do so. I agree wholeheartedly. Technorati is the largest directory of blogs, and offers increased exposure to your blog through its directory, tag and search features. And hey, it’s free, so why not take 10 minutes to claim your blog?
In addition, here are 5 free things worth doing to promote your blog that I’ve done:
- Provide a site feed on your blog. Ok, so you’ve done that, but do you know how many subscribers you have, and whether that is going up or down? Register your feed at Feedburner and take advantage of the free feed stats and ways to publicize your feed. We really need a way to integrate Feedburner feeds into Plone easily, and something I commented on this PLIP. Add your voice if you think this is a good (or not) idea.
- Offer email subscription to your blog for people who aren’t comfortable with site feeds (yet). Feedburner has such a feature that takes minutes to set up. Just copy / paste the html form code, or use a subscription link instead.
- Gather statistics using Google Analytics. If you aren’t monitoring and measuring traffic, how will you know what interests people the most? Discover most popular posts and what external links people are clicking on.
- Promote your online presence by adding a link to your LinkedIn and / or Facebook profile (you do have one, don’t you?). Give people a chance to find and learn more about you via other social networks. Conversely, you can promote your blog through your profiles. Add your site address to your profiles. In Facebook, auto-import your blog feed via the Notes application.
- Point to your blog by building a Squidoo lens. A lens is an organized directory that makes it easy for people to find your good stuff. It’s free and you should have one… it will bring you credibility and traffic. You could list your top postings, as well as a bio of yourself and your blog feed. I don’t have one on my blog (yet), but you can learn from me about all about ultimate frisbee!
There are lots more ways to promote your blog, but those are 5 you can do easily and costs you only your time.
Thousands of voices, one cause
Climate change is front and centre in the news again today, with the announcement of the Nobel Peace prize being awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
This Monday, October 16, 13,734 bloggers at latest count including myself reaching an audience of nearly 12 million will unite together to put the issue of climate change on everyone’s mind. It’s all part of Blog Action Day.
If you write a blog, it’s easy to take part, and I encourage you to do so. Climate change affects all of us. The fact that the Nobel Peace committee considers climate change a real threat to world peace underlines that we all need to commit to changing how we live – right now.
I’ll be writing about ways I’m improving the energy efficiency of my home, which helps both the environment and my pocket-book, especially during those cold Canadian winters. I’d like to keep enjoying those cold winters, too, but climate change is already diminishing the snow levels here in Northern Ontario. Our last Christmas was a green Christmas. Snowmobile tourism is dying out.
On Monday, be part of the solution.
Ask the Readers: Can Plone be Green-Powered?
Data centres consume vast amounts of energy, and the situation is only getting worse. Luiz Andre Barraso of Google stated in a published paper last year that every gain in performance has been accompanied by a proportional increase in overall platform power consumption. ZDNet UK reports that the average energy costs of running a data centre in the UK will double over the next five years. The European Commission is now considering a voluntary code of conduct on energy efficiency for data centre operators to help address this issue.
No wonder consumers are looking for greener hosting choices. A potential client of mine is interested in hosting his site with a provider that uses green energy. This interests me as well, in my pursuit of leaving a smaller footprint on our planet.
The one he found uses 100% renewable energy (wind and solar), plants a new tree for each client, and believes in social responsibility through how they work, including telecommuting and a mostly paperless office. Unfortunately, their offerings aren’t suitable for Plone, and that is the same story with every other hosting provider I found, including ones listed at TreeHugger.com. If there is a “green” option out there for Plone, I haven’t found it.
So, is there an option for environmentally conscious organizations / individuals who want their Plone site consuming less of our natural resources? Let me know by posting your comments.
Technorati Tags: environment
How To: Save Money and Hassle on Travel
I don’t get out of the house much these days, but for those of you who travel to sprints, conferences (like the upcoming Plone conference in Italy – wish I was going!) or fun exotic locations, Web Worker Samuel Dean has some tips for using Kayak.com and Farecast.com to get the best deal on your travel options.
In a nutshell: use Kayak’s slider tool to quickly adjust departure and arrival times to find additional options and check Farecast’s price trend on your chosen fare to make sure today is a good day to buy.
Click-and-Drag to Save Travel Dollars and Avoid Hassle [Web Worker Daily]
Technorati Tags: money, productivity, shopping, travel
Friday funnies in the #plone room
#plone is the online chat room where people hang out to learn, help and talk about their favourite CMS Plone. There are always lots of people online and it’s a great resource for anyone new to Plone who needs some immediate help. And if your brain is slowly turning to cheese on a Friday afternoon, hop into #plone for some low powered entertainment. Here are some samples for you:
andym : lol UndoError: Undo error None: non-undoable transaction
[3:20pm] PloneUser684958: sdfjdlskfljk
[3:20pm] PloneUser684958: slkfjsdlkfjlskfjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjsd
[3:20pm] PloneUser684958: jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
[3:20pm] PloneUser684958 left the chat room. (“Bye bye”)
[3:21pm] gkirk: a keyboard streaker!
[3:21pm] darci|lunch: LOL
[3:21pm] ErikRose: Good, I was almost out of j’s!
[3:21pm] limi: ErikRose: that’s Perl
[3:21pm] ErikRose: Oh.
[3:21pm] limi: or, hang on
[3:21pm] limi: ^T$@(*#)^* is perl
[3:21pm] andym: limi: no its readable
[3:21pm] limi: my bad
MatthewWilkes: andym: Did you remember to uninstall plone.app.randomlyfuckupmysite? It removes the requirement to specify yes_really_i_didnt_call_this_api_for_amusement
[3:41pm] runyaga_: do we need a reality check?
[3:41pm] runyaga_: is it a CMS ?
[3:42pm] runyaga_: is your adapted result a CMS?
[3:42pm] runyaga_: or a nuclear powered semantic web engine?
[3:42pm] runyaga_: Plone is a CMS
[3:42pm] runyaga_: if you try to make it a semantic web engine or a ERP system you are going to hate your life
Do you have a favourite quote / conversation from #plone? Add yours to the comments.