I was a "simple attendee" at the Houston WPD, so take my impressions for
what they're worth.
(1) attendance in Houston was "ok". I didn't do a head count, but a
rough guess would put the number at around 20. Honestly, I expected
(hoped) for at least 2-3 times that number.
(2) the facility we had at the U. of Houston was fantastic. This is
probably because one of the Plone founders (Alan Runyan) is local
(literally just a few miles away). The free lunch provided, while a
simple box sandwich/wrap type, was quite good. Whoever arranged it
deserves major kudos!
(3) Audience - I feel for the presenters because it is always difficult
to gauge just who your audience is likely to be. It seemed that more
than 50% of the attendees in Houston already had some experience w/
Plone. Unfortunately, this isn't true for myself and my wife (one of
only 2 females in attendance).
I came as a system administrator, but not web designer, who is looking
at it from a "is this something that will make my life - and the life of
the users in my dept - easier?". Iow, I wanted some of the technical
details about installation (on Linux) and *configuration*. There was
virtually none. :-( Now that's not to say I didn't get anything out
of it - it was still worthwhile for me to attend. And the fact that I
won a door prize of a Plone User's Guide book is likely going to be VERY
helpful! :-)
My wife came as "VERY non-tech oriented, but trying to maintain a
website for a non-profit organization" person. Much of the discussion
was WAY over her head, but she was able to glean enough (she's not
totally tech incompetent) to see how using Plone is probably the right
tool for the job she is trying to accomplish (by comparison, she is
currently using Google Apps).
(4) Presenters - Alan presented 2 of the topics and was fantastic. They
were BY FAR were the best ones there (at least as far as getting
information I could use out of it).
In fact, there was really only 1 presentation that I felt was not all
that great - it was a remote "call-in" that really wasn't about Plone,
but was instead almost totally about their website. To be more clear, I
really wasn't interested in what their website was about or how people
use it - I wanted to see how they used Plone to build it.
(5) Content - Overall, I think the content was directed mostly at the
"ubber geek, *programmer*" audience. Honestly, I think this is a
mistake. Please don't misunderstand me; I liked WPD - it was useful for
both me and my wife to attend. We both got something out of it.
BUT (you knew I had to include a "but"), if the goal is to build
evangelism in Plone, I think the target audience needs to be redirected
more toward folks like myself (maybe 15%-20% of the content) and my wife
(at least 70% of the content). Now maybe this is because I believe in
an "end-user driven environment". After all, it's the end-user, not the
programmer, that will dictate what systems, programs, environments get
used and "win in the end".
--
Chris Barnes AOL IM: CNBarnes
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo IM: chrisnbarnes
Computer Systems Manager MSN IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Physics ph: 979-845-7801
Texas A&M University fax: 979-845-2590
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