[Zope3-dev] Re: Zope 3 branding

[Jim Fulton]

robert boulanger wrote:

...

> I disagree with that point. IMHO if they will hesitate, then the letter is not 
> the reason. And it is not the first sentence, it is the last one in paragraph 
> four. They are hesitated so far for example, because several people in June 
> in Chaleroix created the impression and rumours that Zope3 will be here 
> within 2002. 

I know that, at that time, I specifically told people that we didn't know
the timing and that the timing would depend on community involvement.


 > Yesterday I've read the first time a statement from Jim
> concerning this topic. ( 
> http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope3-dev/2003-January/005312.html )
> Being happy about this posting,

I'm glad that you are happy. We, ZC, realized from your open letter
that clarification of the timeline was overdue.

 > I still wonder whether this has official
> character and is realistic, or is only his personal plan

Well, coming from me, it is official. I think it is a realistic
schedule. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty.


> There he speaks about a release date Sept. 1st for Zope 3x which will be the 
> incompatible version, and a release date March 1st 2004 for Zope 3.
> 
> March 2004. imagine. Thats over one year. 

What's your point? Given your questioning whether my schedule was realistic,
do you think that this is overly optimistic?

> Put this roadmap on an official place on Zope.org and all problems are solved 
> with this one posting.

OK.

But, I think we, the community can do more.  I like Seb's idea of getting some
people together to work on the transition issues, including communication.
I'm in the process of setting the relevant mailing list up.

> The problem which caused people to hesitate, is, that there where too much 
> statements concerning Zope 3 which reached the public.

I'm confused. I would think that communication is good.

 > A lot of information
> about the complete rewrite, about incompatibilities and a bunch of rumours. 
> But NO roadmap or timeline. That's the real problem.

I've spend a lot of time talking about Zope 3 this year, including talking
about the timeline.  For example, at the Zope BBQ in Berlin, I said that:

- The timeline was uncertain, because it depended on the efforts of
   volunteers, and that

- The soonest we could expect an alpha would be Sptember 2002.

I think that this reassured people that Zope 3 was not immanent.

> PR and marketing for Z3 should not start before a beta 2 is released.

I'm not sure what you mean. We aren't doing anything to market Z3, since
it's not usable for production yet.

OTOH, it's an open source project. We want to recruit people to work on it.
People want to know about it.  We have to do this. If we didn't, we'd
be criticized for closed development.

 > But then
> with full power. Until this happens, I would suggest to publish an official 
> FAQ somewhere, which should have at least one Question:
> 
> Q: "When will Zope 3 arrive" 
> A: "Not before spring 2004"

I agree that we need to do a better job of communicating this. Hopefully,
the group that Seb is forming can help with this.

I'll note that, for many people, Zope 3 will arrive September 2003.

> And you will see that all will calm down again.

Great.

...

> In meanwhile no new comments have been added to the letter for a while. 
> Unfortunatly nobody from ZC found it worth to give an official response so 
> far, so I'm thinking about retracting the news item anyway.

We definately consider it worthwhile to make a response.  Expect a response
soon.


> One main reason 
> for the letter was to get an official statement about Z3's and Z2's future. 

Well, then I'm glad I was able to help.

Jim

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