I'd like to draw attention to a mailinglist post by Paul Roeland. He says, in a very articulate and heart-felt way, how good a fit Plone is for NGOs (non-governmental organisations for those that don't know the term, so everything from your small local foundation to the big Friends of the Earth and Oxfam stuff).
As a plone developer, I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside when I read sentences like the techie in me is feeling a lot more re-assured when it's done on the basis of a technologically very coherent and well-thought-out platform like Plone. And But as a whole, I base my judgement on the Plone community that i've met on the mailinglists, IRC and most importantly at conferences and sprints. Together, these people form an absolutely mind-boggling constellation.
Wow. We must be doing something right. And the NGOs are doing something right, too. They're seeing and using Plone-the-platform as a way to build their websites and they're doing it in a really sustainable way. Feedback; lots of interaction with us; funded products (kupu, linguaplone, for instance); seeking out companies that are rooted in the Plone community; participation on the mailing lists; etc. "Lots of interaction with us" isn't really the right way to say it. There's no division: this is community work, baby!
One unrelated comment: the gnome.org website is moving to plone and they need plone people .
My name is Reinout van Rees and I work a lot with Python (programming language) and Django (website framework). I live in The Netherlands and I'm happily married to Annie van Rees-Kooiman.
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