by
Toby Ward
on Mon 09 Apr 2007 10:52 PM PDT
Open source products are hot. They’re the ‘cat’s meow’ of the development community. And more and more companies are adopting open source products – particularly CMS and portal products (see The growing popularity of open source intranets).
However, even with the high adoption rate and many fans, open source does have its obvious cons. Plone is one of the most popular and hottest platforms. It’s simple to implement and to manage content ‘out-of-the-box’, but while the default deployment is simple, it is also simplistic. To implement a custom design and more robust templates requires a lot of customization for which an experience developer is highly recommended.
Highly customized deployments such as Boston.com have required a lot of custom work. Even less complex sites such as the Prescient Digital Media website (www.PrescientDigital.com) required considerable customization. Simple content updates on default templates are very simple and requires almost no training for even the oldest of luddites. However, once you venture outside the default templates and develop your own, publishing can be a little more tricky.
Prescient’s Will O’Neill writes about the pros and cons of Plone in To Plone or not to Plone:
“While the Plone development community is booming, much of it is also in its infancy; many of the products, while usable, are technically classified by their creators as being in the beta or even alpha stages – bug reports are common and encouraged. It is likely that many of the developers don’t possess the commercial imperative to refine and finish their products that a company making a commercial CMS offering would, so it’s a dice throw as to whether or not the add-on you require will have a stable release in the timeframe that you need it. You may end up having to compromise with a similar module, hire a Python developer to develop a custom solution, or forego the functionality altogether if security or stability concerns outweigh its value.”
Read more in To Plone or not to Plone.
ADDITIONAL READING:
Open source intranets
The growing popularity of open source intranets
The open source revolution
ON A PERSONAL NOTE:
A Happy Easter to all! I hope everyone had a fine long-weekend. I read my 6-year-old some children’s versions of the story of Easter (the crucifixion, rebirth, etc.) – she was absolutely fascinated. My one-year-old however is still sick… lots of tests, etc. Still a mystery. Nothing serious expected, but it’s been 3-month’s of a lot of laundry and long nights…. and I’m pretty darn tired already!
Today is also a special day in Northern France where some 10,000+ commemorated the 90-year anniversary of the battle at Vimy Ridge. While special in France, in it is an exceptional historical footnote for Canada and for the First World War (The Great War). In short, it was the epicenter for the trench warfare that stalemated the first years of the war. About 200,000 troops died trying to take Vimy Ridge until the Canadian Corps capture the hill in an epic three day battle that saw the Canadians capture the hill – the first significant allied victory of the war and a turning point that led to the big allied push and counterattack that “would ultimately lead to victory over Germany by November 1918.”
The site today and its monument is nothing short of awesome – literally. It is 10 stories tall and looks over the northern plains of France. It is surrounded by a landscape of pot-marked artillery craters. To this day much of the hill is a fenced off danger zone as the ground is rife with unexploded artillery. The site, given to Canada by France, also featured the real trenches of the time. In one place, the trenches are only 25 meters apart separated by a massive artillery creator – close enough that the Germans and Canadians could talk to each other.
I had a chance to visit Vimy and it is truly an awesome place to visit. A must see in Northern France.
A final footnote and a true story: when the Germans rolled through France in WWII, a vengeful Hitler ordered most of the WWI memorials to be smashed (we all know his hatred for the outcome of WWI) as he also ordered the destruction of Paris (but thanks to the irreverent German Commander of Paris, Dietrich von Choltitz the city was saved despite Hitler’s raving demands. A fascinating story in itself and the subject of an excellent book called Is Paris Burning?). However, Hitler took a liking to the Vimy Ridge memorial and he orchestrated a press visit there where he had his picture taken. The visit triggered a propaganda campaign whereby the British falsely accused Hitler of destroying the 10-storey monument. Hitler fought back by releasing the photos and used it as an opportunity to lay additional claims of falsifying propaganda against the British.
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