mercredi 10 août 2005

Big Zope Databases, Who's Got'em? On plope.com, Chris highlights a posting by a Boston.com developer. Their ZODB regularly gets of 30 Gb. Anybody else out there have comparable numbers they can talk about in public? 8:29:56 PM   comment []

EuroPython Recap Sure, 2 months is a bit of a long time to wait for a half-hearted recap. I'll likely leave out 90% of what I should talk about, but at least I can cross a to-do off my list. EuroPython started with severe pain. Tres and I met in London to spend the night and catch an early flight, to make sure we got rest before the sprint. A series of delays led to a series of incredible delays, ending with a closed hotel and 3 hours sleep in the most-expensive on-airport hotel. There was a Z3 ECM sprint in the days before the conference. A good number of initiatives saw progress and collaboration between groups. We had a key player missing so we didn't tackle some of the harder questions about how to get the project organized, but in general there was a positive spirit and useful results. We had an ad-hoc BBQ which attracted around 80 people. Aiste, Bea, and I coordinated the BBQ and found that, despite bringing some big strong guys from POV, there was a limit to the amount of food we could carry across town. Still, things worked out fine. Regarding the conference itself, all was smooth on the Zope and CMS track. The talks seemed better than any year I could remember for EuroPython's Zope track. Attendence held steady at last year's numbers. There was one exchange that really sticks out in my mind. We had a Z3 ECM panel, moderated by Tres and including Florent, Martijn, Joel, and Steve. Martin Aspelli asked a wonderful question about inclusiveness. In a nutshell, he views himself as a useful developer who's interested, but not a rock star like the panelists. He didn't really know if Z3 ECM wanted folks like him, and if so, how he should get started. This insightful question was responded to by an even more insightfulq response by Martijn, who said the project must make it a priority to reach out to such people. Martijn later gave a lightning talk on how companies should and shouldn't hatch open source software projects. He's also made the point on mailing lists. I find Martijn's perspective on this to be extremely poignant and valuable. The lightning talk track had several "wow!" presentations and nearly all of the talks were on-time and high-quality. Lightning talks are almost by definition a hit-or-miss affair. This year was largely a hit. There were many organizers involved in the conference that deserve attention, but none moreso than Jacob Hallen. He shouldered an inordinate amount of the load at the end but preserved a calm, welcoming style of leadership that made the conference a joy both for track chairs and attendees. Thanks, Jacob. By the end of the conference I was frankly glad to wrap it up. I volunteered for too much coordination (sprint, BBQ, Zope track, and lightning talks). It wasn't so much the work as the number of consecutive days with my procrastinated, unfinished task list looming over my head as a guilty reminder of moral failure. Still, this is the only large scale Zope event of the year, so I view it as a privilege to be involved in planning. (Others are welcome, hint hint.) 8:28:16 PM   comment []

Paul Graham on open source and business While I didn't get to see Paul Graham's talk at OSCON, I read his essay afterwards. He talks at length about the current model of how businesses are organized, and what open source and blogging might teach us about future approaches. I've given quite a number of speeches in the past few years on open source business models. Recently I've tried to narrow in on how you tell the difference between a business that is an "open source" company vs. one that isn't. I generally do this as audience dialog because I haven't found crisp responses. Paul's essay hits many nails on many heads. He pokes holes in the traditional myths about "grown-up" firms vs. "founders still act like they're in the garage". I wonder if there is a natural progression to Paul's conclusion. Just as individual open source developers aggregate into larger structures to tackle larger codebases, might open source businesses or independent consultants do likewise to tackle larger deals? Of course Paul is just catching up to Chris's wonderful "Lifestyle, Inc." piece on plope.com. I wonder if Chris could be enticed to update his piece with how things are going a year after writing it. In summary, Paul's "What Business Can Learn from Open Source" is a long but entertaining and gratifying reading. 8:06:23 PM   comment []