Mainstreaming Zope
Paul Everitt |
Paul Everitt, former DigiCool CEO now touring Europe to evangelize Zope/Python, has been blogging at
Zope Dispatches for a couple of months. Recently he had an epiphany in France:
Last week we had dinner at the house of some friends, who invited a couple we hadn't met. I sat beside them at dinner, and the husband asked what I do. I've gotten used to the challenge of explaining Zope, so I asked if he had heard of Linux. "Yes, of course". So I said we do something like Linux, but for web applications.
His response? "Oh, so it's something like Zope?"
I stared at him, expressionless, for several moments while I underwent a core dump. The stranger sitting next to me at an ordinary dinner in France uses Zope as the first response when thinking about Linux-like web applications?
Ok, so it's official, this Zope thing is pretty freakin' big in Europe. And you can imagine the expression on his face when my wife told him who I was. [Zope Dispatches]
That Zope would be huge in Europe, yet relatively unappreciated in the US, somehow doesn't surprise me. <sweepingGeneralization>For some reason, especially elegant object-oriented technologies always seem to have special resonance among Europeans.</sweepingGeneralization>. On the other hand, I'm glad to see Paul grappling with the dark side of Zope's cult appeal...... [Jon's Radio]
<tagged>I love sweeping generalizations like this - especially when they're </tagged>. Jon is such a nerd. I discovered myself that Europeans and Asians are much more adept at and inclined to adopt multimedia before Americans. And we all know how slow the U.S. has been in picking up SMS and many of the Smart Mob/mobile trends and services available today.
I wonder why that is? I used to think it's because of the isolationist/single language attitude of Americans. Nowadays I see a weird feedback loop between influential American culture, ricocheting off the U.K., being picked up in Japan and cloned in China. What a world we lve in!
Anyway Zope is the thing to know about.
I can't wait to put up the shots of tonight's party.
