[Gllug] Register article: "Open source UK" gets trade body

[Doug Winter]

On Fri 23 Apr Bruce Richardson wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 03:46:58PM +0100, Richard wrote:
> > Now this is something I've been saying for a while that we all need:
> > 
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/23/open_source_trade_association/
> 
> Who appointed these people?  Answer: they appointed themselves.  I will
> be very surprised if they represent anybody's interests but their own.

(Our company is one of the sponsors of ZopeUK, and I was at the launch on
Monday.  I am on the Executive Committee.)

Obviously we are doing it to advance the interests of our companies - if
we were doing it for any other reason we'd be failing out shareholders.
We are a trade association, whose purpose is to advance the business we
all share.

All the companies involved work with, and produce, open source software.
Some of those present have had significant involvement in developing
Zope, including the new president, Paul Everitt, who was one of the
founders of Zope Corp.

> "The association will promote open source in general, and Zope, Plone
> and Python technolgies in particular".  Sorry, but the particular may
> well come into conflict with the general.  In fact, it already has: why
> call a general trade body *Zope* UK?  Zope is the name of a particular
> application, so to people familiar with OS applications it would tend to
> indicate a specific interest.  To other people, it's a meaningless and
> (frankly) stupid word and represents nothing.
> "the hope is that with one body to present the views of the open source
> community to government and other organisations.."

We called it ZopeUK because the organisation is entirely Zope focused.
We all use Zope pretty much exclusively as our delivery platform, and
our marketing is very much based on what you can do with Zope and why
it's great.  That's why it makes sense as a trade association.

I wouldn't read too much into the Register's weird interpretation of our
aims.  I think they've slapped lots of Open Source references all over
it because is a subject de jour.
 
> Eh?  One body?  Are they going to get the FSF or GNU or OSF to shut up
> or channel their comments through Zope UK?  I doubt it.  I don't think
> they even consulted with anybody else before claiming primacy.

Of course we didn't consult with anyone, and we claim no primacy.  We're
just a bunch of Zope geeks trying to make some money out of doing Zope
for people :)

> This is a non-story.  One credulous journalist regurgitates a press
> release rather than do any proper work.

It was a pretty poor story by the reg, but we'll take whatever PR we can
get.  Unfortunately we've got an uphill struggle selling to large
organisations, especially government.  Anything that puts Open Source
(and in this case, Zope) on the radar has to help.

doug.

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