boston plone user group: first meeting, date, location, topic (what is plone?)

[skoul at newfs.org (Sid Koul)]

> on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 2:54 PM
> scott obrien [scottrules AT gmail DOT com] wrote
>
> i'd like to learn more about Plone, but the website fails (in my searches) 
> to provide any examples of real world functionality as well as screen 
> shots. any clue as to where i can see such things? thanks.


Plone is an open-source, web-based content management system and web application server. Depending on your background, that definition may or may not be helpful. 

However, the fact that Plone is an app server means that when you are browsing the plone.org web site, you are using Plone. Put another way, when you browse the plone.org website, you *are* looking at Plone. So there is no need for a screenshot. You're already looking at it.

That doesn't mean that you are locked into the default pale-blue look-n-feel of the plone.org web site. The UI is very flexible and 'skins' can be created using cascading style sheets. Take a look at some of the sites that use Plone to manage their content for an idea of how malleable the UI is.

  http://plone.org/about/sites/


If you've never used a CMS, some of the concepts and descriptions for Plone can sound somewhat abstract. In a nutshell --

A web-based content management system (CMS) like Plone allows multiple people to create, edit, update and share documents on a web server. The only requirements are that the person have a username and password to login to the web server, an Internet connection, and a web browser.

A CMS also ensures that a web site has a consistent look-and-feel by removing the responsibility of color selection, menu placement, and navigation aids from the user--these things are automatically taken care of by the system. This has two benefits.

  1. Makes document creation simple.
  2. Allows users to focus on the content of the document.

I hope this has helped you. I encourage you to come to the first user group meeting!!

-Sid 



BOSTON PLONE USERS GROUP
------------------------

Do you work with Plone?
Do you want to know more about Plone?

Come and meet other Plone users and developers at the kickoff meeting
for the Boston Plone users group. We will gather monthly to talk about 
how we are using Plone, share knowledge and give demonstrations of
cool Plone products. All skill levels are welcome!


http://plone.meetup.com/1/events/4765229/ 

When:    Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 7:00 PM

Where:   Nature Conservancy
         11 Avenue de Lafayette
         Boston, MA 02111
         866-864-4918 (TOLL FREE)

Map:     http://tinyurl.com/7om2n

Directions:  Take the Green Line to Boylston T stop or the Orange or
Red line to Downtown Crossing T stop. The Nature Conservancy is
located behind Macy's at the corner of Chauncey. 

Topic:  A summary of the Vienna Plone Conference. Come and find out
what's new and cool in the Plonosphere! If there's time, we will also
demonstrate the new features of Plone 2.1. If you have specific topics 
that you'd like to discuss, please post them in the plone.meetup.com
discussion forum.


About Plone:  Plone is a powerful open-source content management system
that makes it easy to build websites. It is built on top of the Zope 
application server. See http://www.plone.org/ for more details.