At PloneConf 2019 in Ferrara I had a feeling of realization, That I had a misconception of the current state of Plone and development. In talks at the conference I also have seen that others have the same problem, as we speak of very different things. The overall question that raised is “What is Plone for you?” and what is the future of Plone. For me Plone is a vision, to empower users. Volto caries this vision. Therefore I can only recommend to endorse Volto as the future of Plone.

1. The Plone is dead,
long live the Plone!
A problem of misconception
Alexander Loechel

2. This talk cites explicit copyright licensed work:
● Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS
● The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy based upon the novel by Douglas Adams, the film is produced and
trademark of Touchstone Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Hammer & Tongs, Everyman Pictures
those images are used for this presentation
under fair use conditions due to
non-profit & non-commercial nature of this
presentation and fandom aspects
All other Images are directly marked with licence and origin, if not CC0/Public domain
CC0

3. Sources and References (Conference Videos)
● Plone Conferences (Ferrara 2019, Tokyo and before)
○ The State of Plone - Eric Steele (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6bTE4GuFSQ)
○ Plone Beyond 2020: Jump into Volto today! - Víctor Fernández de Alba (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QrGOgXo1Js)
○ On the Road - Plone 6 and Beyond - Timo Stollenwerk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suXVdfYV2kA)
○ The Plone Foundation Needs You! - Érico Andrei (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1VLnhRu4e8)
○ Panel - Future of Plone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLd9Nb6TcE4)
○ Panel - Framework comparison (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kXBHu76LNA)
○ Panel - Ask me anything on Volto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwbpXJlDVOs)
○ Reinventing Plone - Roadmap to the Modern Web - Timo Stollenwerk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgqgd-JImHE)
● The Plone Connection Podcast - T. Kim Nguyen + Érico Andrei (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbKvpLjIDIY&)
● Some of my talks - Alexander Loechel
○ Plone, quo vadis? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiDeJxde4fk)
○ We are the Plone Collective. Resistance is futile. Assimilation is inevitable (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeFFdOGC6k)
○ Web-Content-Management-Systems - The Past - The Present - The Future (https://www.fau.tv/clip/id/9486) CMS Garden approach
○ Plone the Python CMS & Web-Framework for advanced Topics and Non-Developers
(https://de.slideshare.net/AlexanderLoechel/plone-the-python-cms-web-framework-for-advanced-topics-and-nondevelopers)
○ Zope / Plone - A History of Python Web (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zgujXCPmrI)

4. A feeling of realization at

5. Plone is
something else
for everybody
even or especially in the Plone community

6. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Touchstone Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Hammer & Tongs, Everyman Pictures
Language is difficult
Language is important!
More than just Syntax and Semantics
Words have specific meanings
⬇
Technology is complex and maybe complicated
⬇
Common Sense / Understanding is even harder

7. I am an Information Scientist
& Manager
⬇
therefore I am very language sensitive
(maybe not always language aware)
The Absolute Correctness - Georgios Liakopoulos
CC-SA 3.0 Wikipedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Absolute_Correctness_(205421489).jpeg

8. 8
“Most of the biggest problems
in software are problems
of misconception.”
Rich Hickey

9. What is Plone for you?What is Plone for you? - Maurizio Delmonte - Abstract @ Plone Open Garden Sorrento 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfDFhLFwPK4

10. What is Plone for you?
Questions - by Nick Youngson
CC-BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images - http://alphastockimages.com/

11. What is your connection to Plone?
● None
● User
● Integrator
● Addon Developer
● Core-Developer
● Community Member
● Foundation Member

12. What is Plone for you?
● A Product CMS
● A Framework / Toolkit
● A Community
● A Foundation
● An Idea / Vision

13. What are the core ideas of Plone for you?
● User Experience → Empowering Users
● Accessibility → Diversity
● Flexibility (unopinionated base)
● Extensibility
● Security
● Multilingual
● Scalability
● Maintainability

14. What are core functionalities of Plone for you?
● Content Types (including Schema, Fields & Behaviors)
● Permissions
● Workflows
● Hierarchy
● Traversal
● Acquisition
● Collections (Query Data)
● Generic Setup (Policies + Addon System)
● Pluggable Auth System (PAS)
● Content Rules
● Internationalization + Localization
● Through the Web (TTW) Customization / Development
● ...

15. Who are the competitors to Plone, in your point of view?
● Drupal
● Typo3
● WordPress
● Django CMS
● Wagtail
● … (some other CMS)
● Liferay
● SharePoint
● None

16. What is Plone now? / What is Plone in 2020?
Presentations at Plone Conference 2019 and before
An feeling of realizing at Plone Conference 2019 Ferrara

19. Plone is a Software Plone is an Software API
Plone is a Community Plone is a Foundation

20. Plone Core is an API
→ but there are more than one API:
plone.api, plone.restapi and Plone-UI
→ none is complete
Every Plone Company has a
different point of view of competitors
→ different focus of their product

21. What is “Plone “ now?
● “The mature open-source Python CMS”
● “Plone is the community”
● Foundation Viewpoint API contract
○ Plone CMS ➤ Security
○ Zope ➤ Flexibility
○ Guillotina ➤ Extensibility
○ Volto ➤ User Experience
● Community Viewpoint
○ Sprints
○ Conferences
○ Add-ons
Plone as the API contract

22. Implementations may change
overtime, values don’t
What do customers and
users want nowadays?

23. Plone has evolved from being an
standalone product to be a contract,
the knowledge and wisdom that we the Plone community,
achieved during the last 20 years
building a world class enterprise CMS
Víctor Fernández de Alba - Volto: Past Present and Future - PloneConf 2020

24. The Limi Checklist → Simplifying
→ Simplifying Plone
● Developers
○ Simplifying the technical Stack
○ Use Standard Technology → REST API + React
● Users
○ Cognitive Overhead
○ Fewer Content Types
○ Composite Pages

25. What is / was Plone for me?

26. Community Foundation
Product (CMS)
Framework /
Toolkit .
Vision
Plone

27. For me,
Plone is a vision
not a contract (API)

28. The Vision to
Empower Users

29. Users?
● Customers (Customer Product Owners)
● Content Consumers (Anonymous, Reader)
● Content Creators (Editor)
● Power Users / Reviewers / Editors-in-Chief (Reviewer)
● Plone Site-Admin (Site-Admin)
● Zope Admins (Manager)
● Server Operators (Ops-Admins)
● Integrators
● Developers

30. What is Plone?
Back to the API point of view
API as contract of the core functionality

31. is a
CMS
Content Management System

32. Plone is NOT a
web framework

33. is a
Content Integration Framework
or Umbrella for a lot of frameworks

34. is a
Content Integration Framework
or Umbrella for a lot of frameworks
There I was wrong!

35. Plone CMS as a Product
Plone as a Vision → Simplification

36. Community Foundation
Product (CMS)
Framework /
Toolkit
Vision
Plone

37. Implementation may change overtime,
values don’t

38. “All Ideas grow out of other Ideas.”
Anish Kapoor
“If I have seen further it is by
standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
Isaac Newton - Bernard of Chartres

41. Plone was the User Interface
to the power of Zope / CMF
ZMI → Plone UI
Plone UI vs. CLI & Code

42. Layered System
● Layers hide complexity
● make complex things easier
● defined API between the layers

43. bobo
Principia
ZODB
ZeroDB
NewtDBCMF
Silva
ZMS
Nuxeo
ZCA
ZTK
Grok .
Blue Bream
repoze.bfgmorepath
twisted
aiohttp
Paster
WebOb
Pylons
Ruby on Rails
plone.server
WSGI
Evolution Tree around Zope/Plone
Zope 3
SubstanceD
Kotti
React

44. Naming Things is hard
→ Namespaces (Community vs. Stack-Layer)

45. The Plone 6 Stack
simplified
Python
Python 3-party libraries
(pytz, requests, PyScss, …)
Zope Base Packages
(RestrictedPython, Persistence, zope.interface, …)
Linux Products (e.g. gettext, xmllib2, …)
JavaScript
Pylons Packages
(waitress, Chameleon, ...)
React
...
Zope Application Server (Zope 5)
Generic Plone Packages
(plone.app.*, dexterity, …)
Plone Core Packages
(plone.*, dexterity, plone.app.contenttypes, …)
Zope Component Architecture Zope Toolkit ZODB
Plone UI (classic)
Volto
Redux
...
Plone REST API
Content Management Framework (CMF)
GatsbyJS
Plone Community
2020 2015

46. We are the Plone Community,
not the Zope Community!
Values, Ideas and Vision are more
important to us than the technology

47. API Problem
Pareto principle → 80/20 rule
● Define the API → Functionality
● Reinventing the wheel
● Never 100 % Feature compatible
(undocumented features, no API definition for feature)
● Depreciation of features

48. A complex system that works is invariably
found to have evolved from a simple system
that worked. The inverse proposition also
appears to be true: A complex system designed
from scratch never works and cannot be made
to work. You have to start over, beginning with
a working simple system.
Source: "John Gall's law" - from "Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail" - 1975

51. Lesson From Zope 3
Rename the beast

52. Lesson From Zope 3
Rename the beast
There I was wrong, too!

53. The Vision to
Empower Users
→ Content Creators
→ Developers

54. Distributions with a product character
(make complex systems simpler)
System / Vendor development
To reach a greater market

55. “Any intelligent fool can make
things bigger and complex… it
takes a touch of genius - and a
lot of courage to move in the
opposite direction.”
Albert Einstein
Star Trek - The Next Generation (1987-1994) S06E02 - Realm of Fear
Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS

56. “rapid turnaround”
Better Web App Development by Sean Kelly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWODIO6aCUE NASA, 2006

57. The Vision lives on
Volto is the future of Plone UI

58. Le roi est mort,
vive le roi!
The King is dead,
long live the king!
Traditional proclamation
→ change and continuity
→ change of generation
(“A new Hope”)
→ new energy / enthusiasm

59. Passing the Baton

60. Alexander Limi & Alan Runyan
⬇
…
⬇
Albert Casado & Víctor Fernández de Alba

61. A new Generation
Implementation may
change overtime,
values don’t

62. It is about Leadership and Vision
Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS

63. great ideas,
great technology

64. Plone is an awesome Community

65. Acknowledgement
The active Plone Community
Albert Casado, Alec Mitchell, Alessandro Pisa, Alexander Loechel, Andrea Cecchi, Andreas Jung, Asko Soukka, Christian Kreutzer, Christian
Theune, Christine Baumgartner, Cillian de Róiste, Davi Lima, Daniel Havlik, David Glick, Eric Bréhault, Eric Steele, Érico Andrei, Fred van Dijk,
Georg Bernhard, Gil Forcada, Godfroid Chapelle, Hanno Schlichting, Harald Frissnegger, Jan Mevissen, Jens Klein, Jens Vagepohl, Johannes
Raggam, Joni Orponen, Jörg Zell, Jürgen Gmach, Katja Süss, Maik Derstappen, Manuel Reinhardt, Markus Hilbert, Matthew Wilkes, Martin Häcker,
Maurits van Rees, Michael Howitz, Michael Töpfl, Nathan Van Gheem, Ramon Navarro Bosch, Rob Gietema, Robert Niederreiter, Roel Bruggink,
Patrick Gerken, Paul Roeland, Peter Holzer, Peter Mathis, Phillip Bauer, Stephan Klinger, Steffen Allner, Sune Brøndum Wøller, Thomas Lotze,
Thomas Massmann, Thomas Schorr, Tres Seaver, Timo Stollenwerk, Víctor Fernández de Alba, David Glick, Gil Forcada Cordinachs, Franco
Pellegrini, Paul Roeland, Steve McMahon, Martin Opstad Reistadbakk, Sven Strack, Steve McMahon, T. Kim Nguyen
And much more ...
Star Trek (Kelvin Timeline, 2009)
Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS

66. “Things do not happen.
Things are made to happen”
John F. Kennedy
→ Change needs Leadership
Star Trek - The Next Generation (1987-1994)
Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS

67. Plone Foundation
Mission: Protect and Promote Plone
What the Foundation Board of Directors does:
● Decision-making structure for essential community activities
● Manage Copyrights, Trademark, Domains, Intellectual Property
● Code Licensing
● Coordinate Marketing & Communication
● Fundraising to support the community
● Finance sprints, events community infrastructure
Outside the scope of the Foundation
● Lead or steer the development of software → Framework & Release-Team
○ Roadmap, priorities, feature come from the community
○ Foundation has liaisons to some teams - communication
● Compete with Plone/Zope/Guilliotina/Volto providers
○ Support contracts, licenses
○ Trainings

68. The Plone Foundation & Community needs you!

69. Wishes for the future:
● for Plone the Product:
○ Endorse Volto - the Plone vision of “simplifying CMS work”
○ Attract new developers - keep the community vital
○ Move Packages / Modules
→ generics and namespace
● for Plone the Foundation:
○ Secure the Product / Framework / Toolkit
○ Overlap with the Pyramid / Pylons Family → Absorb
● for Plone the Community:
○ Stay connected
○ Learn from each other
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS

70. Stay Community
“You can take the man out of Plone
But you could not take the Plone out of the man.”
Laurence Rowe - Plone Open Garden 2015 - Sorrento

71. Live long and prosper
Star Trek (Kelvin Timeline, 2009)
Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of ViacomCBS