[consulting] CMS comparison

[Jenny Hsueh]

Fully agree with what John said here. if creativity and unbound playing 
field is a decided focus of Drupal, then  for us on this consulting 
list  we have to come up with plan B if we to continue using  drupal as 
a business solution or plan C to keep drupal as a sandbox toy for ideas  
inspirations.

The plan B - business wrapper around drupal can be provided in several 
layers,  such as providers of commercial grade modules/distros that is 
offered with a fee and with support, distribution/hosting  platforms  
with backward compatibility and performance issues all taken care of, 
individual consultants for specialized customization work and  finally 
the lazy guys who just go out,  find customers, collects the money and 
distribute them to all :-)

With the way drupal is going, we all have to be a Jack of all trades 
master of none. I  can not  live up to the promise of what we said to 
our customers - routinely upgrade to the latest feature that is 
available in Drupal - as it is indeed very costly to upgrade!  The ASP 
model that Civicspace and Bryght is offering or planning to offer  is 
moving  to the right direction I think.

Jenny


John Sechrest wrote:

>"Jeremy Epstein" <jazepstein at gmail.com> writes:
>
> % Personally, I hope Drupal never grows up. I think it's amazing that
> % Drupal has managed to stay young for this long, to consistently look
> % ahead to the next release with absolutely no fear of anything, and
> % with a bit of ideas and a bit of a plan, and a whole lot of passion.
> % And I think that our branding should continue to reflect that. Because
> % that's how we'll continue to attract 'plumbers' who are eager to dive
> % into the sand and start building castles with us. Other software
> % products wish they were young at heart, wish that they still had a
> % happy-go-lucky ambition and a super-charged imagination. I say, let's
> % hold on to that for as long as we can.
>
> There is a decided focus on this idea. It happens when Dries 
> says things like there is no roadmap. And when there is no
> backward compatability for older releases. And when the solution
> to problems is to upgrade.
>
> And as a result, the platform is be definition unstable. 
> And as a consultant trying to create a site that is supportable
> by a client, it causes me trouble. Upgrades are as painful
> or more painful than the initial install. 
>
> The need for clean, fast , pretty out of the box experience is 
> useful for not only the newcomer, but for the consultant trying
> to make a good impression on the first rapid install.
>
> The alternative presented by drupal is to do what Bryght is doing,
> which is to basically to maintain an automation suite which
> is like having your own distribution. 
>
> If the decided goal of drupal is to be a platform for invention,
> then that is a different goal than having a stable platform that 
> organizations like city governments and businesses need for
> the stable support of their tasks. 
>
> Why would an organization like a city government, which is aiming
> at consistancy and quality want to engage in using drupal if
> the tool goal is to be a platform for invention? 
>
>
> 
>
>
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>
>-----
>John Sechrest          .         Helping people use
>                        .           computers and the Internet
>                          .            more effectively
>                             .                      
>                                 .       Internet: sechrest at peak.org
>                                      .   
>                                              . http://www.peak.org/~sechrest
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