Plone Conference 2008 DC

The Plone Conference 2008 Sprint topic masters are back with more exciting news to get you ready for a great time at the Arlington Career Center on Saturday and Sunday October 11-12. This issue of DC Sprintletter is a continuation of last week’s inaugural sprintletter. So let’s get to it:

Pre-sprint Flickr Set

I had the very great pleasure of spending three days in Washington, DC over Labor Day weekend to meet with other Plone Conference organizers and the staff at our sprint location, check out both the Reagan Center where we will meet for conference and the Arlington Career Center which is hosting our sprint, as well stay at one of the Hotel Harrington where many of you will be encamped for Plone Conference 2008. It was a great time with Alex and Amy Clark, Reed O’Brien, Jeff Elkner, Dave Welsh, Jason Straw, and Matt Gallagher. I though you might enjoy this Flickr set of photos which show many of the places you will see during the conference and sprint, as well as some landmarks on the way to the sprint. Click through the photos in the set and look at their descriptions to get tips on getting around DC and Arlington.

Take the Skinners Bowling! (aka Plone Themes Sprint Update)

Veda Williams has spent the last year shepherding themers in generating new themes for 3.0 and identifying best practices based on community discussions. She has also been in charge of cleaning up documentation in the Visual Theming portion of plone.org/docs and has generated new designs that will soon highlight the efforts of Plone’s themers better. Here’s what one of the most prolific Plone skinners reports about the Plone Theme sprint:

“Take the Skinners Bowling!

Actually, we don’t want to go bowling. We want to go to the Plone skin sprint after the DC conference, on October 11 and 12!

It’s a lot to shoulder, but it will be fun and you really can make a difference. Sign up and be counted!

SIGNUPS

http://www.openplans.org/projects/plone-conference-2008-dc/theming

GETTING THERE

http://www.openplans.org/projects/plone-conference-2008-dc/sprint

TOPICS

Suggestions are also welcome, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Skinners Unite! - Veda”

GetPaid Sprint Update

Ever since the BBQ Sprint, Chris Johnson has been on something of a vision quest to create the ultimate e-commerce set of products for Plone. GetPaid is the rich component architecture which has evolved along that journey. Here’s Chris to bring you up to date on what’s happening to prepare for the GetPaid sprint after Plone Conference 2008:

“We have been having regular Friday afternoon sprints during the month of August and decided to do it on an ongoing basis after our 2 day sprint 2 weeks ago. If you are interested to connect with others, please jump on #getpaid to get help, introduce yourself, etc. Friday afternoons are a good time to find people giving attention.

If you are interested to get involved with GetPaid, I can suggest that you:

• Sign up for our mailing list and introduce yourself:
  
  http://groups.google.com/group/getpaid-dev/
• Install GetPaid buildout locally so you can check it out:
  
  http://code.google.com/p/getpaid/wiki/DevGettingStarted
• Check out what we have been up to lately:
  
  http://plonegetpaid.com/updates
• join us at #getpaid

We will hopefully have the next release out in the course of September (that would be 0.7.0, see http://plone.org/products/getpaid/releases/0.7.0 and complementary tools for using GetPaid like the recipe and eggification of all components.

You can also check out:

• What features folks have requested:
  
  http://code.google.com/p/getpaid/wiki/BrainstormingFeatures
• The issue tracker, for additional information on future direction and what needs fixing:
  
  http://code.google.com/p/getpaid/issues/list

As we understand how far the Friday sprints get us, we will continue to refine the Plone Conf sprint goals and details. We will start by continuing what has been identified for our current sprints:

http://code.google.com/p/getpaid/wiki/AugustSprint

Please get in touch if you have any questions! Hope to see you in DC! - cjj”

Documentation Sprint Update

JoAnna Springsteen has been very busy organizing the preparations for the Documentation Team sprint for Plone Conference 2008. Here’s a “short” list of what the Documentation Team has been up to since the last sprintletter:

• Scheduled a meeting and actually held a meeting.
• Tried to pick more editors. (Want to be an editor? We still need a few more!)
• Plan to update editor duties (so editors know exactly what they are getting themselves into).
• Got an update on the new doc landing page redesign (coming as soon as plone.org moves to plone 3.x).
• Existing editors are starting their topic section assessments, which should be started on no later than at the sprint itself (major brownie points to those who get it done before).
• Steve McMahon is creating a mailing list and group for just doc editors in preparation of implementing our new editor workflow (see editor duties, once completed).

“We have a lot of things to do and we really started to make a dent in them by holding this meeting.

So what can you do to help prepare?

Signing up is the first step!! After that, take a look at the Doc Team wiki, specifically the section assessments. They are all still in progress but you should get a good idea on what needs to be updated or created. Find something the piques your interest and claim it on the sprint wiki. We still have plenty of room for sprinters to please sign up! - JoAnna”

A Taste of Naples at the Sprint

I have many fond memories of the incredible food in Naples from our last post-conference sprint. There’s nothing quite like a true Neopolitan pizza. But if you come to the 2008 Plone Conference Sprints, you won’t have to rely on memory. You can get the real thing! The famed Pupatella Neopolitan pizzareia and frittatoria cart will be on-site at the sprint to serve you breakfast and lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. Enzo Algarme and his partner Anastasiya Laufenberg whip up a dazzling array of crepes, brioche, arancini, pizza, calzone, sandwiches, salads, and other creations from their custom-made food cart. Enzo honed his chops in the kitchen of Il Pizzaiolo del Presidente, a member of the Verace Pizza Napoletana in Naples. I’m so excited that Anastasiya and Enzo will be bringing their Pupatella cart to the sprint. I hear they make a mean nutella pizza for breakfast. Read the rave review Pupatella gets on yelp.com and in the Washington Post.

Until Next Time

I’m Chris Calloway and that’s our Sprintletter for this week. Stay tuned to the Plone Conference 2008 blog in the next week and the weeks to come about more sprint preparations, a more first-hand on location reporting, and some suggetions for what to see while in Washington, DC.