Main Page

LUG News

Logo Contest: Open for nominations

K-LUG members can GIMP with anyone, K-LUG has Paint Shop Pros, but K-LUG needs a new logo. Please submit your suggested K-LUG logo prior to our Feb 8th meeting. Post your entries on the LogoPage.

Potential Additional Social: Saturday, January 27th

Introduction to curling in Owatonna, if at least 3 people have signed up by Wednesday January 24th. Same time and information as the January 20th session. See the social page.

Planned Technical Meeting: Thursday February 8th

Plone by Eldon Nelson, with PCIG.

Description of Plone:

Plone is a web based open source content management system (CMS) built off of the Python programming language. What do I need a content management system for? I'm not a book publisher or magazine; even though my glossy finish might make you think that way. The person that needs a content management system is every knowledge worker - which today, is everyone. We all need ways of managing the knowledge we work with and content types that are flexible to match the work we do. In the past, I've loved wiki for filling part of this role, but as I look at what wiki gets you it is not the whole picture. Sometimes, you need a tool chest instead of a hammer - this is where Plone fits in as your own secret tool chest.

What you get with Plone is a scalable, object oriented, pluggable system that handles all of your content management needs. Plone itself is actually a collection of plugins that give you the code to represent the objects that will eventually represent your data. So you might ask, on what is Plone built upon if it is just a collection of plugins? It is actually built off a very complete web framework for the Python scripting language named Zope. So yes, it is a collection of utilities from Python -> Zope -> Plone to get to the tool, but all of that hierarchy gives you a full framework to do everything and hooks and methods ready for your use.

With Plone you get rock solid access control that can be as granular as you want. You can integrate Plone plugins into your site to transform it to include seamlessly complex structures such as: bulletin boards, issue trackers, picture galleries, and more or use out of the box calendaring. Pretty much, Plone quickly, without the need for any coding, turns into your Swiss Army knife of web interactivity – all the while, maintaining a coherent look and feel and security of Plone.

During my Plone presentation I will be doing things a little differently than traditional KLUG or PCIG meetings. I’ll be showing part of my presentation through the use of screencasts to demonstrate activities that I have recorded before and edited into consumable nuggets of interest. I’ll also be using screencasts from the Plone.org website itself, so you may or may not want to watch their intro videos before you come – depending on how entertained you will be by them. I’ll be bringing some popcorn to keep you engaged – so look forward to a treat! Of course, a technical meeting isn’t any good without some hands on, in the dirt, demonstration. For that, I’ll be doing some live manipulation of Plone before your very eyes.

I hope you will enjoy this fun presentation.

Eldon Nelson ( eldon_nelson@ieee.org )

Plone

Planned Lunch: Thursday February 15th

11:30 am, near the Chinese restaurant in the Galleria

Planned Technical Meeting: Thursday March 8th

Second Life by Tim Massaro, with PCIG. Part of the presentation will be virtual, if you can't attend because you're home with the kids maybe you'd still want to tune in for that portion.

Planned Lunch: Thursday March 15th