[Typo3] Is TYPO3 used in amarica at all

[Gabriel Anast]

>
>
>Do they have a secret os-cms-project overthere, that can compare typo3?
>
Yeah, honestly, its called Contribute, or sometimes MSCMS

[Collective Typo3 response]: What the... ? Why?

[Answer]: Most US developers that are doing work that requires a) the 
skill that Typo3 demands or b) the power that Typo3 avails are selling 
to companies that require these three things: a) Official printed 
documentation & official support contracts, 2) expensive training 
seminars in Las Vegas, and 3) budgetable software. They require these 
things because they are "hard coded" into their budgets.

I know that sounds insane. I have just about made my own web design 
company profitable, and I have to do two things:

First I have to tell the client that their website does not require 
third party software... that it runs on advanced PHP and HTML only... 
which is stupid... but to the PHB this means: "I don't have to buy a 
software license from Microsoft or Macromedia, therefore I don't need a 
line item for software in my competitive bid comparison sheet." If I 
told them up front that I developed on open source... most of them would 
choke right there, "Its got to be some kind of scam... we can't budget 
open source... this schiester is including the license fee in his 
development price... etc, etc" I do include the fact that the site runs 
on Typo3, and an enumerated list of extensions in the contract... but no 
one ever sees that....

Second I have to tell them that the site is easy to use and that we 
provide all of the (on-site) training. I make it a required part of 
every contract. This actually is quite satisfying to most of my clients. 
I thought there would be more of a balk at the fact that there are not 
regular training seminars... then again I have never actually brought 
this fact up with any of my clients... and fortunately none have asked.

In my (possibly uninformed) opinion: the most important things that 
Typo3 can do to increase US adoption are: a) make the interface more 
intuitive--which includes prettier themes (vis: Mamabo & Contribute) and 
b) Sanitize the English used in the documentation (which I can do over 
time... I just need to make it a priority). These two things would take 
care of point #1 above.

Point #2 could be taken care of by a consortium of North American 
developers that could (among other things) hold an "across the pond" 
T3board or TyCON so that we could generate some local interest among 
developers and maybe put together a group that could host T3 training 
seminars in Vegas or DC (or Banff/Lake Victoria, that's what I'm talkin 
about!) etc.

Finally, (and this applies to Open Source Software across the board) we 
need to come up with a cool catch-phrase that basically means "Software 
development and implementation" that goes into the "software license 
fees" field in a budget request form... Something "so good" that will 
become the default name for that field on all requisition sheets and 
balance sheets that basically means: "software license fees or 
development fees for software with open type licenses." Something like 
SMART fees (Software Maintenance, Authority, and suppoRT = 
updates/patches contract, whatever license fees are associated, and the 
service/support contract). This way budget sheets could easily have a 
number that works for Open Source type licenses as well as "broken 
source" type licenses. E.g.: Development cost: €4,500; Initial SMART fee 
€0,00; annual recurring SMART fee €1,200. That would really look nice on 
a competitive bid form against Contribute or MSCMS...

--gabe