Business training course on ZOPE/ZMS based Content Management Consultancy in Berlin

10th to 21st February,2003

"Life would be infinitely easier for IT if there were no such thing as an IT project. And in fact, there isn't. Any project worth doing has to serve a business need, which in effect makes it a business project." Patricia Keefe, ComputerWorld

InWEnt, the German organization for international human resources development, worldwide advanced training and intercultural dialogue has asked Hoffmann&Reif to conceptualize and implement a 10 days training course for IT consultants and senior IT managers in February 2003 in Berlin, Germany (please read further information about InWEnt at the bottom line of this page). The participants coming from Indian, Eastern European, Southern African and German IT consultancies and institutions are engaged in the development of environmental information systems, content management solutions and elearning services. Because of the specific consultancy model based on the ZOPE open source technology and the ZOPE open source product "ZMS" as "proof of concept" the participants will not just be trained in a set of specific content management and publishing features. Furthermore they will become the owners of a comprehensive tool box with hard and soft skills and software solutions that they can offer as a managed service to their customers almost immediately after completing the training programme.

This training programme will provide a significant impact on the businesses of the participants. Open source based (learning) content management systems and services are on high demand on the market places anywhere. Because of the publishing concepts behind ZOPE/ZMS the uptake of the new services into the portfolio of the participants enterprises will be swift and direct.

The participants will be able to manage and implement business application services with sound margins. The participating companies and institution will benefit from:

1. a ready-to-deliver customized online application service (e.g. expert information portal, training portal, e-Business portal) available on the Internet at a dedicated domain name;
2. management workflows for interdisciplinary and international projects;
3. an open source technology framework for a wide variety of content management as well as elearning solutions;
4. customized applications along the lines of the companys´ requirements (e.g. e-learning platform, information or community portal, reporting system);
5. access to an premium ZMS community of publishing experts, developers and users;
6. hands-on best practices of top management consultants in Germany with excellent reference projects in industry and services.

The action orientated training programme in Berlin consists of transfer phases in which the participants will do specific tasks of their customer projects live on the Internet. They will be coached by experienced software engineers.

The workshop participants will become familiar with the following topics.

Week 1: Business Consultancy

• Background Zope/ZMS (see link list)
• Introduction to the ZMS framework
• Publishing concepts (basics)
• Publishing concepts for content modelling
• Initialization of clients
• Content setup (basics)
• Content modelling 1: attributes, document types, content & elearning standards
• Content modelling 2: special objects
• Template models
• Workflows and roles
• Multilinguality
• Interactive applications for elearning (e.g. forum, newsletter)
• Actions and modules
• Specials: Image processing

Week 2: Technology Consultancy

Participation in this week requires professional skills in Object Oriented Softare Design and Development and several years of software engineering experience in practice.

• Setup of ZOPE/ZMS Internet servers
• Application Service Providing models
• XML interfaces
• Technology architecture
• Object oriented software design and implementation using Document Template Markup Language and Python

Week 2: Customer Project

• Integration, developement of specific applications using Python Imaging Library, Zope products, custom user management, database connectors

Certification

The integration of ZMS professional services into the business portfolio of Application Service Providers or Training Providers is supported by a "ZMS business certificate". In addition to the training and coaching when setting up the application services, the licencee may make use of the training manuals for his or her services. The "ZMS business certificate" is only provided after a successful examination.

Certificate owners can employ ZMS with the BSD licence model.

 

Further information

• Prerequisites for participants: Notebook with Microsoft Windows 2000/NT/9x or Linux and warm clothing for outside walking recommended (since outside temperature in winter can be up to -20 degree Centigrades, please have a look at the weather report)
• Infrastructure provided: Internet connection, access to ZOPE/ZMS-Server, seminar facilities (beamer, flipchart etc.)

Training location in the heart of Berlin close to the famous Humboldt University, “Unter den Linden” and the Brandenburg Gate (city map): Hufelandhaus - Hegelplatz 1 - 10117 Berlin,