Training Review: Plone Bootcamp
A quick review of an extremely affordable course on using and customizing the Plone open-source content management system.
Overview
In August, 2007, I attended a five-day training course on the Plone open-source content management system. The course, entitled “Plone Bootcamp,” was held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and taught by Joel Burton, an expert Plone developer and frequent presenter at Plone conferences.
Scope
The course covered material ranging in interest from casual, new Plone users, to site administrators, to advanced Plone developers. The first day (from what I understand; I missed the first day and part of the second day due to travel problems) was targeted toward new users and served as an adequate introduction for people interested in Plone and what it can do. The remainder of the class focused more on material for the administrators and developers of Plone sites; yet there was still not enough time to get into Plone customization and development in great detail. In addition, the trainer held a three-day, Advanced Bootcamp course the following week. I was unable to attend this advanced class.
Topics covered in the Plone Bootcamp course included:
- Using Plone
- Customizing content types
- Customizing site look and feel
- Using Python scripts
- Plone product (add-on) installation and development
Conclusion
Despite its absurdly low cost, this course was the best open-source training I’ve ever taken, and among the best classes I’ve attended overall. The instructor possesses not only a mastery of the material, but he is also an excellent teacher, with a knack for drawing analogies to real-life experience, and interacting with and captivating the attention of large groups of students. I would not hesitate to recommend this class or others with this instructor. In fact, I would take the same class again, especially since I missed part of the five-day course. In addition, I would certainly be interested in more advanced courses taught by this instructor.
