Open Sourcerers get UK trade body

The open source movement now has its own UK trade association, Zope UK, launched this week in London. Like all trade bodies, its primary purpose will be to represent the open source community to the outside world, and provide a forum for the exchange of experiences and ideas.

According to the founders of the Zope UK Association, the hope is that with one body to present the views of the open source community to government and other organisations, the technology will make further inroads into the business world.

The association will promote open source in general, and Zope, Plone and Python technolgies in particular. That it exists at all is another indication of how mainstream open source has become.

Its launch has met with a largely positive response: Andy Robinson, CIO at ReportLab argued that there would be "great synergies" for companies working together in the field.

Ian Cottee, aka Zobbo, (An indication that one person's mainstream is another's fringe? - Ed) technical director of Blue Fountain, said that it had been good to meet with people who "share our challenges and concerns".

The inaugural meeting (aka a launch party) was held in London this week at the Houses of Parliament. More events are planned, and details of these will be posted here as soon as they are finalised.

If you can't wait that long, drop them a line here for more information. ®

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