As I write this post I am sitting at my desk following a trip to Dallas to attend the 1st MODxpo. Going into this trip I was really excited about this opportunity to meet some of the cornerstone members of the MODx community and expand on my MODx knowledge.
On the former point I can say I was not disappointed. The venue was good and everyone involved was great. It was nice to put a face on many of the community members that I have been communicating with over recent years. I can honestly say that I had no appreciation for how long and how hard everyone at Collabpad has been working on the MODx project. All in all it was a positive experience.
On the latter point, coupled with an updated perspective on Revolution, my response was a little mixed. I would characterize the conference as being “programmer-centric”. The impression I also walked away with was that Revolution, at least in the short-term, is also “programmer-centric”. I have stated on many occasions that I am not a programmer, I am a developer. As a developer I tend to be the middleman between the graphic designer and a programmer. MODx is the tool that I use to bridge that particular gap, but for the most part I don’t write programming code.
I don’t want my comments here to be interpreted as being negative on the direction of Revolution, rather constructive in that they/we still have a long way to go with this project. I don’t know that as a non-programmer if I will be able to rapidly deploy Revolution, at least not until more of the commonly used resources are developed. Even after a full release there will still be a lot of community work to be done, on many fronts.
Right now Revolution seems to be squarely focused on meeting the needs of programmers and I realize that this may be a necessary stage in a larger process. After all, who else will develop our snippets, plugins, modules and widgets? I personally feel that if widespread adoption of MODx Revolution is to occur, it will likely be fueled by developers such as myself who tend not to create the tools (code), but who tend to successively deploy them in new and creative ways. I think that is likely one of the reasons why CMS systems like WordPress have enjoyed a broader appeal comparatively. We don’t want developers to become disenfranchised because MODx is perceived as a programmers tool with an overwhelming learning curve. Just don’t forget that we are sitting in the audience too. I hope everyone contributing to MODx keeps that in mind as this project moves forward and as more MODxpos are planned.
