At Plone Conference 2006, Martin Aspeli led a workshop session entitled "Improving Plone's Add-on Products Story."  I think this may ultimately turn out to be one of the most important sessions from the whole conference in terms of its long-term positive impact on the community.

One of the coolest things about Plone is its library of over 400 add-on products.  It's one of the many signs of our community's vibrancy, talent and productivity.  Many add-on products are fantastic, and in fact ultimately get incorporated into the Plone core.  But, this sprawling effevescence of software also presents challenges.   Community-contributed software varies widely in quality.   Some of gets abandoned.  There are multiple tools for some common functions (e.g. blogging).  It's hard to know what to use, what to avoid, and what to jump in with and help.

While I couldn't attend the session (much to my regret), I was really pleased to see that they got out a bunch of notes, and also immediately formed a working group to carry the effort forward.  They're using OpenPlans.org to power a workspace, listserv, etc.

Check it out.  There are lots of ways to get involved for both technical and not-so-technical folks.

I think a lot of good is going to come of this.  I'm looking forward to participating.