Help fix our Demo

We have a problem with the OpenEdit demo. Perhaps you can help?

Currently the OpenEdit demo is being used by two different groups of people for two different purposes and they don't seem to work well together. Here's the issue.

The demo is also deployed every day and includes the latest changes from the daily CVS build. Throughout the day it is hacked apart as development teams use the demo to run experiments and test bits of code.

1. From the perspective of the developer, being able to jump over to the demo for a few minutes of testing without having worry about fixing anything when you are finished is very valuable.
2. From a sales and marketing perspective, having the demo in a constant state if disrepair makes it almost impossible to demonstrate the capabilities of OpenEdit to potential customers. OpenEdit is reliable and easy to use but our demo often tells a different story. We are now at a point where using the demo for sales is very risky because you never really know what state the demo will be in when you visit.

We need a solution.

I suggest a two pronged approach. First, we need to sort our terminology. I would suggest that what we are calling a demo is in fact NOT a demo. What we have is an online test environment which is open to the public. I suggest we call it something like the OpenEdit Playground.

Second, we need to create a proper demo. Characteristics of a demo include:

• a consistent and reliable starting point

• ability to sign in and use all of OpenEdit's online editing tools

• showcases all of OpenEdit's features and plug ins

• if possible, an individual instance so that other people won't be making changes, such as changing the layout, in middle of your session

Over the past year OpenEdit has evolved. Not just the software has grown. The company and surrounding community has grown considerably as well. Our demo has always had this idiosyncrasy but a year or two ago the volume of traffic was much lower.

Thoughts?