One of the best things about Plone is the community of developers and end users that supports and develops Plone. With more than 200 core developers involved to some degree in the project around the world, it's almost always possible to find a Plone developer online who is willing and able to help you through chat and mail.
Alan Runyan, Alexander Limi, and Vidar Andersen started Plone. However, it quickly grew into a thriving open-source project as more developers became involved. The contributions from these developers form the Plone product that's now available.
And though Plone community is very fragmented, still there is a strong sense of a common way forward when needed. Without the community there would be no Plone the way it is today.
In May 2004, the Plone Foundation was formed to provide support for the development and marketing of Plone. The goal of this not-for-profit organization is to ensure that Plone remains the premier open source content management system and to broaden its acceptance and visibility. Plone Foundation is supposed to benefit the Plone community and Plone product in many ways:
- Marketing and evangelization of Plone
- Development support
- Legal support
The Plone Foundation is modelled after similar successful ventures in the Open Source world, such as the Apache Software Foundation. It will own the copyrights and trademarks for Plone, and its mission is to Protect and Promote Plone.