The Pinax platform—an integrated collection of tools, apps and starter projects designed to accelerate getting from idea to site launch—has had its ups and downs since it was launched in 2008. It is still widely misunderstood ("isn't it just for social networks?" "how is it different from just reusable apps?") and yet used for an increasing number of sites. People either love it or just don't get it. About the only thing everyone agrees on is that it doesn't seem to be progressing as fast as it once did.

This talk will take a fresh look at the goals of Pinax, what we did well, what we didn't do so well and what we're (slowly) doing to fix it. It will be of interest to people still not sure what Pinax is all about, existing users of Pinax keen to know where it's headed and people just interested in the challenges running an open source project, especially with both a community and commercial aspect.