Introducing Python
I think the language itself is not an issue here, as python is really nice high level language with good and easy to find, thorough documentation.
From what I've seen, the Django framework is also a great tooklit for web development, giving much the same developer performance boost Rails is touted to give.
The real issue is at the maintenance and management level.
How will this move fragment the maintenance between PHP and Python code. Is there a need to migrate existing code from one platform to another? What problems will adopting Python and Django solve that you have in your current development workflow and frameworks, etc.
The company I used to work with has two developers working fulltime, and a handful of freelancers. They're in the process of hiring a new lead developer to try to bring order and management to the development.
But, currently, one of the developers has seen the light of Django (the company has only developed in PHP to date) while the other developer is concerned that introducing a new language (Python) is a bad idea right now.
How should they approach introducing this new technology? Obviously with only one of the developers actually knowing Python, there will be no redundancy when that dev is away or leaves the company.
Should they bother to introduce Python, or should they look for PHP-only solutions until such a time when the team actually have more than one Pythonion? Without a team leader, the decisions are having to fall to them.