[consulting] and they call it drupalcamp

Noel Hidalgo nhidalgo at mac.com
Fri Feb 24 17:55:31 UTC 2006


Aaron, you bring up a great point!

I see three objectives of a drupal camp.

1. Developer Training - as a user/client, i clearly see the need to  
have a wide depth of developers (from php to css) to keep the  
"system" alive. I am not at a "shop" but i work in a "shop" where  
unfinished modules/functionality hinder my offices' ability to  
produce successful campaigns. So yes, developer training MUST be A  
key component of DrupalCamp. I only wonder how to structure such an  
environment to make it work.

2. Drupal Exposure to the masses - I see too many non-profits  
resorting to a community of closed systems. While i know there isn't  
one shoe that fits everyone, Drupal Camp provides opertunites for Non- 
Profits, Vendors and Developers to be under one roof to "chat." ...  
and i fundamentally believe that Drupal can be that one CMS to rule  
them all. ;)

3. Community Development - for me this is not just a community of  
technology, but a progressive community. the more opportunities where  
we create open communites to foster ideas and create change is good.  
drupal camp provides an opportunity for people in a geographic region  
to network and is physical manifestation of the digital community  
they work in.

To achieve these three goals, i see two, possibly three, tracks.

1. expert - a group of developers who have html/css/php/xhtml/ 
tableless-design/w3c-standards mad skillz and who work for two days  
to put that package into the Drupal framework. the structure of this  
class is clearly above my head...

2. experienced - people who are comfortable with html/css/php/etc and  
want to learn about module development, themes, bast email best  
practices (ie civicmail, lml, external vendors, whitelist, blacklist,  
etc), etc...

Some have expressed that the first two tracks could be integrated,  
but I would clearly fit into the experienced category not expert. Is  
this a clear synthesis of previous conversations?

3. novice - exposing the novice user to the drupal world and creating  
business opportunities. very similar to CitySoft's non-profit  
discussions on CMS solutions.
- RFP scope, writing, submitting, vetting of vendors
- selecting a hosting provider/vendors
- how to build a site, what modules to use, wether or not civicspace  
is the best solution
- troubleshooting with your hosting provider
- theme hacking

the discussions i've had with my co-worker, Scott Trudeau, leads me  
to believe that the discussion on the consultant list indicates there  
is no need for a third track. i know if someone presented me track 3  
a year ago, my therapy bill would be a lot smaller. ;)

what do vendors think?

Noel


On Feb 23, 2006, at 1:51 PM, Aaron S. Pava wrote:

> I think the key question here remains "what is the objective" of the
> camp/weekend?
>
> For me (at CivicActions) the biggest need we have right now is not  
> module
> development (plenty of PHP pros are already doing that) or  
> additional Drupal
> functionality - but finding *available* quality developers who have  
> the
> html/css/php/xhtml/tableless-design/w3c-standards mad skillz  
> _already solid_
> and who just need to put that package into the Drupal framework. (a  
> bit like
> Aaron Welch's presentation at OSCMS for Beginning Drupal  
> Programming, but
> for a WEEKEND, led to qualified, kick-ass developers) You _could_  
> coordinate
> it with a conference... Or just plan 3-4 of them for the year in  
> different
> parts of the country...
>
> I see 12-18 developers in the class. $500 or so... Two or three  
> days. Folks
> like Chris Messina, Matt Westgate, Aaron Welch, Rich Orris as  
> facilitors.
>
> This is not about core development - or documentation. This is about
> building solid developers, not code.
>
> Aaron
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: consulting-bounces at drupal.org
>> [mailto:consulting-bounces at drupal.org] On Behalf Of Zack Rosen
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 6:15 PM
>> To: A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal service/hosting  
>> providers
>> Subject: Re: [consulting] and they call it drupalcamp
>>
>> As posted here:
>> http://www.zacker.org/drupal-camp
>>
>> The CivicActions folks are starting to organize the first
>> "Drupal Camp", a multi-day intensive Drupal developer
>> training program.
>>
>> Why?
>> Every Drupal shop I know of is in a crunch of Drupal
>> development talent. The limit on their ability to take on
>> more and bigger projects is not from lack of sales leads or
>> lack of management capability, it is simply there are not
>> enough seasoned developers on hand to pay to work on Drupal
>> development projects. An experienced and talented
>> web-application developer will take a bit of time to learn
>> Drupal inside and out and get up to speed developing complex
>> websites, so it is not simply a matter of bringing in fresh
>> talent, we need fresh Drupal talent. The Drupal economy is
>> rocketing skyward and this problem will only become more
>> intense in the forseable future. This is an immediate and
>> growing problem that we need to start solving now.
>>
>> Who?
>>
>>     1. Drupal newbies sponsored by their parent companies
>> (CivicActions, Trellon, etc)
>>     2. Drupal engineering experts to lead the class. Anyone
>> up for this? :) (Matt Westgate, Crunchywelch provided he
>> doesn't drown?).
>>     3. Other Drupal folks in the neighborhood also might want
>> to get together for a code sprint or to discuss Drupal projects.
>>
>> When?
>> At Vancouver Josh and I floated out the idea of doing it in
>> conjunction with the Personal Democracy Forum on May 15th.
>> This dates
>> works with me, does it sound reasonable to you?
>>
>> Where?
>> If we do it in NYC in conjunction with PDF, I can think of two
>> possiblities off the top of my head:
>>
>>     1. The Tank
>>     2. EyeBeam
>>
>> I will follow up with my contacts at both of these venues tomorrow.
>> Does anyone know of another possible venue?
>>
>> Curriculum
>>
>> We should make sure that whatever is taugh and learned at "Drupal
>> Camp" is recorded and synthesized for posterity. We want to
>> have many
>> more of these in the future so we should aim for publish-able
>> curriculum that can be later posted on Drupal.org.
>>
>> Next Steps?
>>
>>     1. Gregory Heller is organizing a consultant conference call to
>> talk about this and other issues shortly on the consultat  
>> mailinglist.
>>     2. David Geilhufe proposed we look into the former Ars Digita
>> training camps. I'll sign up to follow up and do some research and
>> try to talk to folks involved in organizing them.
>>     3. We need to figure out a data / location. Unless someone can
>> come up with a better data / location than PDF on May 15th let's go
>> with that. I will start looking seriously into venues tomorrow.
>>     4. We need to line up the teaching staff and get firm
>> commitments
>> from vendors to sponsor newbies. I can take this on starting Friday.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> -Zack
>>
>> On Feb 22, 2006, at 5:59 PM, Gregory Heller wrote:
>>
>>> Perhaps the problem sets could include things like:
>>> Port a contributed module from 4.6 to 4.7?
>>> Integrate bug fixes or patches for a module
>>>
>>> they could be submitted by the community, or culled from the forum
>>> http://drupal.org/forum/51
>>> any revenue generated could go to defray costs for space, food,
>>> trainer's and organizer's time, back to drupal, and maybe to the
>>> "student" in an amount no greater than the cost of the camp (if
>>> there is
>>> a cost associated).
>>>
>>> Another option could be completing an entire website
>> project for a non
>>> profit organization.
>>>
>>>
>>> David Geilhufe wrote:
>>>
>>>> Back in the dot com boom, a company called ARS Digita did "boot
>>>> camps."  I like the name "Drupal Camp"
>>>>
>>>> These basically were 2-5 day training sessions for developers. You
>>>> went the camp, learned some basics and then completed some "problem
>>>> sets" collaboratively with the folks at the boot camp. A
>> problem set
>>>> would be something like creating a module. Perhaps the
>> problems could
>>>> be something like:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Create a basic module.
>>>> 2. Create a module that exercises parts of the Drupal API
>> thoroughly.
>>>> 3. Create a new theme
>>>> 4. ?
>>>>
>>>> This would also be a great addition to the handbook for folks to
>>>> self-study.
>>>>
>>>> If someone with more drupal skills were to work with me, we could
>>>> come
>>>> up with a few problem sets to start putting together on
>> the Handbook.
>>>> david
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> ----
>>> Gregory Heller
>>> http://www.CivicActions.com
>>> http://www.GregoryHeller.com
>>> AIM/SKYPE: GregoryHeller
>>>
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