[consulting] Staying Current

[Bram Moreinis]

I'm enjoying and valuing this thread.

A friend of mine (http://arthurjoseph.org) said something similar to the 
"educational relevance of social object theory" made at DrupalCon DC 
(http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/session/building-advanced-social-networks-large-us-university).  
Arthur and Kyle both said that valid exchanges are (in Arthur's words), 
"Representations of Human Participation in Environments" (RHPE). 

So when anyone on this list says, "here's what we do in these 
situations" they're contributing something of value to me, to the extent 
I am (or will be) involved in similar situations.  Despite the 
differences being highlighted, one situation we ALL share, of course, is 
the Drupal Community.  So the "Drupal Way" of mutual support (you make a 
module that helps me, I improve the module and it helps you, etc.) has 
to be an underlying principle that we take for granted.  (Anybody on the 
list know some sort of "Ten Drupal Commandments" list that articulates 
this better?)

On the other hand, we cannot always do things purely (vegetarians wear 
leather shoes, etc.), and for each context, the amount of "Drupalness" 
that can be modeled is a function of at least two factors you've been 
talking about:

   1. Can the client pay for it? Does the client "understand" what it
      means to do Drupal enough to want to pay for it?
   2. Can the company add the value without being paid back? We buy into
      a multiple bottom line when we make money off the code other
      people write, but if we don't stay solvent, that's worse yet.

For me, this thread is about how, in particular situations, we 
articulate for ourselves, and for our clients, reasons to be as 
Drupalish as we can, and how we reinforce, for each other, the multiple 
bottom line of being as Drupalish as we can (articulating what that 
looks like) as well as remaining profitable and growing Drupal's market 
share (which benefits us all as well). 

If I have a few 4.7 clients who don't want to pay anything to upgrade 
their sites, I'll harbor no grudge; but I will look for reasons to help 
my 5.x clients decide to pay for 6.x, if they can afford it.  The more 
of them that can, the better my in-house methods get for upgrading, and 
the tighter my estimates for what it's cost them will get.

-Bram