[drupal-docs] New book about Drupal?

Tue Aug 9 19:52:02 UTC 2005

"Community Recipes"! I'm totally stealing that.  Ok I
just stole it. It's up on my docs page on
DrupalART.org...

http://drupalart.org/book

Farsheed

--- "Roland \"Bryght\" Tanglao" <roland at bryght.com>
wrote:

> I am totally down with the Kieran "why" approach.
> And I'd love to  
> help in any way I can (co-author, proof read, write
> a chapter, sorry  
> but I don' t have the time to write an entire book
> myself, don' t  
> know how Djun does  it :-) !)
> 
> I am also down with a book that has Drupal community
> recipes (my user  
> friendly word for best practises)
> 
> ...Roland Tanglao, Chief Blogging Officer, Bryght,
> www.bryght.com
> HOSTED 'Web 2.0' websites for organizations and
> communities
> +1 604 729 7924 Skype/AIM/iChat: rtanglao
>   rolandtanglao.com UrbanVancouver.com
> this email is: [ ] bloggable [x] ask first [ ]
> private
> 
> 
> On 9-Aug-05, at 10:12 AM, Kieran Lal wrote:
> 
> > When thinking about adopting a trend I tend to
> look back at human  
> > history and makes bets based on things that seem
> inherent in our  
> > nature.
> >
> > Love, Hate, Growth, War, Art, etc.
> >
> > If I were going to write a book on Drupal, I'd
> write about  
> > communities.  They have always existed and likely
> always will.    
> > PHPTemplate however, has a limited lifetime.
> >
> > I'd start with a history of this community,
> because that story will  
> > be timeless.   Then I'd write about the types of
> communities that  
> > are emerging to use these tools.  Communities that
> are undergoing  
> > disruptive changes should be particularly
> interesting.  Politics,  
> > artists both have the smell of a great overthrow
> of the powers that  
> > be.
> >
> > Community members and community organizers want to
> know the  
> > principles of building successful communities and
> how Drupal can  
> > assist them.  They need decision criteria and
> choices.  But most of  
> > all they want the why's behind a successful
> recipe.  One of my  
> > favorite technical books is Essential COM by Don
> Box.  It's a great  
> > read, even though COM is not hot anymore.  He
> explains eloquently  
> > the why of how Microsoft came to tackle the
> challenges that unix  
> > wouldn't.   The why last's, where as COM didn't. 
> What are the  
> > why's behind Drupal's current choices, that's a
> story with real  
> > value.  Where did we lead, and where did  we
> follow, who made those  
> > decisions.
> >
> > If you write a page about the event module, how
> will you explain to  
> > the editor that event module is getting a patch
> every few days.    
> > You'll get blasted when the book comes from the
> printers because it  
> > will be wrong.  In the future, I'll be walking
> along in the mall  
> > and see the book in the $0.99 store.  Wow!  Drupal
> 5.7, that's so  
> > old, I can't believe we actually had to use that
> stuff.
> >
> > There are approximately less than 400 CVS accounts
> for Drupal right  
> > now.  There are 6 billion people who are part of a
> community one  
> > way or another.
> >
> > Leave the technical stuff to the docs team and,
> write the great  
> > pragmatic Drupal narrative that needs to be told.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Kieran
> >
> > On Aug 9, 2005, at 9:15 AM, Laura Scott wrote:
> >
> >> Count me in as one more person who sees a
> cultural revolution  
> >> happening, in which Drupal is playing a part. And
> I think it would  
> >> be a shame to not look at the possibilities.
> >>
> >> But like Jon who just replied as I was writing
> this, I think "Web  
> >> 2.0" and "Blogging 2.0" are nonsensical -- the
> former especially,  
> >> which seems more of a marketing strategy by big
> corps to sell  
> >> their platforms. To me, it's rather ridiculous to
> try to attach  
> >> release numbers to the continuous evolution of
> interactivity. And  
> >> to add a number simply to say, "This isn't the
> web of the '90s," I  
> >> think is an error. I know a lot of web pundits
> and developers have  
> >> adopted the terms, but in the end it doesn't
> capture the kaizen of  
> >> web evolution, and impiies that there actually is
> some sort of  
> >> stable worldwide web in equilibrium, unchanging
> (and therefore  
> >> safe to invest in).
> >>
> >> /rant
> >>
> >> That said, I wonder if the cultural present and
> the anticipated  
> >> future of interactivity aren't a bit too big for
> a book ostensibly  
> >> about Drupal.
> >>
> >> On the other hand, to make the book purely for
> developers I think  
> >> misses the boat. There are aspects of
> administration that could  
> >> and shoud be included. A discussion of creating
> and customizing  
> >> phpTemplate themes I think could be one rather
> large chapter, at  
> >> least. And then there are ways to use Drupal in
> applications -- as  
> >> a blog, as a photoblog, as a business site, as a
> community site,  
> >> as a campaign site, as a software distribution
> site, as a music  
> >> store, and so on -- all with existing real-world
> examples.
> >>
> >> I also would like to submit the idea that --
> assuming this is  
> >> intended as a book printed on paper -- that the
> text then get  
> >> posted as a wiki, so that it can become a living
> document as new  
> >> releases come out, new hacks are invented, new
> modules are  
> >> developed, new interactivity patterns of use
> create new demands on  
> >> the software, etc.
> >>
> >> There seem to be plenty of volunteers. Please add
> me to the list  
> >> of potential contributors. I could write or
> co-write on themes,  
> >> and applications of Drupal to various uses.
> >>
> >> Laura
> >> pingVision
> >>
> >> Liza Sabater wrote:
> >>> On Aug 09 2005, at 05:58, Jeremy Epstein wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> a) be focused towards developers - they're much
> more likely to be
> >>>> interested in reading it than layman end-users;
> >>>
> >>> Completely disagree.
> >>>
> >>> Let me finish writing my notes about the BlogHer
> conference. If  
> >>> anything BlogHer shows there a lot of smart and
> sophisticated  
> >>> bloggers out there HUNGRY for technology like
> Drupal but they  
> >>> don't know it even exists. I am actually
> saddened that nobody  
> >>> from the community came to BlogHer to talk about
> Drupal or  
> >>> CivicSpace because, especially in my panel, the
> product would  
> >>> have been perfect as a topic of discussion.
> >>>
> >>> One more thing : The two most successful
> blogging companies were  
> >>> co-founded by women. And these women focused on
> usability and  
> 
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