Filed under Drupal

Nashville is joining the growing number of cities this year that will host a DrupalCamp. Saturday March 13th will see the first ever DrupalCamp Nashville. More and more camps are meeting the need to see solid presentations geared towards attendees new to Drupal. To suit that need, Nashville will have a beginner track in addition to the more advanced track. I’ll be presenting five beginner sessions.

Another common theme is to see DrupalCamps occur on a college campus. Vanderbilt University Owen School of Business will play host to DrupalCamp Nashville. Details at http://drupalcampnashville.com

I’m flying out Friday and having dinner with event organizer Jamie Meredith. Jamie heads up the local Drupal Users Group and runs a Drupal development firm named TMG Studio. Jamie has put together what will surely be an excellent first time out for all of the Tennessee Drupalers willing to make the trip to the Country Music Capital of the World!

Duo Consulting is going all in for this year’s DrupalCon in San Francisco April 19-21. In addition to being event sponsors, we will have a a contingent from Duo both presenting and scouring the event. Look for our CTO Fred Salchli, Director of Development, Tony Rizzo, Director of Marketing Strategy, Sonny Cohen, Drupal Developer & Trainer Doug Vann and Drupal Developers Emanuel London and  Brandon Morrison.

Doug Vann and Brandon Morrison have submitted a total of 6 sessions for this year’s DrupalCon and, if you’re registered on SF2010.Drupal.org (free to register), it would be great if you would visit the site and vote for these presentations. DrupalCon presentations are determined by popular vote among those registered on SF2010.Drupal.org:

Doug Vann has four presentation proposals:

• This years DrupalCon is featuring a much needed Beginner Track. Learn the basics, the terminology, and build a quick and easy blog site by attending: Beginning Drupal
• After that it’s a natural progression to learn what you need to know about CCK in: CCK Demystified
• Doug Vann is teaming up with Rain Brew to deliver a double dose of Views:  Views Demystified ONE and Views Demystified TWO
• Taking a breather from the beginner track, you can jump in the deep end and spend some time getting familiar with the Linux Command Line! Get off of FTP and your web hosts chintzy control panel and do things quicker and more easily by attending: Linux Commands for Drupalers

Brandon Morrison will be presenting:

• Tips and Tricks to Incorporate Flash with Drupal for Flash developers wanting to dip their toes into Drupal
• Painting Legos – Creating Project Specific UI’s on Top of Prebuilt Modules That Won’t Make Your Clients Scream is for developers wanting to add value to their projects by giving their clients a better user interface.

You can catch Sonny Cohen at our exhibit in the exhibition hall and pick up one of our swanky Duo Consulting San Francisco DrupalCon stickers!

Please look at the presentation offerings from our team and V-O-T-E by March 1.

DrupalCamp Orlando 2010 has come and gone and I’m on a plane leaving the land of 70+ degrees for the land of below freezing. I’m sending an email to Michael, Duo’s CEO making the case for having me head up the Orlando office of Duo Consulting. Wish me luck!

This DrupalCamp had 3 tracks; a beginners, an intermediate, and special topics. I presented an intro CCK (Content Construction Kit) session in the beginner track and an advanced VIEWS session in the intermediate track. The special session track had longer sessions that were rather advanced. The only one I made it to was a demonstration of GIT; a software version control system that gaining a lot of attention and momentum these days. It’s pretty much been decided that the CVS repository of Drupal Core and Contributed Modules is switching to GIT very soon.

For my advanced Views session I showed off the glorious yet complicated Views that Duo created for the Leonard.com law firm project. Michael Porter, and Rose Miller, and I had the task of creating content types with large numbers of related fields in them. After that, we had to create views that would take advantage of these relationships and show related data on very specific pages. We accomplished this through the heavy use of the ViewField module and very heavy use of Argument and Relationships in the Views settings. Going in, I knew the topic was very meaty and would be complicated to grasp. I stressed the point that the videos would be available soon, and they could re-re-re-watch the parts that didn’t make sense the 1^st time.

My basic CCK session was a hit! I’ve never done it in 30 minutes before, but still, I saw the “Aha!” on most faces as I went through it. For this session we created a Job Posting content type and added two fields to it; one for salary and the other to indicate to whom the applicant would be reporting.  One thing that is always fun to explain to the uninitiated is that you use CCK to create the content-type of Job, then once that’s done, users can use the content type to add content to the site. It’s an important distinction that needs to be understood.

Duo Consulting was among the sponsors of DrupalCamp Orlando – as well as sponsoring my trip.  Thanks to all the sponsors, each event attendee paid only $5 for the camp. And that ain’t all. They also received a free camp t-shirt, a swag bag, and super yummy lunch from Tijuana Flats which originated in Orlando. (Note: My home in Indianapolis is 4 miles from the only one in Indiana!)

Lastly, an old familiar friend showed up at the camp – the Drupal Song! Written by Lullabot cofounder Jeff Robbins in 2007, the Drupal Song is a simple jingle that has inspired many a musically inclined Drupaler to break out in song at various Drupal events. Watch  me ending vocals while Florida local Vernon plucks his ukulele only moments after I taught him the tune!

Recently, I took some time away from the usual Drupal activities of website development and Drupal training to take another good, hard look at Drupal 7. It had been many months since I’d downloaded and tested it out, so I was anxious to experience the most recent release of Drupal 7.0-Alpha.

The install process is a little different; maybe even a little friendlier.  Here’s a quick rundown. Users needing to install Drupal in other languages will enjoy the information provided at time of install. Drupal can now be installed with either STANDARD or MINIMAL default functionality enabled. The database options include the usual Mysql and PostgreSQL and a new one; SQLite.  If you’ve installed Drupal before, you will not be surprised by the familiar notice that you have to copy the default-settings.php to continue the install. After you enter the information needed for the install you now get to see a busy screen indicating what’s going on behind the scenes as Drupal installs itself. That’s kind of fun, for geeks like me!

We’re used to seeing some basic configuration options after successfully installing Drupal. Some of the new settings I found were Default Country, and an option to receive email notifications about updates to “installed components.” I presume this means that if core OR contrib. modules have updates, I will receive an email to the address entered earlier in this form. That is quite handy!

Another new development is the new Welcome Page. Drupalers have LONG complained that the welcome screen of a fresh Drupal install is a DEAD-END where many a curious soul say, “Huh? Now what do I do?” then slink off and say that they “Tried Drupal once but didn’t care for it.” Well. That has changed in Drupal 7!

Across the top is a new set of menu options consisting of Dashboard, Content, Structure, Appearance, People, Modules, Configuration, Reports, and a very handy option named Help.

In the main content area the big welcome message has been replaced with a notice that “No front page content has been created yet.” Below that are 2 links; Add New Content, and Change The Default Front Page. The closest thing you will find to the old Administration menu is the left sidebar link labeled “Administer.”

It’s also important to note that selecting any option opens up a modal box which is similar to a lightbox popup. Subsequent interaction with that box keeps your original page open in the background until you close the modal box.

Installing contribute modules is new and fun! (Here’s where I get excited!) OK. We finally have what many other web apps have enjoyed for quite some time. Now you can just copy the URL (web address) of the module or theme you want to install and paste it into the Drupal interface and install the module! If need be you can point to a local file and install the module from there as well. This means no more using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to get modules and themes FROM the Drupal.org site TO your computer then UP TO the web server. This is much much faster and will be among the bigger crowd pleasing features of Drupal7!

In conclusion, I simply installed it and looked around. I didn’t create any content or go too deep into configuration. I just wanted to see what 1st time seekers will find. I believe whole-heartedly that Drupal7 will destroy many of the barriers to entry that have turned off so many developers, designers, and users. Those of us who are already savvy will take advantage of the User Interface improvements to give our clients a more intuitive means of managing their own sites. I for one look forward to updating all my future presentations to show off the amazing progress that is evident in Drupal7!

Last night was the presenter’s group’s final conference call to prepare for DrupalCamp Orlando 2010. We’re ready for 150 people to partake of one full day of Drupal training followed by a day of Code for a Cause. Out of the many nonprofit applicants, Junior Achievement of Orlando was selected. They will work with the DrupalCamp attendees on day2 as we build a fully functional site for them in one day!

Distinguished Presenters
There will be many fine Drupal experts presenting at this event. We’ll mention a few and here’s a list of all the presenters. Damien McKenna has launched a number of Drupal sites for various Bonnier Corporation’s publications. Ryan Price and Michael Anello, of DrupalEasy.com and the DrupalEasy Podcast are bringing their flare. Christopher Mitchell will be coming to work on his day off. Chris works for MindComet, who was gracious enough to share their facility for the DrupalCamp. Don VanDemark is a Delivery Executive for IBM who uses Drupal for personal projects such as open-stats.org.

Sold Out!
The 150 limit for attendees was reached pretty early. Yet another Drupal Camp growing out of control! Those who registered in time will walk away with more of the tools they need to develop their personal and company projects or land a job with a Drupal shop. Those who stick around to build the site for Junior Achievement of Orlando will get to put their new skills to work!

As usual, I’m pumped and privileged to be part of this DrupalCamp and Duo’s continued support as both a sponsor as well as sending me.

February 20 and 21 will see the largest professional Drupal event ever held in Florida. For two sunny days, Orlando (Altamonte Springs) will host the 2010 Florida DrupalCamp. Over 150 attendees are coming to network and learn more about their favorite content management system.  Multiple tracks on day-one, ensure that there’s something for everyone; from beginner to advanced. I will be presenting 2 sessions on Views.

This year day two of Florida DrupalCamp will feature Code for a Cause, a common element among DrupalCamps across North America. Code for a Cause is an opportunity for camp attendees to build a complete website while they attend the camp. A number of not for profit organizations have submitted requests to be considered for the one day, group-coding event. Drupal is a popular platform for nonprofits due to its zero cost entry and robust training environment.

Duo Consulting is among the many sponsors who are making the camp possible. The fee for attendees is a meager $5.00 for which attendees will receive the one-day multi-track instruction and the second-day Code for a Cause. Lunches and snacks are provided for both days.

A Word About DrupalCamps
Over the past few years the Drupal community is witnessing smaller Drupal camps return and occupy larger facilities. Such is the case in Orlando. At the same time cities that have never had a Camp embark upon their first. For example, Atlanta DrupalCamp 2009 was an excellent showing for an inaugural camp. Last year’s Chicago DrupalCamp saw packed rooms and some attendees missing out on their preferred session when the aisles and doors were crowded with attendees trying to catch the session (Adjustments have been made for 2010 Chicago DrupalCamp.) The Drupal community is growing and this is never more evident than at these events that draw people in from around the country. For now, we’re looking forward to the Florida DrupalCamp, which strikes me as a great place to spend a few days in February.

In making our plans for San Francisco DrupalCon this April, I mentioned to Michael Silverman, our CEO, that the upcoming conference had the feel of the early MacWorld’s he and I had attended at the Moscone Center in the early days of Macintosh.  Years ago I would have been hard pressed to imagine that there would be huge conferences of content management system groupies who paper their laptops with industry stickers and actually write songs about their software. Don’t smirk. It is no less geeky than doting over the aps on your iPhone.

As interesting as San Francisco DrupalCon promises to be, it is only one, albeit the main event, among a lot of Drupal conference activity in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the regional activities in which Duo is directly involved:

Florida Drupal Camp is right around the corner, February 20 & 21 in Altamonte Springs, Florida. This second year conference features Coding for a Cause where volunteers among attendees will collaborate to develop a Drupal website for a not-for-profit organization.

Nashville Drupalers is planning their one-day Drupal Camp on March 13.

The roving big daddy of Drupal events, DrupalCon, is in San Francisco this year, April 19 – 21. We’re sending a team to participate. Both Doug Vann and Brandon Morrison have submitted proposals to do presentations. Additionally we’re an event sponsor so we’ll have an exhibit and, yeah, probably stickers!

Duo will be running its 4^th annual Web Content Conference June 7 & 8. This year’s new twist includes a pre-conference ½ day Drupal symposium. The focus of this event is not-for-profit and government organizations as well as small businesses.

The Southeast Linux Fest (SELF) takes place June 19 & 20. To the organizer’s credit (Duo is not the event organizer) the event is fully sponsored and being held for FREE.  Duo Consulting was invited to produce a Drupal Camp in concert with SELF.  We are beginning to fill the presenter roster.

CMSExpo returns to Evanston, IL May 3 – 5 and will have its Drupal track.

There’s a certain breathless aura to all the events being planned. This is fueled in part by the much anticipated release of Drupal version 7.x.  The excitement is well-placed as it reflects improved functionality that is being incorporated into progressive websites. We’re looking forward to being a part of it and we hope you are, too.

The organizers of SouthEast LinuxFest have asked me to volunteer to organize free one day Drupalcamp to take place on day2 of the SouthEast LinuxFest.

WHEN: Sunday June 13th
WHERE: Spartanburg Marriott at the Renaissance
Spartanburg SC
TRAVEL: The hotel is 10 min away from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) which serves most air lines.
REGISTRATION: Registration is now open here

We could have as many as three tracks during this one day event. The response I get from potential presenters and attendees will aid in determining how many tracks we will have.

This is a group effort. Chime in and be a part of the 1st DrupalCamp in SC! You can monitor our activity and participate in the conversation here http://groups.drupal.org/drupalcamp-sc.

You can also visit http://dougvann.com/contact-doug-vann and leave me a message

Duo Consulting's Doug Vann presentation at the Do it with Drupal Conference in New Orleans

This last week was a whirlwind of Drupal craziness. It started at the 2nd annual Do it With Drupal seminar in New Orleans. The Lullabots pulled off another high quality, highly educational, highly fun event! Duo’s CEO, Michael Silverman was there to enjoy it with me! Many of the top Drupal module authors and maintainers and Drupal Core contributors where there to deliver Drupal training straight from the source. I was extremely honored to be invited to deliver a Drupal Introductory session. It was well attended and I took them over the major hurdles of wrapping their minds around Drupal. Each session was assigned a moderator and I was fortunate to have Angie “Webchick” Byron as my moderator. I invited her to actively join me and together we worked the room. It was a blast! Oh yeah, I found out that I LOVE a local New Orleans dish of Shrimp and Grits!

From New Orleans I flew back to Chicago for the 2nd Drupal Camp Chicago. At last year’s camp I presented 4 sessions and 2 Birds of a Feather, or BoFs. This year saw a much larger variety of presenters so I only presented on an Introduction to Content Construction Kit (CCK) & Views. We had a sold-out crowd of 350+ people at the Hotel Orrington in Evanston IL. Emma Jane Hogbin, Earl Miles & his family and I made the trip from New Orleans to Chicago so that we could present at both events. Duo Consulting was one of four sponsors of the Camp. We attracted a lot of attention at our exhibit. We were looking for new hires and many attendees were looking for new jobs. That worked out quite well.

350 Drupal enthusiasts sold out this weekend's Drupal Camp Chicago

Here’s the bottom line. The Drupal community is growing at a phenomenal rate. At any given moment there is a large quantity of people desiring Drupal training; wanting to know what it is and how to use it. At the same time there is another large set of people who know the basics but they want to transform that knowledge into marketable skill sets. In my experience many of the Drupal events, from the DrupalCons to the Drupal Camps to Do it With Drupal, are all taking a much more dedicated approach to reaching out to the uninitiated and the intermediate base. For as much as I love teaching on the Drupal API and hook_nodeapi or db_query etc, I just find it intensely rewarding to see the “AHA!” in the faces of attendees who show up hoping that some one can make sense of all this crazy, complicated Drupal stuff.

In 2009 Duo Consulting has really plugged into the Drupal community. Involvements include becoming partners with Acquia,  sponsoring Drupal Camp Chicago, sending me to speak at the Ohio Linux Fest and Drupal Camps in LA, Chicago, and Atlanta. We also provided a half day Duo Drupal Training session that was open to the community. We’re doing it again on Tuesday, January 12! And, of course, don’t miss the Chicago Drupal Meet Up Group also on January 12. We know that Drupal is growing and we’re committed to helping it along as we grow with it.