New Zealand

For those who are conversant with IRC you'll find our channel at irc://freenode/drupal-nz

For those new to this new communication technology IRC is short for Internet Relay Chat. It is like Skype only without the snazzy user interface.

In short you load a programme to act as your client (ie Chatzilla or Xchat). Find which IRC network the channel that you want is on - in this case Freenode. Sign-up and search for a group, or type in /join #drupal-nz and then start chatting away.

We are excited to announce the DrupalCon Asia-Pacific Organisers group. DCAPO intends to lay foundations that will facilitate international Drupal Conferences (DrupalCons) in the Asia-Pacific region.

DCAPO welcomes and needs input and assistance from Drupal users and communities throughout the Asia-Pacific region. DrupalCons are a lot of work, and are only possible through the community's effort. Please join the DCAPO group to share your opinions and experience, volunteer your time, or nominate yourself or others for roles on the selection team.

DCAPO will later announce a call to the community to suggest and research locations for the first Asia-Pacific DrupalCon. Note that a lot of work goes into researching locations. The DCAPO selection team will only be able to seriously consider locations with suitable venues, dates and event management companies, financial estimates, potential audience and motivated local teams.

But first, as much of the Asia-Pacific Drupal community as possible needs to get involved. You can help by translating and reposting this announcement on other websites where Asia-Pacific Drupal users and communities are likely to find it. Don't forget to note any translations and reposts in the DCAPO group so that we can track progress and share translations with each other.

Amnesty International, the world’s largest human rights organisation, has proudly launched its new Aotearoa New Zealand website at amnesty.org.nz. A fresh lick of paint and a range of new features have made the website easier for everyday New Zealanders to learn about, and take action for, human rights.

As well as dramatic improvements to the website’s design, navigation and accessibility, new features include an RSS feed for all news items; interactive online poll; animated feature-story panel; and quick access links to some of the more popular social networking sites.

Greetings New Zealand!

I just wanted to let you know that the next Lullabot online workshop, called "Drupal Fundamentals" has been planned at a time convenient for Kiwis to attend. We're running the workshop in the evening US time on Mondays, which works out to be Tuesday afternoon in New Zealand!

This online workshop will be happening Tuesdays at 1pm* (Auckland time) for 6 weeks starting October 13th (that's a week from today). Each class session is 2 hours long and includes question/answer time with Lullabot's experts. The price is $395USD which at the time of this writing works out to be about $540NZD.

This workshop is perfect for anyone who is new to Drupal or just wants to complete their basic Drupal knowledge. In addition to access to the live webcasts, attendees each get their own sandbox Drupal site, and access to the class message board for help and discussion.

Find out all about the workshop here.

Jeff Robbins
Lullabot

*Note: Due to the end of US daylight savings time, the class time will change from 1:00 to 2:00 in November. This means the first three classes will start at 1 and the last three will start at 2. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi all welcome who are either Drupal developers, users and even if you are considering using Drupal for your website. I'd also encourage organisations selling Drupal services to bring potential customers along and hear about Drupal as a CMS.

We'll have some live demos of websites currently used by NZ Organisations and what modules were used.

Location:

Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street
Wellington

Full job description, and instructions on how to apply here: http://www.amnesty.org.nz/contribute/employment/internships.

(Other non-drupal related internships available too!)

Applications close 5pm Friday 2nd October. All applications must be on a job application form available at the URL above

DrupalSouth Wellington will be close to LCA Wellington in January 2010. If you think you might attend LCA and/or a NZ Drupal camp in January, please take this one-minute survey to help us better determine suitable dates and other details.

Thanks!
Bevan/

Angela "webchick" Byron (webchick.net) and Emma Jane Hogbin (EmmaJane.net) are coming to Wellington to speak at Linux Conference Australasia. Angie is the Drupal 7 core committer, a Lullabot and contributes with almost every aspect of the Drupal community you can imagine!

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone hosts a regular get together of Drupalers to be able to share ideas/ discusss in Wellington area?

If not, I'd be interested in setting one up/ facilitating one on a regular basis.

cheers,

Ben

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to try to give everyone as much notice as possible so we can get all the Auckland drupalistas together, as the last one was organized with pretty short notice...

The details are still being worked out and the dates are still subject to change, but right now we are aiming for:

Sept. 8 - 7:30 PM
Vector
103 Carton Gore Rd, Newmarket

Paris Drupalcon site has an attendee map but barely anyone has submitted their location details.

I'd like to keep a track of who is going to be there from Australia and New Zealand, it's a good chance to meet folk.

Please update your profile on the drupalcon site: go to your /user page and then "Edit Basic Info".

Here's the links to the maps
http://paris2009.drupalcon.org/attendees-location?country=nz
http://paris2009.drupalcon.org/attendees-location?country=au

We are looking for an experienced & highly talented Drupal Web Developer to initially join us on a 2-3 month project. There may be the opportunity to go permanent for the right candidate.

• Exciting social media web project
• Mobile apps opportunities
• Dedicated and creative team
• Attractive remuneration
• Immediate start

Please contact Nick or +64 3 377 0007 or submit your CV etc through the link to Seek.

Linux Conference Australasia (aka LCA, linux.conf.au) will be in Wellington 18-23 January 2010 – 6 and a half months from now. This presents opportunities for the NZ Drupal community to;

1. Promote Drupal in the wider FLOSS community (which is good for business)
2. Run a DrupalCamp/Conference; which allows attendees to combine expenses if attending LCA, and organizers to share venue, admin, financial and other resources with LCA.
3. Just hang out and drink & talk Drupal! Or perhaps (talk) and (drink drupal)!? :)

It is expected there will be of the order of 600-700 attendees ar LCA.

NZ government is about to pass a new Patents Act.  In the 8-year review, they seemingly forgot to consider the impacts of patents on computer software!  Submissions on the bill are being accepted till 2 July, so we need to move fast.  Make a submission now!