Hey Everyone, so we have a group, so now what?
I have some goals for this group.
One: A place where people like myself working in Japan with Drupal can find answers to their problems when it comes to building a Drupal project in English/Japanese/Other languages.
Two: Give back to the community, with community built projects that help others in need and put Drupal in a good light in Japan.
Three: Have fun, get some camps going, workshops and more.
What I don't want to see. I don't want to see any bashing of people or greed from the projects we build with this group. I think people forget all too often that Open Source software like Drupal has changed our lives, at least me. I think a lot of people in Japan try and rush the the monetary gain of Open Source and lose out on the joy of what it can do for others. Don't get me wrong, I make money with Drupal, but at the same time I give back as much as I can. Now with this group, I hope to do more.
English the set language for the group. I think it is best to have a base language for the group, so goes the name of the group. That is simple enough.
Anyways, let's have fun and let's build some good wiki posts of our tips and tricks of working in Japan.
I will be working on the layout of the group soon, but if anyone wants to give me some feedback, please do so.
Comments
Just got back to Japan from
Just got back to Japan from attending BADCamp in Berkeley, California and saw your post about the new group.... Every time I attend a Drupal related event overseas, I always come back to Japan wishing we had more interaction and sharing here so I'm excited to see the formation of this new group. At the overseas events, people are so open and helpful for longtime members and newcomers alike and there is a strong push to "include" rather than "exclude" (which has been a problem in other open source projects at times). The "Drupal community" is one of the big reasons I've been shifting my focus to working on Drupal-based projects rather than traditional, closed corporate-style software development. I'm happy to do my part to help try to build and support the Drupal community in Japan. BTW, I'm based in Osaka so I can help support meetups and other live activities in the Kansai area.
Great Attitude! Welcome
Hey Otasukeman,
Great to see that I am not the only one that feels like this, I think in the end, everyone who stays with Drupal feels this way. I hope to take one day a week and spend like 3 to 4 hours growing this group, resources, and setting up some meets. I would also really like to get a community project going, people can really learn a lot that way and give back at the same time.
Thanks for joining!
Hey, otasukeman. I was at
Hey, otasukeman. I was at BADCamp too. You really came all the way from Osaka just for that little two-day camp? Ah well; it was fun, and the small size meant that I was able to spend a little more face-time with some Drupal superstars.
Anyway, I'm hoping this group can become a haven for folks like me, who want to help promote Drupal in Japan but who are intimidated by the level of Japanese in the normal Japan group. It seems that when the group started out, there was a bit of a balance between English and Japanese posts, but nowadays it's almost entirely Japanese. And that's fine, but it occasionally means that I either can't follow along in a thread at all, or can't muster up the Japanese skills to try to say what I want to say when I want to make a contribution. For example, in the new thread about search indexing, I want to ask if anyone has considered using Apache Solr and its CJK tokenizer… Maybe I'll make a go at it in my baby-talk Japanese tomorrow (it's getting too late to do it tonight), unless someone beats me to it.
Frankly, I'm also interested in networking for possible employment leads, despite my currently limited Japanese… If all goes well, I'm going to be attending a Japanese language school in Japan at the beginning of the school year, but I'd like to continue working part-time so that I don't drain my bank account too quickly. Though I telecommute for my current employer, they've hinted they might not appreciate me being so far away (the time difference especially might be awkward), and the USD-JPY exchange rate has been pretty unfavorable nowadays anyway…
The Boise Drupal Guy!
Hey Garrett, Man, great to
Hey Garrett,
Man, great to have you. I really feel the same way. The group was kicked off and it was kind of even, but now, just to stay up with things. It's a bit hard, I really hope that some of the J-Guys will join too, to work on their English.
Welcome, I will take a day soon this week and work on the group some more, I want to get some good wiki posts going, I think you could really help with that.
Finally was going to get
Finally was going to get around to posting about Solr, and now… I can't find the thread. The one I linked to is the wrong one… can't edit my comment to take it out. Huh. Did I dream it?
The Boise Drupal Guy!
BADCamp & coming to Japan
I attended DrupalCon San Francisco and Drupalcamp Colorado early this year and found the sense of community much stronger than other tech conferences I've been to and the sessions really good overall. I was thinking of trying to go to the Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit in Vancouver, but things were too busy here at that time to make an overseas trip. I happened to see info about BADCamp on Twitter and when I saw more and more "Drupal superstars" registering to present as well as presentations about several topics relevant to projects I'm working on, I decided to "take a long weekend" trip to attend the conference. After the camp, I also visited the Center for Next Generation Teaching and Learning at UC Berkeley to talk to them about their usage of the Social Media Classroom Drupal distribution and their research about participatory media in education.
Which part of Japan are you coming to attend Japanese language school? If it is in Kansai, I might be able to help with some leads....
Coming to Chicago?
Will you be attending DC Chicago in March? I would like to make the acquaintance of any Drupal members currently in Japan.
Best,
Z
-- Zach (attack) Meyer
DrupalCon Chicago
I'll be there! It would be great to bring together people interested in Japan from the Drupal community with DrupalCon attendees living in Japan at some point during the conference....
Yes
Perhaps setting up a BoF for the Japan Drupalers would be worth while. I am frequently in Japan and would love to be able to help evangelize the platform there or help people who want to do more projects with it in Japan.
-- Zach (attack) Meyer
The school is in Aichi, so
The school is in Aichi, so not quite Kansai…
I too an planning on being at DC Chicago at this point. Might even be presenting.
The Boise Drupal Guy!
Hi Guy's, I spend a couple of
Hi Guy's,
I spend a couple of weeks each January in japan usually around Osaka.
If you are having regular meetings in Osaka, I would like to try and attend.
Next year I arrive on the 10th of January and head back to Brisbane on the 20th, in time for DrupalDownunder.
Most of my time in japan will be snow boarding, this time in Hyogo at Hachi Kita.
Hi Pals
I am living in Japan for more than 2 years and did not found any Drupal's user, maybe I didn't search too much.
Anyway I happy you started a group, I would like to join it.
If there is a meeting, I live in Toride (取手), Ibaraki.
Do a whistle. http://phlco.albbrain.net
Howdy
Hi all,
I'm pretty new to drupal (about 2 months in, working stuff out slowly, but surely) and web development/programming in general.
I've been in and out of Japan my whole life (half Japanese, half American). I currently live and work in Tokyo.
Anyway, I'm really interested in communicating with people in similar fields, networking, and expanding my knowledge.
Looking forward to gaining some valuable insight. Cheers!
Hooray!
I felt the same - I was a Japan Group lurker, but it was an effort to follow when I was tired...glad to have an English group!
Name is Jeff Madsen, from Wisconsin (US) but I live in Sanda-shi (outside Osaka/Kobe), and am mainly a LAMP freelance programmer working remotely for a company in Tokyo (and looking for more projects ;-) )
I have been "pretending" to learn Drupal for a little while; finally started a blog a few days ago on drupalcafe just to force myself to use it each day and get more familiar with it. Really would love to get involved in any sort of non-profit project where I could work with some knowledgeable people, and learn. I joined a group to create a Homeless Org's website, but it seems to have fizzled, so hoping some other possibility will come along. On my side, I can help anyone with php/codeigniter/sql/jquery (and maybe some other things :-) ) problems.
Up for the above, hiking or outdoors stuff in Kansai, drinking beer...
glad to know about more Kansai members!
I've been busy with preparations for my midterm dissertation presentation (I'm working on a PhD at Osaka University), but I would love to get some informal meetups going here with other people in Kansai interested in Drupal to share experiences, ideas, and just get to know each other better, helping to build a local Drupal community like many cities in the US have.
I don't mind trying to organize "Beers and Drupal and You"
as a monthly get together in Osaka/Kobe. Thinking, a poll and find a good place to chat the first time (laptop free), which could turn into workshops or something once we built up some steam. we used to do this for the now mostly defunct Click IT group.
Am I stepping on any toes to put up some polls for each month for this and the Japan group, and getting the ball rolling? We (Click IT) used to beer garden Friday after work - Which day of the week do people feel would be best? (maybe that's the first poll)?
jeff
Jeff, please take advantage
Jeff, please take advantage of the group. I am head deep in a project right now, but the group is for everyone in Japan to use. Only rule, don't be a Jerk, other than that, knock yourself out!
Never fails
A soon as I get a little free time, and get excited about some new project - new work hits me! (Which is a wonderful thing, of course - no complaints.)
I'm putting up a poll right now for the month of Jan. for meeting in Osaka (Umeda area). I'll do Friday/Saturday nights in this poll to see what is best for folks, and we can see what sort of crowd we might manage. I have some friends who use Drupal/are "web workers" but not in the group..let's just start the ball rolling and see what comes from it.
Hey guys, signed up to the
Hey guys, signed up to the group first day but haven't had time come by till now! Great to see the friendly atmosphere developing here!!! :) I've been busy w/ projects at work.... for the whole year & a half I've been in Japan, working at this company, I've been trying to persuade them to move to Drupal. We're getting closer, but one big factor right now is support! Like, real companies specializing in Drupal, with long pages written in Japanese explaining they do Drupal, which gives the impression that they are reliable.
Anyway, don't want to mess up the mood here. Let's continue to talk parties & meetups!!! :D Speaking of parties, have you guys heard about the D7 release parties? People are organizing parties world wide, we should do the same here!!
D7 release PR info here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/110449
Yeah, don't mess with the mood man! :-)
It would be great to get a D7 release meetup, in general it would be good to just get a meetup and have some drinks and talk first.
Mr. COSnake, would you like to give me a hand with that? You know of space we could use?
Will be in Tokyo from 28
Will be in Tokyo from 28 January to around first week of February. It will be really cool to meet drupal users from Japan if there is a meet up around that time.
Hello Tokyo
Hi,
I've been a long standing Drupal Japan lurker too and I wouldn't be surprised if I know some people here by one step to another person.
I use Drupal a lot in my projects and have introduced it to the company I work at.
I'm less of a Drupal afficiado as I use it as my preferred platform to get things done, but at the same time work in a number of other platforms and technologies.
However I do try to share what I have found out, and a lot of my digger previously was getting Drupal and flash to talk properly which is now fairly solid.
I'd be interested in casual meet ups to expand the forces :p
I live and work in central Tokyo so it'd be pretty easy for me to get too.... providing it was late on a work days.
Japanese work hours and all that (^_-)b