DrupalCamp Galway 09 - Drupal n'GO challenge + Documentation Sprint

During times of recession and job losses it's always useful to develop a new skill or two. DERI based in the IDA Business park is holding a Drupal Ireland event. This event is taking place on Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th April and the event will run from 10am to 5pm both days. Registration is free. You can sign-up for this event below.

Drupal is a powerful open source content management system (that is a free software system) which allows users to easily publish, manage and share a wide variety of content on the internet. You can basically develop and build your own website without needing to know how to code or program. Drupal's many features and add-ons allow it to be used for a variety of website needs; including for marketing, internal communications, informational websites, and for social networking purposes.

On the Saturday, the event will include presentations from experienced Drupal developers where people can learn more about Drupal, what it can do and how it can benefit them in terms of a possible business presence online or even help the current organisations they work for. There will be two tracks, so participants of all levels will be catered for including complete beginners. This is an opportunity during which you can learn entire website development process from start to finish in one afternoon. Addison Berry, head of the Drupal documentation team from the US will lead the learning for both of the days that weekend.

Schedule for Saturday

The weekend will be a mix of DrupalCamp and Drupal site building challenge.
There will be 2 tracks: newbies and developers.

Saturday
10:00 - registration
10:30 - presentations start.
12:30 - lunch (provided by our sponsors)
13:30 - afternoon sessions
16:30 - the site building challenge starts!

See a detailed schedule at http://groups.drupal.org/node/20729 where you can suggest what you would like to hear about. You can also add your name if you want to present something.

In parallel during this event, 2 groups of Drupal developers will work on building 2 real working Drupal sites for 2 good causes. They will have 24 hours to complete their website. We have called organizations, charities and NGOs from Ireland to submit their site proposal. 2 organisations will be chosen from the submissions and announced in advance.

2 teams will be formed (one team per site). A team leader will be designated in advance and will have taken care of a few things prior to the event:
- get in touch with the organisation they will be dealing with
- make sure the scale, complexity and features of their project are feasible in one day
- prepare the hosting for their site (the organisation will have a working site by the end of the weekend).
- make sure everything is ready for the day of the competition
Each team leader will have a good Drupal knowledge, good communication skills and be able to organise people.

Other roles will be assigned within the teams on the day. A team will consist of: designers, site builders, themers, developers, trainers, mentors for newbies etc. Each team will be composed of at least 10 members, advanced Drupal developers mixed with newbies. One goal of the challenge is to bring newbies up to speed with site building in a comfortable and fun environment where they can learn from the more advanced users based on a real world website. They might provide non-drupal skills e.g. webdesign, usability, graphics, SEO, content writing etc.

Each team will meet their respective "client" who will explain what is envisioned to have on the site, followed by some initial discussion within the team and planning for the next day.

Schedule for Sunday

The challenge continues. In parallel there will be a documentation sprint which will be lead by Drupal's very own Addison Berry, head of the documentation team, coming from the US in attendance. Participating in the sprint is an excellent way to get involved with the community and make a meaningful contribution to the Drupal project. It aims at creating cleaner, clearer, and more accessible documentation for members of the Drupal community. If you are a beginner and learning about Drupal, there is a great deal of help you can provide by explaining Drupal with an outsider perspective. Read more about the last documentation sprint which happened at DrupalCon DC.

Sunday 16:30: End of the challenge. Each team will have 15 mins to present the site they built. A panel of 3 judges will then decide which team wins (prize to be decided...). The panel will be composed of:
- 1 member representing the organising committee.
- 1 member from a non profit (not involved in any of the 2 organisations participating in the challenge)
- 1 member from the Irish web community

The challenge event is inspired by http://www.fullcodepress.com/rules/

Drupal n'Go Competition Winners

We had a great response to our Drupal n'Go competition from charities, not-for-profits and voluntary groups all across Ireland. We received almost 50 applications, each of which was a particularly compelling case, with urgent needs, which made it a difficult decision to make.

However, we're pleased to announce that the two lucky winners are:

• Rural Science Association
• Zikomo Ireland

We also decided to do a small basic website for the Shadowbox Theatre Company who lost their main funding earlier this year.

See http://groups.drupal.org/node/20492 to learn more about these organisations.

Registration for the event

Please register prior to the event: either create an account and then click on the sign up button on this page, or send an email to stephane.corlosquet@deri.org. We are asking everybody to register in order to know the numbers in advance. Lunch will be provided by our generous sponsors.

Sponsors

So far we have 5 organisations sponsoring the event.

DERI, NUI Galway
io1, Dublin & London
Annertech, Dublin
Packt Publishing, UK
DFSA

Get to Galway and the venue

The event is taking place in DERI, which is located in the IDA business park in Lower Dagan. If you are driving, follow the directions to Clifden (N59) until you reach a traffic light at the entrance of the IDA business park: it will be on your right (coming from the city) or straight (coming from Westside). A map showing the venue location can be found at http://useamap.com/deri

You can either fly to:

• Dublin and get a direct bus from the airport to Galway (3h ride) for 25 euros return or alternatively get the train from Heuston station in Dublin to Galway (30min bus + 2,5 h train).
• Shannon and catch a direct bus to Galway (2h) 23 euros with Citylink.
• Galway and catch a cab to the city (~20 euros). Flights are more expensive and mostly from the UK only.

Ryanair and Aerlingus among others fly to Ireland.

Accommodation

• Sleepzone Hostel (Budget): Backpacker hostel close to the town centre/Eyre Square. Friendly staff and generally hassle free in my experience, though can be a lot of passing noise on the street outside. Free wifi in the spacious kitchen and lounge area, plus an internet room. Basic breakfast included in the price last time I stayed. Some private rooms, or you can sometimes get a whole dorm room to yourself if you don't want to share. A decent budget option.

• Westwood House Hotel (Top End): Just across the road from DERI Galway, on the outskirts of town. Quite upmarket. Possibly a good option if you just want to visit the DERI building, but maybe a bit inconvenient if you want to get to and from town frequently.

• Corrib haven : 5 minutes walk from DERI, a nice BnB. Bacon / Eggs / Sausages for breakfast. Not sure if they have single rooms, the price for a double one is usually 35pps. They have a wifi access, but not working very well. There's another BnB in front of that one, almost the same prices. Yet, as for Westwood, it's a bit far from the city center.

• The Abbey House BnB - Just down the road from DERI, about 3 mins walking. Right next to the Corrib Haven (see above). The website looks a bit outdated, but the BnB is nice. Prices are in

• Snoozle's (Budget): Another backpaper hotel in the city center (2 minutes from the new coach station). Not sure they have wifi, but it's brand new and really clean, at least in the lounge / kitchen.

• The Heron's Rest BnB in town

• The house hotel (top end) very nice hotel, excellent location in the heart of the city.

• Devondell BnB 45 euros. In Salthill, maybe not the best location for this event though unless you don't mind walking or taking a cab.

See the hotels on a map. Hostel World can also help you to find cheap accommodation in Galway.

If you are short in terms of accommodation, get in touch with the organizers.