Posted by marktfrey on November 28, 2011 at 9:29pm
Start:
2011-12-13 19:00 - 21:00 America/New_York Organizers:
Event type:
User group meeting
Location
Imagebox
4933 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Agenda
Exploring CiviCRM
Fen Labalme (fen); CivicActions
This will be a quick overview of some of CiviCRM's capabilities including:
- what CiviCRM is
- what it does (some of the more common features and uses)
- when to use it (and when not to)
- how to get started using it
- where to find more information
Project Showcases
- Max Novelli (nitrosx), Nove Inc./University of Pittsburgh
-
Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) Financial Disclosure
Nathan Eanes, VisualatteMTN is a HIV research network within the NIH, headquartered at UPMC. The system I developed for them allows compliance staff to assign groups of scientific investigators to complete financial disclosure statements, a yearly requirement, for HIV studies within MTN. It tracks assignments and completion dates, generates reports, and sends bi-weekly email notifications to investigators still "delinquent".
We'll also be starting discussions on a couple of group endeavors:
- the DrupalPGH website (and a simultaneous development of a stock Distribution for local user groups), and
- riding on the energy from DrupalCamp Ohio, proposing a DrupalCamp Pittsburgh
Comments
Location
do we still need a location?
Yes We Do!
If you can secure some space at your lab or elsewhere at Pitt, that'd be great.
If not, anyone else got ideas?
No space
I asked and I got a solid NO!!
Unfortunately, my building locks at 6pm and nobody else is allowed in.
Do we have anything lined up? If not I can present a case study!!!
Thanks
Max
Case Study ++
Awesome! I'll put you down.
Nate Eanes had a case study, too... sounded really interesting. Nate, if you're still on for this please confirm.
Any ideas for the main topic/presentation? Chime in, yinz guys
December 13 meeting
Would love to hear from Fen regarding his work with CRM . . . unless he recently presented and we missed it.
CiviCRM
I had hoped to make the Ohio DrupalCon but my son's hockey tournament took precedence...
I'd be happy to show off CiviCRM a bit - I don't have any sort of presentation set up, but I could give an overview of features, benefits -- and warnings ;)
=Fen
Great!
Thanks, Fen. I think a lot of folks would like to see that. I'll put you on the agenda!
CiviCRM
Thanks Fen! We are looking forward to learning a few things.
All presentations sound
All presentations sound great, looking forward to it.
Also spurred by some things we talked about on the ride back from DrupalCamp Ohio (thanks, Katy), during open discussion I'd like to get the group's input on putting together an annual or semi-annual site owner session. I'm thinking 80% common site task training combined with 20% simple explanation of the Drupal and open source workflow from the developer's point of view to help site owners understand the system they're supporting and participating in. More specifics at the meeting.
site owner session
Love this idea. I'm going to try and get a babysitter so I can come too. I really liked Angie's slides from the keynote about the different ways you can contribute, and how it doesn't have to be just code. Eye opening for me! It would be awesome to focus on getting drupal users/site owners involved in that. Or at least informed about the process.
January's presentation topic?
Let me know if you would like to put something together for January. I think a lot of folks would like to know more about the Drupal community in general, as well as how to participate. It's a big differentiator between Drupal and other CMS tools (Wordpress, Joomla), so this kind of dovetails with the 'Why Drupal' presentation we've been kicking around for awhile.
This brings up another good point on inclusivity in our meetups - we want to make sure users/potential users of all skill levels and types (designer / site admin / developer) are welcomed and engaged. Maybe we could either switch meeting topics (dev/advanced every other month) or shorten the project showcases and do two presentations per month, one beginner and one advanced, that cover more ground.
I'll look for a sitter ;).
I had been thinking something
I had been thinking something in this vein too... my rough idea was that we could rotate 3 different kinds of meetings:
I don't know whether this rotation would be appealing to attendees, or if we should just cover all the bases every month.
Special Events to pump up contributors
Another thing that I would really like to do is have special events that are just about how to help out with issues on Drupal core. Not just patching, but helping to organize the issues, test to see if bugs are really bugs, test and review patches, etc. Maybe have these around holidays and do a kind of pot luck thing.... like a Valentines day party where people bring cookies.
The concept would be that "everyone leaves a core contributor", because there is something really gratifying about the first core patch. We could select a lot of novice issues that are easy to patch and work one on one with people to guide them through the process. We might even be able to coordinate with webchick and catch to ensure this set of (really simple) issues get priority for committing that week, so people see immediate results. If it works, we could also get other Drupal groups across the country involved to have similar events in the same week.
I like the idea
I like the idea
Site owners supporting open source
I like this idea, too. Getting stakeholders to understand that if custom code is necessary for their site requirements, it's strongly worth it to minimize the custom code and maximize generic functionality that can be contributed back to the community. My favorite blogs on this (both by Nedjo Rogers) are The Most Important Decision In Developing A Drupal Site: Contributed Vs. Custom Development and from the developer POV: Drupal Developer Tips for Getting the Most out of Open Source.
Enjoy!
Something I'd like to put in
Something I'd like to put in the spotlight, and get a wider survey of at the meeting, is the range of user trajectories for the site owners we develop for. Involvement with Drupal doesn't reside on a single line, where everyone starts out adding content, and eventually learns enough to develop custom modules, or even contributes directly back to the Drupal community at all.
Personally, my clients will never touch the Views UI, or anything like Panels (which I don't use anyways). They interact mostly by adding, editing, and removing content, and managing site settings from a simple checkbox and radio button custom dashboard. I could be wrong, but I've always assumed that most Drupal site owners are of this type -- a firm works with them to provide a tool for their business, and they're interested in how to use that tool, not in becoming an active member of the Drupal community.
For this type of client I'd want to provide a session that explains:
...and secondarily:
Maybe we are all on the same page here, but I want to clarify that my vision for this presentation is to serve an audience of which I assume 99% will never come to another Drupal meeting. Of course it could serve more than that audience, too.
Even if it doesn't, I think it's still an important service that we should provide to a foundational but often unmentioned part of our community, namely the clients that use Drupal every day.
indeed
I agree that it matters on how we present Drupal and what that entails for users with a range of interests. Introducing the topics tailored to the audience you mentioned would be helpful in clarifying the value Drupal can have. That and increase usability.
I like linclark's threefold distinction and Fen's suggestion on incorporating stakeholders.
These ideas could go a few directions, with varying depth. I think we should try and narrow topics down according to the events where we will discuss them.
December Drupal Meet-Up
I am so green at this I am not sure how much I will get at first, but I am looking forward to being a part of this Community. The excitement and good will is evident in all the posts and I will be there (where ever) on Tuesday. Thanks to all for your contibutions.
Sacco
Drupal Developer
Hi,
i have one years experience in Drupal theam and module development please provide your email id so we will discuss further
Thanks