Hi,
I reached out to DA earlier this week for finding out if they have any policy on forming a local Drupal Association for collecting funds - if we were to start thinking from a Drupalcon India (2013?) perspective?
As i understand, there is no such policy from the DA. However, i feel, while continuing to use already registered India-wide non-profits such as "Free Software Foundation of India" (we used them to route all the funds for DCD last year) for funds collection, there may be value in forming an India-wide "Drupal Association India" (OR "The Indian Drupal Association"; OR similar).
This particular post was really helpful: http://groups.drupal.org/node/206303 (UK) in understanding the perceived benefits. There are some other countries having similar discussions.
Please spread the message around to get a sort of a vote on what route should we take? My personal feeling is that the larger vote would be for a separate non-profit -- a Drupal Association India. Yet, we have to be cautious that while forming another association is easy, getting it to function apolitically, in a democratic setup is rather difficult.
So perhaps, it may be better to stay with neutral and already successful organisations like the "Free Software Foundation of India" OR similar which have an India-wide presence and recognition.
Thoughts?
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
Chief Potter | http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive
drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies | http://www.twitter.com/srijan
Comments
I am agree with on this "
I am agree with on this " Yet, we have to be cautious that while forming another association is easy, getting it to function apolitically, in a democratic setup is rather difficult."
But we get to try and as persons such as you are leading then we can expect good result out of it..
We can make a association here in India just like you proposed, which will have community portal(we are already planning for enhance DCD portal), we can schedule regular meetup, organize Camps & promote it as much as we can...
I will be always ready for any kind of help, that is for sure...
It's the first comment but I hope we will have some nice response..
Thanks,
Great idea!
hi Rahul,
This is a brilliant idea. Whether we start a whole new organization or work through existing FOSS organizations, Blisstering will work with you regardless.
One thought is to choose the path of least resistance, which means, rather than creating new legal and other infrastructure, we can "pass through" existing organizations.
We have worked in the past with the Linux guys in Pune -- really nice people and true believers in FOSS. Dipen Chaudhary of QED42 (and ex-Blissterite :-)) had helped organize that.
They don't know it yet, but Pavithra Raman and Rachit Gupta from Blisstering will be happy to work with you on this effort. :-)
And thank you for taking the initiative!
Cheers,
Sunit.
Blisstering Solutions || www.blisstering.com
1300 Clay Street, Suite 600, Oakland, CA 94612
Landline: +1 510 596 1711 || Fax: +1 510 596 1712
Email: sunit.gala@blisstering.com || Cell: +1 650 302 4988
My two cents
Hi Rahul,
I second your idea to get associated with neutral bodies like Free Software Movement of India(http://fsmi.in) which is doing astounding work in evangelizing Free software through out length & breadth of the country. Luckily they also use Drupal for their website & most of their regional groups like Swecha, Andhra Pradesh(http://swecha.org); FSMK, Karnataka(http://fsmk.org); FSFTN, Tamil Nadu(http://fsftn.org); Swadhin, Orissa(http://swadhin.in).
Apart from that, many a times, Swecha has been official organizer of "Drupal Hyderabad" events & has been voluntarily helping in arranging venues, resource people & motivating students towards Drupal in Andhra pradesh.
Even in their successful National events they have given place for Drupal sessions:
1. NCAR: http://ncar2010.fsmi.in/tutorials
2. Software Freedom Day: http://swecha.org/sff-2012
They have been doing the same for 10 years & they have much love for Drupal in the real terms of freedom & openness, what we expect from a Drupal association.
Thanks
Siva Kumar Epari
List of non-profits
Hi,
May i recommend the following steps:
a) we collate a list of all free software non-profits with whom we could work (for instance swecha.org or fsf.org.in); can someone help compile this list?
b) the heads under reviewing who we would work with could be:
-- all india presence?
-- key people on their board of trustees
-- initiatives in Drupal any of them have taken
-- more such parameters
c) based on this compiled list, the Drupal community can come over and vote on which organisation we are willing to work with for the Drupal banner
Thoughts?
Regards,
Rahul
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
Only choice to best of my knowledge
At present i would say Free Software Movement of India is the only Free software Non-profit which has a nation-wide presence & is advocating Drupal to best of my knowledge.
Member organizations of FSMI help to reach different states & different sectors of industry & education.
Presence
State wise their presence is in:
Sectoral movements:
Key people in the board:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Movement_of_India
Initiatives:
http://wiki.swecha.org/doku.php?id=sumcamp_2011 & http://wiki.swecha.org/doku.php?id=sumcamp_2012
Swecha provided free venue, internet & resources for:
Region wise Drupal trainings conducted by Swecha:
Also many similar workshops happening since 2006 which are organized by Swecha, FSFTN, FSMK, etc. throughout India.
FSMI has been organizing National level events and has experience with managing such huge scale events & mobilizing people from different sectors like Industry, Education & NGOs. I guess this is the only viable option which we can evaluate for now.
Thanks
Siva Kumar Epari
my support
nice initation.
Local Chapters & connect
Feedback based on some experiences being a part of a very active Chennai Drupal group of Enthusiasts!
There has been much success in training programs organised by an informal group of Drupal enthusiasts around Chennai. We know the power of this training is that the members of this group are from across organisations. We have taken support from IEEE & Free Software foundation for organizing these events.
We are finding a need to start a small entity that represents us that is 'Drupal Chennai Community' to help us use the same to reach out & work with other organisations. The reasons for starting a new entity vs joining an existing one being: We want to make sure that 'Drupal' is the reason why the members participate in the same. I think with India, it would be good to have local chapters & then a entity at the top that joins them all. Local chapters can be very powerful & better relate to a larger audience. The community is also less inhibited when they know that the audience is from the same background/language & culture.
The purpose of the organisation should be to increase the skill set of Drupal in India, besides promoting Drupal. DrupalCon would be an automatic extension!
We are still working with our auditors for official Drupal Chennai entity. We may create a trust to start with...
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
Shayamla, what you are saying
Shayamla, what you are saying here is exactly what i read in several other country forums late last night. This suggestion of multiple local trusts/non-profits and one over-arching body drawing in from the various local non-profits maybe a good idea.
My concern has been around keeping the overarching body as apolitical as possible. I have constantly heard over the years from various iLugs that they tend to be either driven by only a few people, or tend to get quite bureaucratic.
I hear you say that we all should simply focus on our local bodies and that Drupalcon would be an automatic evolution of the community developing over time? In other words, there may not be value in focussing on building the overarching body right now, unless the local bodies and the community is far more in size. Is that correct?
You are among the oldest and the longest standing individual contributor from India -- so your opinion carries a lot of weight in my eyes atleast.
Thanks,
Rahul
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
Great and timely thread,
Great and timely thread, Rahul! I agree with Shyamala. It is very important to strengthen the local Drupal communities in terms of evangelizing, training and contributions. This will lay a strong foundation for the D India association. My suggestion would be to set ourselves some targets in these areas in the next one year or so. At the end of this, we should have a larger "core team" and a larger following to make Drupal India association and a large event like Drupalcon successful in India.
As Shyamala mentioned, we have been talking about bringing the Chennai Drupal community under a formal entity for quite sometime now. This is going to be a reality son :)
Best,
Rajeev
Goals, focus?
Rahul,
Thanks for starting this discussion, I'd admit that lot of times while organising local meetups, trainings we've felt "Would have been nice, if we had support for X" - the X changes, sometimes its organisational help, sometimes lack of speakers, marketing channels etc etc. I'm sure, lot of local chapters feel the same, I mean it'd be super nice if someone from bangalore/chennai/Delhi can come and speak up at Pune Drug meetup and vice versa, also I think we've tried but it doesn't really happen for some reason or the other. I think its those times, that I've felt the need of such an entity most.
What would be the focus of this entity?
The original post talks about using it as a channel to collect funds. I think, thats a practical necessity if we pine about a Drupalcon India. Could it do more? Could it work to make local Drupal groups work with each other more cohesively and smoothly? I believe getting a Drupalcon "license" is much more than organisation, funds etc I think, Its more about the depth and breadth of the region's Drupal community. So, IMHO the focus should be on building that right now. I totally agree with shayamla's model of working bottom up and that local groups will be most critical, but they can work much more efficiently IMO. So, I'd urge to discuss the focus of this entity.
To go with a an existing non profit or To spin one of our own?
I think its important to first define entity's vision/focus and then assess our options. Yes, it would be supercool to get free marketing channel and organisational help by working with organisations that have been doing it for last 10-15 years and know how to manage funds etc but would it fit our needs? I dont know, I think we need to meet the members and see how can they help us and how can we help them. If we are looking to build the entity just for fund collection, then I think it makes most sense to work with existing established non profits. If we want the entity to do more, then I'd be more inclined to work with an entity (or create a new one) whose entire focus is Drupal as my experience working with FOSS/Open-web kind of organisations is that they are super cool etc but the attention is diluted coz they have varied focus.
I think we should try to do more and try to work together.
Maybe, it'll be a good idea for various local group organisers/members to meet in person?
Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development
Dipen, i second your idea of
Dipen, i second your idea of all the local representatives to meet in person and make a decision on local registered groups v/s top-level or both and layout the vision, purpose of the overarching body atleast.
I do believe that even as we are a scattered community (which i read most other countries are; and with the cancellation of Sau Paulo - that is evident), our local groups are fairly knit together and co-operate at the local level fairly well. Shyamala shared her good experiences with the Chennai group; in the north, Srijan, Monsoon Consulting and a few others, for instance, have collaborated in making the earlier local Delhi events a success. Participation has been from Bhopal, Bikaner, Dharamshala (our office there), Chandigarh, Jaipur (Monsoon's region), and many other cities.
So, i believe at the local level there is a fair bit of collaboration with or without a registered non-profit entity. Collection of funds has been an issue, but in our case we worked with our good friends Sudev Barara at FSF.org.in in helping us get past that hurdle.
However, i do believe to get to a Drupalcon, we have to have an India-wide broad based apolitical and democratic representation from leading members of the community from all regions.
I feel a model could be for local entities to nominate, say 2 people from amongst themselves -- and as much as possible not CXOs from companies (so i am excluding myself in the process -- even as i would really like to be part of such an India-wide group), simply for the reason that unless we as companies learn to not be threatened by each other (which we will stop being as the marketplace increases) we CXOs should stay away.
I would second an f2f meeting in Delhi / Chennai/ Mumbai / Hyderabad / Bangalore -- whatever works for everyone. For funding the travel and stay for these 2 nominated people -- i am certain the regional companies could sponsor. In Delhi, we have some funds lying with FSF from the last Drupal Camp (Dries visit).
Once all these 10-15 people meet together, they should also elect a wide-based group of 7 people for forming a non-profit trust for the "Drupal Association - India".
I quite like Shyamla's advise of bottom up, but my feeling is that the slow evolution would take a much longer-time. And i am not keen on missing an end-2013 or first-half of 2014 timeline for a small-scale (sydney like) DC India. One of the reasons of working under such a goal is that it mobilizes/energizes the community in a big way. Each of the 3 Camps that happened around Dries visit had in excess of 300 people attending. I am sure we can find 400 committed folks for a Drupalcon in India from within these groups.
@all: if such a roadmap is acceptable, shall we put out a tentative date; and start throwing names for such nominations from our respective regions?
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
Local groups are fairly knit together
Rahul,
It was quite kind of you to share about the integrity between the local groups. I still remember you, Ankur from Delhi; Shyamala from chennai; Anil from Bangalore coming over to DCD event during dries visit to Hyderabad. Also on many occasions Shyamala has come to Hyderabad workshops & am very thankful to her. Those were the times when i used to think about organizing a National event & one for all meet all the enthusiastic Drupalers from every corner of India. I really await that day
I also second the idea about having a f2f meeting so that Drupalers & other Non-profit & FOSS group members can meetup & fix a roadmap for the future Drupalcon & Association. We will definitely hold a meet to finalize the names & funds for the meeting soon at Hyderabad. End of 2013 & Start of 2014 should be our goal for Drupalcon India.
Thanks
Siva Kumar Epari
Overall deliverables of the
Overall deliverables of the roadmap definitely makes sense and meeting in person will strengthen the collaboration ( the reason, I suggested it ) but I think we need to put some more detailing on nominating X people from a region ( will come back to it in a moment). I strongly believe, that the only way we can make it work is by making it open and trustworthy like any other organisation/team. I'm not sure what others think about Drupal business decision makers being part of the 10-15 people group but I feel right now it'd be best if they exclude themselves to start on a right foot. Eventually, we should strive to build a mature group which doesn't really care who is who unless its adding value in line with goals of the association.
Detailing on region representatives:
We should put some details on region representatives, specifically:
1> How many regions?
2> Which local Drupal groups come in which region.
3> Who is eligible? Not like min qualification, but to ensure that the group will benefit with his/her participation.
4> How do we choose them? Show of hands in a meetup or proper DA like elections? ( All of this sounds really serious :) , but I think we should think about it )
5> How can we get supervision/advice from someone who has already done this. DA or national level FOSS groups, can we ask someone to mentor us?
Next steps:
Clarify and come up with a plan to nominate local members, meet somewhere, get the ball rolling.
Those are my views about next set of plans and as far as collaborations between local groups go, It was nice to hear your testimonies about that :) and I'd really like to attend more meetups/trainings across the country.
Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development
I back you on this.Would it
I back you on this.
Would it be a good idea to hold an Indian Drupal meetup day bimonthly where regional groups collaborate over a common agenda. The regional groups are fairly disconnected right now, this would create a cohesion between them. A good point to start may be towards the bigger DAI goal.
http://goo.gl/icjPn
My opinion on existing organizations
Dipen,
I clearly agree with your point of view in drawing a line between existing Non-profits & local Drupal groups, if at all they come together to create a platform for next Drupalcon. While the role of local Drupal groups will be about providing local resources(Like Speakers, Venue, etc.), we can take help from existing Non-profit which share the same goal of FOSS to give us voice on a National level. Pushing Drupal to the depth & breadth needs contacts from different regions, sectors of education, sectors of industry who have the potential to adopt Drupal on a larger & broader scale. A broader level adoption will result in a greater amount of contributions made to the Drupal project from India & will give us a International level presence. What we need to support the idea of a Drupalcon India is to have a thriving community which has equal representation of mentors, organizers & audience from all sectors.
In the above way we can still keep the focus on Drupal as the content delivered will be handled by Drupal oriented groups and the event organizing, roadmaps & plans can be finalized(Simply saying non-content related) by the Non-profit. An additional Drupal panel on a National level can constitute the representation of each regional group which will be giving inputs to the Non-profit.
So i think the line stays between Organizing & content delivery.
Thanks
Siva Kumar Epari
Siva, Right now, I'm not
Siva,
Right now, I'm not really worried about if we do it ourselves or do it in collaboration with a national level non profit. I'm sure as the discussion evolve, we will know what would suit us best. In fact, I can testify they are very useful for niche open source projects like Drupal to flourish, for instance we had one full track on Drupal in Gnunify and were able to pitch Drupal in mozilla events. I think right now its important to fully understand roles and responsibilities of the proposed association and once we know what we want, It would be much easier to know what would be best for us.
As for the line between content and organisation, I dont think we should draw that line. I can totally see experts in other open source projects coming in Drupal camps as speakers ( like fabian keynoted Drupalcon munich or mobile first keynote last year or mozilla cto keynoting at Drupalcon ) and I think if we want to have Drupalcon India, the association should be ready to sweat it out when it comes to organisation.
I think we all agree, that no one benefits from an isolated community and we dont want to be one. So, no matter which way we swing I see us participating in other open source conferences.
Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development
Stakeholders to be taken onboard
Right time to get a formal organisation set up. Drupal is gaining big hold in Government applications more so with the release of Open Government Platform.
Consider getting people from Government to join in their personal capacity (based on interest).
Thanks,
Nagarajan M
Please add a group of
Please add a group of volunteers & the name of a drupal chapter that works across government at http://groups.drupal.org/node/256178.
alternately join in with a chapter in your vicinity to participate.
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
Focus
It's really time we should plan ahead and build up a DAI. +1 for the idea @Rahul. It seems it would make more sense to have different communities scattered and isolated across regions to get together and discuss plans on promoting Drupal and getting more people involved.
The focus right now can be on getting everyone on together and organize more meetups and trainings. To begin with we should start involving everyone who is interested in promoting and contributing to Drupal.
Thanks,
Prafful Nagwani
Drupal India next steps
Next steps:
To facilitate the above, I have started a wiki page at: http://groups.drupal.org/node/256178
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
Seeking Volunteer who has
Seeking Volunteer who has experience of organizing one regional meet or get together ?
I am not eligible then...
removed restriction! :)
removed restriction! :)
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
The Right Thing To Do.
Hello Rahul & All Other,
Rahul, thanks alot for starting this conversation. Its a very important thing for the community.
After going through the thread and from my past experience with different event, I believe FSF is the best banner to use atleast until we evolve into a proper, organized and systematic system that is highly democratic and engaging.
FSF being driven on high values in terms of software freedom and their open minded approach for promoting Free, open and community driven softwares gives us the best place to start off. In our past experience, FSF Bangalore have contacted us, when we announced Drupal Training Day event asking if we needed any help in terms of venue or organizing. That really inspired us.
But again, organizing under a body with a different purpose is not a permanent strategy to follow. As FSF like anyother organization or association have their own objectives and priorities. This can only be seen as a starting point. Mean while we have to start organizing and planning a system, with proper and transparent policies, structure, democratic decision making process etc.
First step in that will be to create a mailing list/group dedicated for that purpose. Getting in touch with Drupal Association and other successful association around the world. Any help of that sort will help us evolve faster and better. We should also be very cautious in letting companies hijack the community or its decision making process from the beginning itself, as anything of that sort will destroy the community itself.
Thanks.
Drupaling.
Hi Guys, I think we should
Hi Guys,
I think we should follow following route;
Collaborate with Government organization, Educational institutions and Non-profits then collaborate with Industry for funds. Probably others may also contribute in terms of logistics and funds.
Thanks
Vivek Dubey
This is a good initiative and
This is a good initiative and start by Rahul extending the conversation initiated to build the Drupal Community in India as mooted at the "Drupal In India BOF" at DrupalCon Munich last month. The BOF was attended by folk from Acquia, Tekriti, Srijan and the Indian operations of Azri and quite a few individual developers who attended this event from India.
I have been watching with growing interest the conversation that has evolved over the last 24 hours. A very rich conversation with a lot of interesting inputs. I wanted to add a perspective to enrich the conversation.
I have the following assumptions here which have enabled this thought process.
Here are my thoughts based on the above assumptions:
The core of an association is independent of the channels it employs to achieve it's objectives, and hence the core of Drupal Association India (DAI) should remain independent of any other existing organization irrespective of their ideals and goals.
Once formed as an association in the true sense, with it's own DNA, the DAI is free to sign MOUs / partnerships with existing networks and organizations to promote it's activities, but it should always be conducted under the banner of DAI perhaps in association with others. These organizations could be Non Profits or companies like Srijan, Blisterring, Tekriti, Monsoon, OSS Cube, Harvest, Olive Tech,Unimity etc, which have done a lot to support and sponsor Drupal centric events in the past and I am sure will continue to do so in the future.
Don't we see Acquia, Azri,Phase II, Wunderkraut etc, sponsoring DrupalCon events the world over? They are very much a part of the community as supporters. Individuals from various companies, developers, evangelists, leadership and management wear a different hat and contribute to Drupal Association's strategy, operations and growth in their personal capacity.
For example, you may like to see what is happening at a global level in Drupal Association, where CEOs and business drivers of various companies are actively involved in the promotion of Drupal as part of the DA. I am listing some such people here:
Vesa Palmu, CEO of Wunderkraut ( http://drupal.org/user/75070)
Ben Finklea, CEO of Volacci (http://drupal.org/user/46676)
Jozef Toth, CEO of Mogdesign (http://drupal.org/user/81456)
Each one them is a Drupal enthusiast as well and they contribute as individuals to the promotion and development of Drupal Community either as developers, evangelists, volunteers, drivers etc.
Are we suspicious about the integrity of Drupal entrepreneurs in India? We should be a healthy mix without prejudice. Presupposing that individuals driving Drupal businesses should be excluded from the community is wrong. So let us not make it sound it to be wrong for an entrepreneur to be a part of building a community. I would like to see the likes of Ashish from Tekriti and Rahul from Srijan bring value to Drupal Association India as much as anyone else.
Our Association needs to be built by it's own members, supporting partners, volunteers, donors, sponsors just as Drupal Association is (https://association.drupal.org/) and help foster the Drupal community in India with evangelism, education, promotion, distribution and collaborative efforts among many other activities. A Drupalcon will happen automatically when we do the right thing together.
www.azrisolutions.com
I am agree with you on
I am agree with you on independent DAI, but we can't decide on a company promoting it..
Though any body can contribute as much as they can...
Thanks,
I dont think bharat is
I dont think bharat is talking about one company promoting DAI, the issue on hand is if Drupal entrepreneurs should be part of the association?
Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development
Being an entrepreneur myself
Being an entrepreneur myself maybe I can add a few pros as to why we should be part of the association?
We could encourage more people to become like us by sharing our story. We could take on the services of other like minded people whom we meet in the association and encourage some smaller members in the association.
I am really interested in knowing what Bharat Cingireddy had in mind when he felt we should be judicious in allowing entrepreneurs in?
Heres to a great DAI!
Jaya
Yes. That was my view
Hi Jaya,
Entrepreneurs are very much a part of the community, and I personally feel, I have no right, even to propose that they be excluded. In fact entrepreneurs should be invited by the rest to be a part of the association at a seeding stage. Entrepreneurs are leaders, with an ability to take risks, plan and manage and organize. The value that they bring to the table is immense !
It may have happened that you read the comment elsewhere and attributed the same to me. By the very definition, OPEN means an open society, an open membership, an open invitation to any body and everybody to join an association as members in their individual capacity
www.azrisolutions.com
I whole heartedly subscribe
I whole heartedly subscribe to your opinion and my wish is to be part of a mature association where value is the only parameter. There are lot of benefits in having Drupal entrepreneurs in the association and I think all will agree, so logically I'm for it. My only doubt is if we are ready to accept it and not feel threatened, that bit totally depends on how community sees Drupal companies, I think this is one FUD that seeped in from LUG's. Though I don't know if its relevant today.
My hope is if we can make it apolitical ( there is no reason why we can't as Drupal companies are already working with each other ) and have Drupal entrepreneurs in the association then it would be quite something.
Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development
Entreprenuers should be part of this.
The question if entrepreneurs should be part of this or not is very irrelevant. As most of drupalers are Entrepreneurs of some sort or a entrepreneur in making. And their involvement will only contribute and add value to the Association. Its them who can give us space and sometime expert advices based on their experience and journey.
But at the same time, the area that we should be careful is that big entrepreneurs shouldn't take over the community and dictate the direction. There always should be healthy and democratic community for any association to progress and flourish. I am telling this from experience, I have seen some FSF groups which are active splitting due to politically aligned people and companies trying to hijack the agenda. Let us take precautions so this dont happen for us. Let us built a wonderful community were there is a great ecosystem for new drupalers flourish, companies get to find talent. Where every one co-exist as fellow drupalers.
Drupaling.
Exciting!
Hi Everyone!
It's very exciting to see you all considering options for bringing all the communities in India together.
There was some discussion last year about "International Drupal Associations" and we started a group...
http://groups.drupal.org/international-drupal-associations
Please feel free to reach out there and contact others who have explored this path in other countries.
cheers
Donna
Donna Benjamin
Former Board Member Drupal Association (2012-2018)
@kattekrab
FOSS/any of such
FOSS/any of such organizations, undoubtedly have helped local Drupal communities in the past.
But, not to dilute the focus of the entity that is going to be formed, the new entity shall be something that focuses solely on evangelizing Drupal and organizing quality Drupal workshops/events across the nation.
When there is a short of people, or resources, then it makes sense for Drupal India to cuddle in the umbrella of some other entity. But with so many people volunteering to be part of it and with so many companies willing to sponsor, I do not see any reason why Drupal India should not be a stand-alone entity.
--
Tanay Sai
Bangalore
skype: tanay.co.in
Totally Agree.
From the activity level we see here, I feel we have enough enthusiasts and companies to start a independent association. I think we should start off with something. Maybe atleast list out what all have to be done.
Drupaling.
Much Required Thought
After Drupal Camp in India, and the response I have seen personally on Global Drupal training day held recently, I believe, this is the best time to get this started.
Much of the discussion has already taken place here, and much to follow too :)
I will keep an eye on this discussion.
Vaibhav Jain
Schedule a virtual meeting
Next steps:
To facilitate the above, I have started a wiki page at: http://groups.drupal.org/node/256178
To help us schedule the next meet, please vote your preferred time at: http://doodle.com/kdbt6qi5rdtfpenp
We should start on #drupal-in based on the number of singups Skype or google hangout are other options.
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
Meetup on IRC
Lets have a meetup on IRC atleast to discuss on some issues.
I am in at #drupal-in
Vaibhav Jain
Moderating the online meetup
@Shyamala: You've done a great job here of setting the agenda and next steps. I recommend we have you as the moderator of any DAI related decision making conversations and meetups going forward. Or atleast for this first proposed online meetup.
@all: If no one has any objections to this, let's just go with Shyamala leading this conversation for the first time around at the very least.
Eventually when we get to nominations for the DAI, check how the DA is currently doing that: https://association.drupal.org/nominations. Once we get to this stage of maturity, where the community members can ask tough questions from the nominees and choose the ones in an anonymous vote, at that stage i feel we should open the nominations for anyone including the promoters/CXOs of all the major Drupal companies. Until then, i feel we all should voluntarily stay away, and enable key people from within our companies who have shown leadership and enthusiasm in the past, including demonstrated some management skills, in organising events and meetups in their respective regions, to be nominated.
This would keep away criticism from the community that events are being hijacked by either of the Drupal companies. This is a complaint i heard in Hyderabad last year, and heard mumbles/muted conversations in Delhi about whether the DCD event was organised by Srijan or by the community (and for this reason -- apart from the leadership/volunteering of Srijan, the event had hardly any Srijan presence; we had intentionally muted the whole event from a companies' promotion standpoint and followed strict instructions from JNU which does not allow any sort of commercial promotion including large banners).
In any case, we CXOs have fairly little time from running the sales and operations of our respective companies. So i propose, enabling people like Shyamala, Siva, Pavithra, Ishan, Asif, Tanay, Dipen to come up (sorry these are the only prominent community names that come to my mind right now; do not mean to disrespect). A lot of these people may promote their respective companies -- which is all great anyway. All of us CXOs should first need to devote personal time individually, apart from our companies sponsoring money, before we file our nominations for a future DAI at the start. Let's voluntarily refrain from this for the first year; but put in all that we have to help the Drupalcon to happen ASAP.
@Shyamala: back to you. Do you really think you can moderate an IRC session? Or a Skype / Google Hangout? I mean everyone would be talking and typing; how would you control things? We' would perhaps be about 50 people if not more on the session.
Shall we try a Webex session? We can use Srijan's account or get a new one for the Drupal community -- maybe they will give one to us for free as well. Basically, some online tool where the moderator can pass control over to specific people to speak. Whatever you think works.
Thanks.
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
IRC would be a good start!
I think IRC would be a good start & recording conversations on chat is good. But lets decide based on the number of members participating. I am open to any tool.
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
I am in
I think this is a great idea, we can go to IRC and share our thoughts, or something like google-meetup is also great.
Dharmendra Patri
Learning never stops, I am no better than you just because I know something which you don't know.Everybody has some special skills which the other person don't have. Never underestimate your self and step forword towards your goals.
Let me take the opportunity
Let me take the opportunity to set preamble here. It may sound a trifle philosophic. But I do think, this is necessary. The biggest change that Open Source has brought into this world is democratization of technology. " By the people, For the people, Of the people".
This has resulted in the creation of Open Organizations and ecosystems, a place where leadership, intent, responsibility and accountability is demonstrated by uninhibited invitation, and demonstrated value addition. There is no other bar.
Firstly,
For me, CXO/Programmer/Project Manager are words that organizations use to govern themselves. In the context of Drupal they do not exist. The only word that concerns Drupal is contribution (of any kind) to make its ecology better and progressive. Therefore Drupal and its associations are designation agnostic.
In the Drupal World everyone is an equal. Membership is a function of contribution and has nothing to do with intra-organization roles and designations that people might have. Participation is a reflection of intent and time rather than position and schedules. So it really does not matter who you are as long you are able to devote time in adding value to the association. For me even a remote suggestion around who should be part of conversation and who should not be is a contra distinction of the Open Source Spirit.
All individuals are welcome to contribute irrespective of their trappings in their respective organizations. Therefore discussions/suggestions around regulating participation (who should be a part and not) is an anti thesis to the very spirit of Open Source and Drupal and self defeating in nature. Any one, could be a part of this Association, as long as he sincerely wishes to contribute to Drupal and its association's mandate.
Anybody challenged by their daily activities and schedule, whether CXO or not (and justifiably so) has the freedom to exercise discretion with regard to involvement. The idea that one group of people remain excluded for now because of roles and functions they have in their companies borders on discrimination, and in this context, the suggestion that they nominate themselves at a later stage seems skewed. It is incorrect to say the seed work be completed by others (they can be anybody).
It is in everybody's interest to build a strong Drupal community in the region, and those amongst us working towards strengthening Drupal should participate in our individual capacity, both as enablers, contributors and evangelists.
The next point,
I completely agree with Rahul on nurturing leadership and enabling Drupalists and Drupal evangelists from organizations to step-up and take initiative. But, top of the mind recall, perhaps might not be the right way to propose names.
There are a lot of active Drupalists in each region, doing great work and are known in their respective cities for the initiatives they undertake. Just because those people are not in this discussion does not mean a few of us decide on who are active contributors and evangelists of Drupal in India. There are people like dgoutam from Kolkata, Ujval Shah from Ahmedabad, Piyush Poddar from Jaipur, Anil Sagar and Chakrapani from Bangalore are some of the many such Drupal Evangelists.
So, I believe one should not impose limits on or define who volunteers to take initiative.
Finally,
Yes, there will be whispers and there will be corridor conversations. The only way to wean them away is through the earnestness of intent, spirit of participation and demonstrable evidence of value accretion.
The moot question out here is "do we want to create an association whose very foundation is built on the fear of hearsay, inexact whispers and back door rumors? Should we build an ecology that aims to accommodate the opinions of gossip monger's who cannot distinguish between the right from the wrong? or should we build a rocking and throbbing association that carries the spirit of Open Source and Drupal to greater heights which includes everybody who takes initiative.
My answer is simple. I have always chosen the path of the harder right than the easier wrong and I like to face any issue head-on with a straight face and a clean heart.
And the beauty of forming a progressive collective lies in its ability to bind myriad designations, different people and disparate cultures into a great common cause. That's it.
Thanks for taking the time and reading. Appreciate it.
www.azrisolutions.com
Really eye opening.
Hello Bharat,
I think we should just start of with optimism now. Let us start everything positively. Waiting to hear more from experienced people.
Drupaling.
++
(like) @Bharat, that was well said & well written.
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
I spent 3-4 hours reading
I spent 3-4 hours reading candidate profiles and comments for 2013 Drupal community "At Large" elections and I'd recommend everyone to go through the candidates, their view points and vote ( https://association.drupal.org/vote2013 )!! Lot of stuff, directly effects Regional groups like ours. If nothing, there is lot of "good" discussion on Regional Drupal camps.
Go Do it!! If you have not already.
Dipen Chaudhary
Founder, QED42 http://www.qed42.com Drupal development
+1 Was on this thread and
+1
Was on this thread and before I could add some thoughts here, this comment of yours took me to https://association.drupal.org/vote2013 and I ended up doing what you did first :-)
Pretty neat!
@Bharat: actually you have a
@Bharat: actually you have a point about everyone participating and not having a blanket ban on CXOs /promoters for the beginning. I guess the community is large enough and smart enough to vote/rank individuals (as they are at: https://association.drupal.org/node/17078) they feel will help enhance the DA-India with their management/organizing skills, or leadership skills or simply their aura of having been core contributors in building the community. And business leaders often have the necessary skills to push forth and get things done.
However, my point was about a subtle push for promoting our companies -- coz of which i'd like to refrain. So, i for one would like to signup for being a volunteer only for a start, also because i've only been actively volunteering to help grow the community since early 2011 (2 DCDs in Delhi). Clearly, while Srijan may have made a significant impact in enhancing the community - and it has - at a personal level there is more that i must demonstrate, and much more time i must find for community work, before i may want to see my name nominated. Happy to be a volunteer until then.
In any case, i think i raked up an unnecessary point here. Here's why:
@all:
Org Structure of the DA
We have to first define what the Org Structure of the DA-India would look like. Who would be the trustees in the non-profit trust, and how would the board be formed? The latter would certainly have elected members from the community -- which is the only piece we are debating about above. This voting https://association.drupal.org/node/17078 - is happening for 2 people to be part of the board. I am certain there are many more members on the board, with Dries being a permanent figure-head.
I guess we need to find out from the DA how they are constituted -- trustees, permanent members, elected board members, how is the board conducted, and so on. We also then need to map the competencies and skills required on the board, from the elected versus permanent members. It is only after this this competencies mapping that community members can come and put up their names for nomination and define how their competencies map those desired.
Actually in these, Project Managers / Business Leaders, may suit the profile desired in the open positions. I am only guessing.
So:
a) could someone connect with the DA and find out how they are structured
b) let's also find out the most suitable legal structure for the DA-India to be formed; TRUST OR SOCIETY?
Thanks.
p.s.: On a lighter note, i am disliking the idea of calling ourselves the DAI (sounds like "die"). IDA (Indian Drupal Association) - synonymous with "Ida" - the left side Nadi of the human body in Yoga (and synonymous with Chinese "YIN") would be more appropriate. ;)
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
@Rahul, IDA sounds good, you
@Rahul, IDA sounds good, you should start a poll on it!
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
Meetup
@all while this discussion is hot and the intent is right, can we get together for 2 days to figure out the modalities? I don't think it's a bad idea for private organizations to take the initial lead. Having access to resources is important to mobilize.
Participate on IDA
To facilitate the above, I have started a wiki page at: http://groups.drupal.org/node/256178. We need to ensure all regional chapter and government organisations are well represented. Please fill this wiki with details.
Also looking at support to update the objectives of the IDA on this wiki.
To help us schedule the IRC chat on IDA, please vote your preferred time at: http://doodle.com/kdbt6qi5rdtfpenp. It will also help us to understand the audience & the number of participants. All of you who donot sign up are also welcome. The doodle poll will close end of day today.
Cheers
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
It'd be nice to meet and
It'd be nice to meet and greet, but if we want to get something done, I suggest Shyamala sets up a new wiki page for the IRC meet and lays down an agenda of sorts. We don't need hard and fast goals, but something to guide conversation would be nice.
Drupal India Initiative
Added an even for the same. Calling it Drupal India Initiative!
http://groups.drupal.org/node/257388
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
I agree with few great points here
In order for this to be a success, more than the comments over here, a first meet-up is absolute mandatory, I personally being a owner of a small start-up company is looking at this as a more solid and successful foundation for many developers, it will benefit everyone starting from a new comer to the giant techies.
I believe, this can only be a success if only serious people join the hands and form a core team, which should, no matter what stick to the plan and execute it without any personal interest. No dictating and an equal environment to speak, write, talk, spread for every members.
Everybody has a role here to playwith, forming DA is never less than starting up a new company, all strategies must be discussed, opinions from entrepreneurs and CEOs or any other big guns should be taken into consideration.
I think many people are giving many advice which is real good, and I have not much left to dig on, one thing to put eye at is, LET'S DO IT.
Lets decide the first point of communication which is very important, discuss things and move on.
Looking forward to this great event.
Thanks
Dharmendra Patri
Learning never stops, I am no better than you just because I know something which you don't know.Everybody has some special skills which the other person don't have. Never underestimate your self and step forword towards your goals.
Exciting!
Hi everyone,
I just landed up in India. This is really exciting to see and to be honest rather surprising. There are a lot of strong points here, but it's gotten a bit too verbose for me to participate (seriously, it's a book at this point) :)
I'll eagerly join on IRC to listen there.
My general reactions:
+1 I like the sound of 'Do
+1
I like the sound of 'Do not operate on consensus, but on initiative'.
Your view of India not ready for a national body holds weight, but I am slightly inclined towards 'fixing this while doing this'.
Drupal India Initiative Meeting #1
Added an event at
http://groups.drupal.org/node/257388
Shyamala
Unimity Solutions
I agree with JacobSingh
Hey Druplians,
I am closely watching this thread from beginning. And
I really appreciate the initiative.
I am absolutely agree with Jacob.
It's our turn India. Let's meet on IRC.
Cheers to all!
A group cheers to/with everybody who has been participating in this thread (cling-cling). Too verbose or not, this 'place' would go down in the history of DAIndia as the 'node' where it all began :-)
My thoughts on the initiative
My thoughts on 'what next'
How would I like to participate (generally speaking, not on the board :-p )
Trivia
Eager to talk to you all on IRC tomorrow.
@rahuldewan - Cheers to you man!
Thanks much :)
Thanks much :)
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
Hi All, I’m not an active
Hi All,
I’m not an active participant in the community as I (unfortunately) stopped doing hands on development long back. However, I’m a great admirer of Drupal and have been actively supporting my colleagues in their activities in the Drupal community for over 6 years. I’m keen to contribute to the growth of Drupal in India and extend my support in any way that is useful.
Here are some thoughts that came to my mind while thinking about the new direction we are taking:
We are all believers in open software and there is a lot of passion for Drupal in all of us. Having said that the primary reason why we want to spend significant time and energy in promoting Drupal is that we want to create better business opportunities for ourselves while fulfilling our passion for giving back to the community and create better opportunities for the younger generation. In order to achieve this goal, it is very important to create a position for ourselves in the global Drupal community in terms of our technical competence, high caliber resource availability and ability to execute large projects in Drupal. Of these, the former two are the most significant aspects.
This can be demonstrated only through our contributions to the growth of Drupal. This should be in terms of Community support, Contribution of modules, Co-maintenance of modules and finally our presence in the core team that maintains Drupal core. Therefore the target we set for ourselves should be sizeable growth in these areas in the coming years. This is possible only by working at the grass-root level by involving everyone - individuals, businesses, educational institutes and academicians - in the process.
Any organization including Drupal Association India should be a step towards this goal. Without achieving visible progress in these areas, focusing on DruaplCon India would be like trying to bring Olympics to India. Let’s first earn some medals in the international stage before trying to host an international event.
All of us and our respective companies have been putting in considerable effort in this direction. Any new initiative to speed up this process will be welcomed by all. I’m a believer in the bottom up approach for building anything that is sustainable. If DAI can play an enabler’s role, that would be great. But, the focus should be in the local groups as that is where activities happen.
Cheers!
DrupalCon India
Hi everyone,
Here are my thoughts about the future of DrupalCons:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/258123
And this is my advice to India:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/258123#comment-828133
Kind regards,
Nick
@nickvidal Just +1ed your
@nickvidal Just +1ed your comment that mentions "..DrupalEverest, or DrupalFuji, or DrupalKibo..." :-)
I am thinking a DrupalBaithak for Kolkata - http://dict.hinkhoj.com/words/meaning-of-%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A0%E0%...
good thoughts!
Nice initiative guys!
Are you guys considering of using any other alternative communication channel other than IRC as I see many people wont have access to IRCs when they are at their working places?
They can only check the MoM rather than taking part in the discussions actively.
Good going guys!
Sree
Parking funds at Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI)
Hi,
Post this thread, the IRC meetup, and finally a brief discussion on the same topic at the DCD '12 (unfortunately, we could not organize one with the larger community, but rather had a discussion at the CXO meet at the DCD '12), it seems it would be best for now to form a loose agreement with another already registered non-profit organization with similar interests, for parking the funds we collect for Drupal events.
Receiving and parking funds for organizing various Drupal events in India has been among the primary motives for mooting the the idea of an Indian Drupal Association. Another motive has been the ability to collaborate and perhaps even to to cross-use surplus funds from one region in India for promotion of Drupal in another part of the country.
In Delhi, we have been collecting funds for the past two Drupal Camp Delhi's under Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI), a pan-India society with the objectives to promote use of free software in India. See: http://www.gnu.org.in/about-fsf-india
Like last year, we've had a small surplus in funds received versus what we spent for the DCD '12. This was donated to FSF last year.
However, for this year i reached out to the board members of FSF requesting them to keep these funds parked for use for further Drupal events in the Delhi region (or perhaps even for promos in other parts of the country). FSF have agreed with this model, but require a formal agreement to be made between FSF and the volunteers, for an approval by their board.
If everyone is okay, i propose to co-ordinate with FSF for the Delhi region, and propose Shyamala Rajaram for Chennai/Tamil Nadu.
If there are other members from other cities who are okay with parking funds at FSF then please send in your names. Kindly, organize in a manner that i receive one name per city/state/region. FSF has volunteers in Hyderabad, Kolkatta, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and nearly every other major city in India.
I have written out a framework on an agreement which after our CA vets, i could post here for everyone's comments/inputs.
Do let me know your thoughts / comments.
Regards,
Rahul
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
Nice concept
Hi Rahul,
Thats a great Idea ! We had a tuff time managing funds for DrupalCamp Mumbai, in fact, last year we had to return some fund back, since we did not had a proper fund management body in place. I am in complete agreement with this proposal. Please consider me as volunteer/co-ordinator for Drupal Mumbai chapter.
I am also interested to know how this would work? Apart from fund management and parking funds, will there be a need based fund allocation like Drupal Association do? if yes what would be the criteria and process. I understand its pretty immature to answer some of these, but you can share your thoughts.
Thanks again for this initiative !
Cheers,
Rachit Gupta
Founder DrupalMumbai, DrupalCAP.org
rachit.gupta@drupalmumbai.org
@ Rachit: Apart from fund
@ Rachit:
I could not understand your point clearly, but let me take a shot at what i understand. We're simply proposing to use FSF for parking the funds we collect from companies for various Drupal events. Now, for events where there is no fund raising, for example, small meetups or meetups in upcoming cities or colleges, etc. -- if there is a credible community movement and there are no local sponsors available, my proposal is to make use of these parked funds.
So for instance, Delhi's contribution to this overall Drupal Fund could be, say Rs.50,000, and Mumbai could make Rs.75,000. Now if Jaipur community wants to have a Meetup and is unable to raise small funds locally (say they require Rs.20,000), then the members could requisition the Drupal representatives who are defined as part of the agreement with FSF.
Based on clearance from atleast 2 Drupal members form the registered ones, the funds could be allocated for Jaipur and one of their members could get a cheque from FSF in their personal name to make the expenditure.
We could/should manage a common expenses Google Spreadsheet managed and edited by these FSF registered Drupal volunteers, who would be responsible for maintaining these funds.
Writing this process, actually got me thinking. We will necessarily have to keep the number of people registered with FSF would have to be restricted to 4-5 people at most; it would become a management nightmare for FSF otherwise.
Regards,
Rahul
Regards,
Rahul Dewan
CEO | http://drupal.org/marketplace/srijan-technologies
http://www.srijan.in/drupalgive | http://twitter.com/srijan
Thanks Rahul, sounds good.
Thanks Rahul, sounds good.
Cheers,
Rachit Gupta
Founder DrupalMumbai, DrupalCAP.org
rachit.gupta@drupalmumbai.org
Good idea Rahul. We collected
Good idea Rahul.
We collected some funds recently, by contributions, for a cause, at Drupal Bangalore ( http://groups.drupal.org/node/269743#comment-864503 )
Without anywhere to park the funds, we used personal accounts for the same, till the donation was made.
Having funds under FSF looks fine. You could consider me as a volunteer for Bangalore.
--
Tanay Sai
Bangalore
skype: tanay.co.in
For last year drupal camp
For last year drupal camp deccan, we have parked funds with IEEE.
I am fine with FSF as well. You can count me in as volunteer for Hyderabad.
Thanks,
Asif
Rahul your idea is brilliant
Rahul your idea is brilliant
joc jocuri barbie si jocuri de gatit