Posted by kattekrab on September 21, 2012 at 11:08am
And this concludes our Meet the Candidates sessions for election2013.
Unfortunately, no scribe this time, so no IRC log worth posting.
Recording: http://rs2342.freeconferencecall.com:80/fcci/cgi-bin/play.mp3/15302363-1...
New Questions:
(20:44:59) valthebald: What threats to the Drupal community do you see, which are not handled by DA? How CAN they be handled?
(20:46:01) aimeem: What is the best/ way that the association can find out about the top 4 benefits that members see the associations as needing to provide to make the association more relevant for members
See all the candidates statements here:
https://association.drupal.org/nominations
Voting opens on Monday 24 Sept at 00:00 UTC
https://association.drupal.org/vote2013
Comments
Pedro's answers for session 4 of MTC
valthebald: What threats to the Drupal community do you see, which are not handled by DA? How CAN they be handled?
My answer would be in the same line I'm proposing as the main objective of the DA for the near future, approaching more to the local groups, firs identifying them and then identifying their different needs based on culture, context and spirit.
Having a strong program of ambassadors can be one of the best ways to tackle this risk of isolating some communities that i.e. don't have access to broad events such as Drupalcon.
aimeem: What is the best/ way that the association can find out about the top 4 benefits that members see the associations as needing to provide to make the association more relevant for members
One of the firsts things that we need to communicate to potential new members is that their membership is used for sustaining drupal.org and the DA activities all around the world, so this approach I'm proposing to get closer to the local groups will increase DA visibility and benefits there.
Exposing the membership benefits that already exist in more meaningful ways is always a good idea.
Another idea I can think of DA partners offering benefits for the individuals.
Offering memberships in bulk for groups, discounts for students and a different price for areas for those that 30$/22€ is a fortune could help too.
Si's answers for session 4 of MTC
All of my answers are collated here.
Jeremy Thorson's responses for Session 4
Question 1: What threats to the Drupal community do you see, which are not handled by DA? How CAN they be handled?
I think one of the hidden threats to the Drupal community (one that often isn't recognized until it's too late) will be the ability for individuals to adopt to change. Everyone recognizes that the community is experiencing significant changes on a number of fronts ... from the highest levels of governance all the way down to the deepest levels of code. The threat lies in the fact that the rate of change is increasing; and even the most flexible of individuals undergo some measure of stress in a changing environment. This could potentially accellerate the 'burnout factor' within the community over the next 12-24 months.
This threat exists not only within the "active" community, but also in Drupal's customer base (and particularly the late adoptors who are still running Drupal 6). Drupal 8 is modernizing the Drupal codebase, which is a very good thing ... but from a documentation and learnability perspective, we need to ensure that we make the transition from D6/7 to D8 as easy as possible for the site builders, developers, and themers out in the Drupal community. Each major release brings with it an opportunity for our users to pause and reflect on whether they re-invest for a new round of learning or start evaluating other options.
Now for the big shops, this decision will be easy ... but for the hobbyist who only builds a handful of sites per year, opening up D8 to find a whole new folder structure and a bunch of references to this "PSR-0 thing" that they've never heard of before is going to bring with it a bit of shock value ... even before you throw a whole new theming layer, file-based configuration, and a half-dozen API changes into the mix! If drupal.org can't alleviate that initial overwhelming feeling for that hobbyist in the first five minutes; then we could end up losing that individual as a Drupal user ... and worse, they just might have been the next potential automated testing infrastructure maintainer. :)
Question 2: What is the best way that the association can find out about the top 4 benefits that members see the associations as needing to provide to make the association more relevant for members
In the end, it all comes down to increasing communication and dialogue with the community ... and not just the portion of the community which are already Drupal Association members.
As the Drupal Association itself has a limited resources, I think that the best way to solicit this input would be to focusing on leveraging individual companies, regional user groups, and 'friendly customers' out in the community ... not so that we can get their input, but to have them solicit their contacts for input on the DA's behalf.
Obviously, the DA's ability to solicit feedback is restricted to those who are already familiar with the organization and it's mandate; whereas a 'twice-arms-length' campaign could result in a much more diverse set of opinions and ideas.
Steven De Costa's response to new candidate questions
aimeem: What is the best/ way that the association can find out about the top 4 benefits that members see the associations as needing to provide to make the association more relevant for members
Develop a suite of simple initiatives, give some support to kick-starting them within the community and then let the top four emerge because they are fundamentally successful.
valthebald: What threats to the Drupal community do you see, which are not handled by DA? How CAN they be handled?
If you look at the entire IT industry, it is simply part of a supply engine. Actual production of economic output occurs either via the platforms implemented or is facilitated by them (such as with an eCommerce site).
From what I've experienced so far, the Drupal community currently represents the aggregated needs of those working within this supply ecosystem. It has very little involvement with the actual outputs being produced by customers.
I see two significant threats to the Drupal project if it stands only within this economic footprint:
To handle these threats the DA can support initiatives to engage with actual customers and begin to better understand and aggregate their needs. The entire project could benefit significantly by stepping more into the world of end users, understand how to best add unique value to their production capability, then capture each vertical by investing resources to support that special interest group.
Steven De Costa
Executive Director, Link Digital
w: www.linkdigital.com.au
valthebald: What threats to
valthebald: What threats to the Drupal community do you see, which are not handled by DA? How CAN they be handled?
The biggest threat to Drupal and the Drupal community not handled by the the Association is competition. This competition manifests itself in both other opensource projects and from the closed communities. At the end of the day, most looking for a platform or a CMS seek something that:
In general, we can eke out reasonable results on 1-3. There is still work to be done - but the fact is folks looking for the CMS do not...
...care if it is Drupal.
Drupal has come a long way in user experience, but it struggles. Looking at the administrative end is a bit like looking at a jet's cockpit. It can be confusing. The DA has little control over this issue because it can not interfere in the actual development of the software. This really ties the DA's hands but points to a couple of ways it can be involved.
First, the DA needs to keep solidifying the community through supporting events and attracting new people to the community. We need community members who can move into leadership roles, whether they be in coding, documentation, event planning, or board positions.
Second, the DA needs to continue supporting events that encourage creativity in our communities. We need to continue funding scholarships. Providing resources for usability studies that can then inform the community on the changes that need to be made in future versions of Drupal will help.
Long and short, we need to foster the community in such a way that the software simply becomes to compelling to not use.
aimeem: What is the best/ way that the association can find out about the top 4 benefits that members see the associations as needing to provide to make the association more relevant for members
We could conduct focus groups - preferably in multiple constituencies - to identify benefits that members would like to see. These focus groups could have a follow up with surveys to more finely hone the DA benefit package. There should be a review of what benefits we offer regularly to ensure they continue to fit the needs of our community members.