dojo 2.0

Fellow Dojo enthusiasts,

It's been a while. I won't waste too many bits apologizing for being an absentee over the past year, but I will say that I miss y'all, and I want to spend more time in the Dojo. To be totally honest, it's taken until now for me to really start feeling confident about my Drupal 6 skills, and that plus a pretty hectic work schedule growing my consultancy has kept me on the sidelines for most of 2008.

But that's about to change. There are a number of factors combining to bring me back into the scene:

Several months have passed since the Dojo lost it's way a bit when some noble ninjas attempted to create a great deal of good for the Drupal project. In a group of 1500+ members, there is no way to achieve any sort of consensus to why it stalled, how it could succeed, or what the purpose was in the first place. There are, however, a lot of indicators that the concept/ideal of an open learning/mentoring group is solid and is worth reviving.

One observation I've had from lurking in the Knight Drupal Initiative meetings is something that's haunted me before. If only I was good at writing a solid grant proposal and subsequent review and revisions, some of my pie-in the sky ideas might actually turn into something valuable for the community (and provide a self-sustainable way for me to contribute).

So, many folks are wondering where things are with the Dojo 2.0 initiative, especially after DrupalCon. I haven't posted any March next steps because the roadmap is changing a bit now. I actually did not get to attend the Dojo BoF at DrupalCon due to a scheduling conflict (I was presenting at the time) so I'll leave the details to others. I just wanted to answer some growing questions about "What's up?"

Here is what we have for the DrupalDojo.com website spec, taken from the issue queue which has been open for work on this for 2 months. Please expand/clarify/rework anything in the comments and they can be rolled in. On Friday, Feb. 22 comments will be turned off and the document will be considered final. We will begin creating wireframes from these specs immediately so we can open it up to a little design contest, ideally at Drupalcon!

Dojo 2.0 Website Spec (Draft)

Contents:

Note that all videos on drupaldojo.com must comply with these guidelines (prospective from February 23, 2008.) We will accept all submitted videos, but submissions that do not comply may be modified by the Dojo to match these requirements if needed. Currently all videos must be uploaded to blip.tv and then will be added to the DrupalDojo.com site. (On the new dd.com site you will be able to upload a video directly through the site.)

There is also a wiki page that has some tips and tricks for making videos.

EDIT: We have moved on to the February steps. Thanks to everyone that stepped up to help out in January!

We had a good CoffeeTalk and were able to hash out some of our website features. Here is what I am proposing we focus on for the rest of January so we can start ramping up. There are all kinds of discussions and tasks here so if you want to learn about any of these or if you are knowledgable and want to help out PLEASE don't hesitate to step up. If you are want to get into one of these but aren't quite sure what/where/how feel free to contact me directly through my contact form or ping me on IRC (I'm often in #drupal and #drupal-dojo, nick is add1sun.)

Let's try to define our core values, rules of the road, dos and dont's - ideally we can create our 'dojo code' ...

Here are a few ideas - please question, comment, clarify and/or add your own...

The Drupal Dojo was created for apprentice/journeyman developers who want to increase proficiency, and for experts looking to grow the pool of Drupal talent. The following are goals and desired outcomes for the Dojo itself.