So to follow up on the brief discussion at our last meetup, let's discuss a Camp for this area.
Drupal continues to grow and this area is no exception. Amherst College has been using and depending on Drupal extensively for years. UMASS recently made a major move to Drupal. Many other places in the area are using Drupal to run their business in some way. Camps have proven to be excellent ways to bring this community together to share what we know and further increase what we each can do with this growing technology.
We are thinking of this January as a good time. This would mean really reaching out and organizing to make it worth braving the cold :)
I'd really be interested in having a strong "Beginning Drupal" track at this camp along with the more advanced stuff. There are so many reasons for people to start using Drupal and this camp would be a great opportunity to be there to help.
Comments and volunteers welcome as we begin organizing this event. I'll post updates as they happen.
Comments
Helping with a "Beginning Drupal" track
I have a strong interest in helping developers and folks doing maintenance of Drupal sites get oriented. (But I don't have experience on what has been done other places for "Beginning Drupal" tracks.)
What seems like it would be useful is having some sessions where a few experienced folks try to help all comers with whatever issues they are facing - e.g. installing MAMP on their Mac, Installing Drupal the first time on a shared host, getting a PHP debugger set up, getting CAPTCHAs to appear when folks comment, looking for a contrib module to do X. Etc. In the process people might learn all sorts of practices of Drupalistas (like various things about using drupal.org in various ways) that happen to come up in addressing their issues. I'd be glad to be one of the helpers in sessions like this.
What I would also have loved when I was beginning was some good overview talks, like "How Drupal Works" presentation at DrupalCon SF at http://www.archive.org/details/HowDrupalWorksAnArchitectsOverview.
It seems like we also need strong content on "Administering Drupal" and "Business with Drupal Sites" for other folks. Overviews might bridge some of these interest groups.
Who wears what hat
On the beginners track, I was thinking about a session that introduces the roles people play in building and maintaining a Drupal site. Roles, not like Permissions and Roles in User Management, but what is a developer versus site builder versus themer versus a project manager, etc. In terms of human resources, what does it take to get a site up and running and what skillsets do people need.
As for the session Steve mentioned, that sounds like something we could possibly do as an all day open workshop.
module development session
we'll have a decent module development session ready by then, focused mostly on drupal 7 as it should finally be out by then....
I'm interested in working on
I'm interested in working on / leading any training initiatives.
I'd like to do an intro to Drupal session which covers:
- What /Why is a CMS
- What makes Drupal unique
- Key features (views, panels, groups, some specific modules...)
- Sites using Drupal
- GPL, the community, d.o. and the value of that
- Places to go to get started building your own site or learning more (Buzzr, DrupalGardens, DAMP installer, etc).
Nothing technical, no site building just an introduction to what this thing is about.
I'd also like to see us organize a "genius bar" (I feel like a douche for using that phrase). Anyway, basically just line up a few pocket protector geeks like myself to help newbs through their Drupalectomies.
Best,
J
I'd love a "genius bar" for non-newbs
After a couple years of learning Drupal and building a few sites, I still frequently find myself throwing myself to the tender mercies of the #Drupal IRC channel for questions like (most recently) how to use a form to drive a search page. Following up on Jacob's "genius bar" idea, I'm thinking something that kind of works like the #Drupal IRC channel, but once the two people pair off (or a small group could bud off) to discuss the problem, that they can do so in real physical space-time.
The mechanism for soliciting help with problems and pairing people up should be fluid and close to real-time. A BOF signup style chalkboard, I don't think would cut it. A dedicated IRC channel for the camp might work for this. Perhaps dedicate one person to actively monitor and facilitate the channel and make sure people's questions don't get lost. I'm thinking that the pairing-up function should work equally for folks with newbie questions and those with more advanced questions. But would using an IRC channel be off-putting to the newbie end of the spectrum?
-Pat
Sign-up
I'm game -- this sounds like fun. Most of all, we should build a system to let people document how the solution they got works. We could get some cool artifacts and recipes out of the deal, since not everyone can be everywhere.
Yeah, I think the face2face
Yeah, I think the face2face help is important, IRC won't do for this IMO. While the pairing off stuff might work well for some people, I wouldn't be too interested in that. The reason gurus are bitter on IRC is because people come on and expect to get a ton of undivided attention and free support but most of them never come back or even worse are rude if you ask for your life back.
So I'd like to answer questions and help people in 5-15 minute doses but not engage in hour long free consulting and debugging sessions. That's just me though :)
I also like the concept of answering people's questions in a public space where others might be able to listen in and learn something.
-J
@pdcarto: Oh I missed your
@pdcarto: Oh I missed your title.
Yes, for people who need more than a small dose, other things work better. BoFs are typically the avenue for this, but let's experiment with other models to see what works better. I've always found BoFs to be very unreliable, but sometimes fun.
I agree that face-to-face is key
And I'm going to go with the nomenclature of "explainers" and "questioners" so it is clear that experienced folks could still take the questioner role for certain issues. I think that taking as much humiliation as possible out of the process of asking questions will make the whole thing much more fun and useful. And personally, it would be great to get some questions answered AND help answer some. Just a little structure for the kind of stuff that happens in more informal settings, but in a setting where technical Drupal talk is the norm.
Perhaps we can have another explainer (every 15 minutes, say) come up to each conversation going on and relieve the current explainer. The idea would be to give an explainer a chance to "get their life back" (as Jacob puts it) without having to ask, and give the questioner a new explainer if their last one doesn't happen to be fast at answering their particular question, or whatever. If the questioner asks to stick with their current explainer and the explainer agrees to stay on then the conversation could continue.
Perhaps we could have question marks on lanyards for questioners and have tags that said "0", "15", "30", "45" for the explainers indicating when the conversation started so that folks would know not to try relieving them until 15 minutes past the time on the current explainer's tag. And if the explainer ends up staying on -- they could refresh their tag 15 minutes forward.
Thoughts?
Project Management
I would like to put a track on this subject.
Maybe an intro to "how to" and "not to" and how it relates to drupal. Then a bof for people to just talk about their experiences?
Also I would like to redo the Views one I did in Connecticut since it seemed to be helpful for people to see some of these views related tips done in front of them (ie not powerpoints ( -: )
Oh one more thought was could that be a subtheme of the event? "The powerpoint/keynote Free Drupal Camp?" ( -:
Alfred Nutile
alfrednutile@gmail.com
http://www.alfrednutile.info/about
http://twitter.com/alnutile
UMass as potential host
I've asked the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences about potentially hosting a Western Mass Drupal Camp at UMass Amherst (in the new Integrated Sciences building) and he's open to the idea.
Our idea was to aim for January 22 or 29.
The ISB has a big atrium where exhibitors could set up tables. There is a 300 seat auditorium as well as several smaller classrooms and conference rooms. There are many computer labs that we can probably use.
Does this sound like a plan?
Drupal Camp
Thanks for taking the initiative on this Steve. Only good things can come out of hosting an event such as this. If I can be of any assistance, don't hesitate to ask.
Woohoo! This is great news +1
Woohoo! This is great news +1 to Umass.
Is the wifi situation adequate? This can be a real party pooper if we get a big audience.
Yes
The building has wifi everywhere. We'll need to make arrangements with OIT so that people can use the wireless, but I assume that will be possible. Is someone willing to take that on?
Wireless access
I'll speak with OIT.
jan 22 with Jan 29 snow day
I am trying to reserve stuff saying "Jan 22 with Jan 29 as a snow day fall back date".
Progress
We have the conference rooms and the Computer Resource Center in the ISB (and the two associated classrooms). I've got requests in to get the auditorium and atrium as well, which I think will be successful.
My vision for this is that it could have something for everyone, from people first learning to enter content in a drupal website to people doing drupal module and theme development. I think there's going to be significant interest in this.
Now we need to setup (among other things) a registration system (set up our own website or just use groups.drupal.org?), develop a program, reach out to potential exhibitors and invite speakers, do publicity, etc. Any volunteers?
The faster we get the basics nailed down, the more time we'll have to refine stuff.
Help with setup
Maybe we can have a meeting to figure out all the logistics and hopefully assign jobs to interested people. It all sounds a bit overwhelming having never done anything like this before and being new to the whole Drupal community, but I would be happy to assist where I can.
I'm planning to devote a lot
I'm planning to devote a lot of my time to helping organize this. The next western mass meet up will be the 17th, but I haven't confirmed the space yet.
Maybe we could get a +1 from people who want to help, then we could arrange to meet and plan out tasks and responsibilities. If so here is my
+1
Im in
+1
side note
I wonder how my "grandfathered in" unlimited 3g tethered cell phone would do for wireless at the drupal camp. ( -: Get a few of use who have these and we can make sure wireless is good since it is so key.
Alfred Nutile
alfrednutile@gmail.com
http://www.alfrednutile.info/about
http://twitter.com/alnutile
Another 1
+1 for me.
Hey folks, Would people be
Hey folks,
Would people be interested in getting Kieran Lal (Amazon) to come to the 17th (or some other day when we have a planning meeting?) For those who don't know, Kieran (http://drupal.org/user/18703) is a board member of the Drupal Association and the chief organizer of DrupalCons as well as the d.o. redesign lead. I think he could really help us get started, find sponsors, etc. He's also a riot and one of my favorite colleagues at Acquia.
He lives in SF, but is in Boston frequently for meetings, etc. If we can't get him in person, at least a video conference would really be a boost.
Acquia will provide free web hosting for the camp if we want - http://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-hosting/free-acquia-hosting.
I think we should either:
A). Make the 17th about planning
or
B). Announce the planning on the 17th and invite people to a planning meeting on some other day ASAP.
My feeling is we have a lot of work to do to have something viable by Jan w/ the holidays in between.
Best,
Jacob
Planning etc
Having planned mini conferences in the past I agree with Jacob's suggestion to either devote Nov 17th mainly to Camp planning or to have a smaller group begin to focus exclusively on that now, as it will take some doing even if the Holidays weren't in the middle, but it can be done. And hearing from Kieran Lal sounds eminently helpful.
In either case you're welcome to meet here at Amherst Media, and the 17th is available if I bump a committee meeting, so let me know.
I volunteer to sort out a crew to record all the main sessions, and depending on trained volunteers could arrange for coverage of several simultaneous sessions.
+1
Cheers
Craig
Beggining Drupal
Hello everyone, my name is George Colon and I am new to Drupal. I was very excited to read that you may be hosting a Beggining Drupal Camp at UMASS Amherst, because I am a UMASS Police Officer. I just started looking for a way to learn Drupal after looking for someone to create or help create a site for me utilizing Drupal. During this search, I spoke with several parties which had limited knowledge of Drupal but wanted to charge Web Developer's fees. I have some computer knowledge, but not much in the area of Web Development, but I learn fast. I have a friend (also a Police Officer) with some knowledge of Drupal, but he has very little time to sit down with me. I have a domain name setup on his Drupal account and have access to the admin functions. I understand some of it's features, but I am having a hard time with modules and several features. I think this "camp" would be awsome. I am hoping to attend any and all meetings, if my work schedule allows. If I can help you or if you feel you can help me in anyway, please feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
George
I'm definitely +1 for helping
I'm definitely +1 for helping out on this.
Here's the notes from my chat
Here's the notes from my chat / Kieran:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=159qcXWzb2jPXB9sJs0ATr1Ztgcrvx7X...
Editable if you want to contribute. Kelly and I talked a bit today and we're going to try to start with this as a rough outline if that works for folks.
Thanks for a great 1st
Thanks for a great 1st meeting! This team is awesome.
A very good resource:
http://drupal.org/node/846232
Here's an organizing doc I
Here's an organizing doc I started. Currently just contains the notes of the program meeting.
Do others want to use this for everything, or keep separate docs for different parts of the plan? Either way is fine, but here it is:
https://docs0.google.com/document/d/1wRlg5wK__aYp3UQACBzj_F1BeJw8cRYPXcn...
I'm abusing this thread as a
I'm abusing this thread as a mailing list :D
Hey, everyone who's on this thread, please:
1. Go to http://drupalcampma.com
2. Register your bad selves
(optional) 3. Suggest sessions if you are interested in doing any. I really want to get a handle on the schedule early, so don't be shy. And submit a couple if you want, we're only going to pick one from each person unless we're short.
If you want admin access to edit stuff, ask Al or Kelly or Myself or... on this thread.
Best,
Jacob