I think last night was a seminal moment in the evolution of the NNJ meetup. We have been gathering steam over the past few months and have seen attendance rise. Last night however, we found a direction or mission if you will. While I think we will sharpen the focus as we go along, we have found our purpose, or as Tom put it to me earlier today we have gone from gestation to birth.
It is really a dual purpose mission, build a web site in Drupal 7, update Drupal 6 modules to Drupal 7. We have a wide variety of skills and levels of Drupal knowledge in our group and I think that following these two paths will help to engage everyone. No matter what step you are at in the learning curve you can learn, teach and stretch. And the bonus, we will be contributing back to the community as we grow our skills by learning from each other.
This really is an exciting time to be a member of this group.
Lanny
Comments
Drupal 7 Group Exercise
I would like to reframe Lanny's words from my perspective: We've finally stumbled upon a format that uncannily appeals to the NNJ Drupal Group unanimously, or at least does not disgust the silent minority: The Group Exercise or the Group Project.
Specifically, our group exercise is to build a website in Drupal 7. Such an exercise is motivated by the intent to learn what Drupal 7 is and how to use it. A project, building a website, serves as focal point and will give us a sense of progress in our hands-on study. the end-result could potentially benefit the Drupal Community at large or perhaps some non-profit organization.
What type of website exactly are we going to build? This has yet to be determined. We could build a website that could benefit a specific non-profit, or we could build a distro that could serve an entire non-profit market or industry. I request that members of the NNJ consider a specific non-profit organization or industry that we could target.
We do not have to wait until our next meeting to decide this and other issues. We could hash it our here on Groups.Drupal.org or on IRC #Drupal-NJ.
We have different people in the NNJ Drupal Group focusing on different aspects of Drupal: We have people entirely new to Drupal who may know how to download and install Drupal, but not much more. We have themers, web builders and module builders.
Thus our project may be organized into three sub-projects: the website project, the theme project and the module project. The website sub-project is the lynch pin of the larger project with the theming project being applied to or laid upon the website and in the module project, modules are written to be placed within the website.
We could address these subjects either in parallel or consecutively. Initially I suggest we tackle website building first. and then later we can address theming and module building, while still working on the main project.
With regards to theming, we should decide on a base them such as fusion or zen.
With regards to module-building, we need to select a module from Drupal.org/project that can be can be converted from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7.
We should probably keep the module search to 1 to 3 modules. Originally, I had suggested that we come up with a short list of 5 convertible modules. However, 5 may be too much. So let's keep it to minimum of 1 and a maximum 3.
If you're truly looking for a
If you're truly looking for a non-profit for which to develop a Drupal site, I'll volunteer the one I work for: the Episcopal Diocese of Newark.
I've talked to some of you at the meetings I've been able to attend, who will know I inherited a 15-year-old Dreamweaver site (http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/) pieced together by a group of volunteers of varying skill levels, which I'm eager to replace with a Drupal site based on the Fusion theme.
I wouldn't be looking for you to develop the entire site -- just to get us started in the right direction. I know enough about Drupal to know that it's important to start out with with the right modules, taxonomy, etc., but I also know I need some guidance getting there. I've been very impressed with the depth of knowledge in this group and would be thrilled if you'd consider helping us.
And besides, you'd be doing God's work. :)
Nina Nicholson
Director of Communications & Technology
The Episcopal Diocese of Newark
nnicholson@dioceseofnewark.org
http://dioceseofnewark.org