Posted by galooph on October 3, 2008 at 8:45am
I'm in the process of looking for sponsorship and a suitable venue in Manchester for a Drupalcamp. I'm aiming to make it a two day event, but other than that, I'm after some input on the format and content.
So, what would you like to see at your ideal Drupalcamp Manchester? Who would you like to see talk? What topics are you most interested in? Would you prefer to see talks, workshops or a mix of the two? I'm open to ideas, so please fire away and help make Drupalcamp Manchester an event to remember :-)
Dan
Comments
I'd love to come to a Drupal
I'd love to come to a Drupal camp!
I enjoyed doing the documentation sprint at the Drupalcon. I liked collaborating on an effort that was making an improvement to the Drupal project. Doing something collaborative would be fun and super educational.
I also liked demonstrations that were super specific and practical. "This is how we built X feature with Drupal", with all the specifics and quirks of a real in-the-wild example.
I like the idea that there would be hands-on activities/workshops. I'm not sure of the logistics of this...
For example: I am trying to craft a session like this for the event in Ireland. I want to show using Imagefield/CCK- with two ways of managing images. 1) An imagefield or fields within a content type, 2) An imagefield-only content type, with node reference from another content type. (surely there are many many ways of managing images, but time is limited!)
I'd like to show people, step-by-step how to set these two models up, and let them consider advantages/disadvantages.
The logistical question is: people need a fresh install of Drupal ready for play. What if my attendees are new to Drupal? What if they never installed a CMS before? Is this an activity that has pre-req's?
Anyway! That is the kind of activity and specificity that I would appreciate at a Drupal camp.
Hands-on activities
Heather, I think this is a great idea. We do this kind of thing in our training sessions, and we find people love having a chance to tinker with Drupal!
We set up a server with installs of Drupal for all our attendees (we know who's attending in advance, but I'm sure we can set up something more ad-hoc). This gets around the issue of people having to install Drupal, or the modules needed for the session, etc.
In fact, Dan's the man for this, having set up our server for us the last time we ran a workshop. :-) So, worth planning something, we'll help you out.
Regarding the Manchester DrupalCamp, I think having a couple of tracks would be good: something for beginners and something for more advanced users. It would be nice to encourage people to come along and learn more about Drupal, but also to let more experienced users and developers mess around with the trickier stuff.
Fab idea but...
I think that the event should be somewhere in central England.
As far as I'm aware, there are a good few Drupal users/developers in the Midlands and goodness-knows how many in the south.
So, why on earth have it at one end of the country (apart from convenience for the organisers)?
Both Nottingham and Birmingham are easy to get to by road from just about the whole country (they even have airports, hotels and hot running water (most of the time)).
Also, there needs to be enough content and discussion to attract and engage us non-techies. I'm not a programmer but I build Drupal sites. If you stage events which discuss nerdy stuff only, then you'll run the risk of losing those of us who love Drupal but don't want to be bored off our rocks by geekdom.
Cheers,
Karl Craig-West
Phone: 07703 885305
Business Skills Training in Leicestershire and throughout the East Midlands
<a href="http://www.spreadbettingcommunity.com
Just do it!
If you think the demand is there - then just do it.
Organise it!
This is a big deal.
Speaking from experience, you need to be based where the event it going to be organised.
Or at least have one person on the ground to sort out the venue, wifi, catering, logistics etc.
Alan
Workshop server
I'm sure I could sort out a server with lots of fresh Drupal installs on it. Let me know what you need and I'll look into it :-)
Dan
Newbie thoughts
Here's my 2p worth as a drupal novice
I love the idea of a camp close to home
Talks are more helpful than workshops for me - I'm at the stage where I'm not sure I would know right questions to ask, and workshops could be quite intimidating. I can get my head round setting up the basic content - some pages, some stories, a menu, and picking a theme. But it feels a big jump from there to putting some real functionality in there.
All power to you guys for looking at putting the camp together!
Cheers
Paul
Unix developer / Oracle DBA by day, proud parent of 4 wonderful kids at night.
Drupal newbie, desperately trying to get my head round all the terminology, to put together something for the church website
Great idea
Great idea! Although I live in Oxford I would try to come to the far north for such an event :)
There needs to be enough content for non-developers (as distinct from newbies). Developers tend to go straight into the low level technical stuff, but others of us who are proficient in Drupal at the configuration level want talks/workshops which don't become too developer-technical. So something for everyone, please - though I would also argue for it being stated that people who attend need some basic knowledge/experience of using Drupal.
Experience not required
Yes, I agree on plenty of content for non-developers, but I would also argue for at least some content for people with no experience of Drupal at all: and why not? There'll be plenty of us there who can show newcomers what Drupal is and what can be done with it.
There are lots of PHP developers, designers, web agencies and other organisations who would like to learn more about Drupal, and who better to show them what it can do than all us Drupal folks!
Colour coded
Hi guys,
I propose that the sessions be colour coded, a little bit like ski runs are colour coded based on the difficulty of the descent. In Europe the colours are green for easy, blue for moderate and black for difficult.
We could use a variety of colours to indicate whether a talk was appropriate for beginners, intermediates or ninjas, we could also use colours to indicate whether the talk would be more code or configuration.
It needs thinking about and fleshing out a bit but I think it could be helpful.
Cheers!
Drupal on a stick
There are lots of Apache - MySQL - PHP implementations out there now for both windows & MacOS which are designed to be hosted on a USB stick.
Attendees could have a drupal on a stick as something to use at a DrupalCamp, but also to take away and play with. This would enable non tech users to get to grips wth the look and feel and test modules and settings.
The ability to take a USB stick away from a conference enables people to keep momentum.
I propose a new users' session to start with a clean install (on their own stick?) and move through many or most of the popular sites. More than just one session, this could be a thread throughout the weekend so we can take new drupal users on a journey. This would mean that no prior use would be necessary for attendees on this track
Cracking idea
Really like this. I have no experience of apps on a stick myself, but if we can get this working and get a nice, kind sponsor to supply the sticks, I think this could work really well.
And structuring the beginner's track in the way you suggest makes sense.
yo ho and a bottle of rum!
richard! i love this idea.
can i steal it for the Drupal Ireland meet up?
oo oo oo I'd love to do this.
I've got no notion of running a server on a stick, but I love the idea.
Hmm... need some sponsorship for that...
But it is a brilliant idea!
What a cool thing to 'take away'.
Love the idea!
I'm sure lots of companies have got left over promo usb sticks hanging around that are 512M - 1G. I'm sure we could sort something out :-)
Dan
Yes but...
Not sure about the Ann Summers' ones. Where have they been?
Richard Sheppard
http://www.siliconmeadow.net
Richard Sheppard
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardsheppard
Sounds excellent - really
Sounds excellent - really think that a continuous thread where any participant ends up with a finished site has to be a good thing - especially if they can come with a design and turn that into a reality!! I'd be impressed anyway :-)
I suspect that the size of stick required would be relatively small! Had a quick look and lots of places doing branded keys for around 4 euros with a minimum order of 50pcs.
mymemory.com
I've not bought in bulk from them, but a few months back I got an 8GB drive from them for under £20 which was extremely inexpensive at the time.
I don't imagine that 8GB will be necessary and buying in bulk will drive the cost down.
http://www.mymemory.co.uk/corporate-gifts
HTH
Richard Sheppard
http://www.siliconmeadow.net
Richard Sheppard
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardsheppard
MungoBumbleroot: do you have
MungoBumbleroot: do you have any links/vendors you can post?
Any one else: Do you have any examples of a distribution for a key?
Does it depend on the OS of the person's laptop? Could the key also have a *nix OS on it as well?
I'd like to see a disk image to download and plonk on a key, which already had 3 sites with drupal, 5.x, 6.x and 7.x on it.
It would save alot of time.
Anyone got any ideas for this?
I might try posting in the Drupal events forum!
Development Seed ...
have led the way on this stuff in the Drupal world
http://www.developmentseed.org/tags/drupal-stick
for some blog postings
Still best to do two separate types?
From scanning the Development Seed links, it looks like it's still a klunky process to accommodate both OSes on a single stick.
I do have some experience of using http://portableapps.com to work in education where PCs are locked down and you need to teach PHP/mySQL. Hadn't got to the stage of a successful Drupal installation, but didn't require it yet at that stage.
Upon registering for the DrupalCamp, perhaps the end user could be asked whether they preferred a Windoze stick or a Mac stick?
Richard Sheppard
http://www.siliconmeadow.net
Richard Sheppard
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/richardsheppard
I guess that once
I guess that once everything's set up then it's only a matter of seconds to copy across to a new stick? So, prepare a few in advance, then make more as needed?
This USB Gizmo would be ideal
http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT4GBUFDJNR000
Windows Drupal on a stick
Got it running on Windows XP from a 512Mb Crucial Gizmo.
It's Drupal 5.1. It was very easy to get going.
http://drupalonastick.com/download (broken)
I will also try to get a Mac version (for Dublin meetup)...
** Update**
Here is a new link to Drupal on a usb stick for windows...
http://www.fileqube.com/file/iDWketvf147512
No luck with the OS X version. Yet...
great idea!
great idea!
sorry, the link and even w/o download, does not work any more.
and how about the mac version? :-)
any idea?
thanks!
Bettina
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been. (Wayne Gretsky)
. . .
------------------------------------------------
Bettina
Don't Follow Trends: Set Them!
https://drupal-training.de
https://www.skool.com/drupal/about
my 2 cents
just download Xammp lite and install it on the stick ie F:/SERVER -
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#646
you dont need anything fancy a 512MB should do fine maybe even a 256MB these have to be cheap at the moment
also it should have firefox portable and notepad portable ready to run, drupal environment done and dusted
see more on
http://portableapps.com/
more info here for those interested
http://groups.drupal.org/node/4842
later
M
Linux/OSX/Windows Drupal on one stick
Thanks somes, I'll post it here when I get it sorted. One stick, any operating system. Hope it works.
Here is a new link to Drupal on a usb stick for windows...
http://www.fileqube.com/file/iDWketvf147512
Any updates?
Hi there,
We're planning a Drupalcamp for Galway, Ireland in April of next year.
It would be great to pop over to Manchester for a Drupalcamp before that, to pick up some ideas.
I was thinking of going to Drupalcamp Koln, but Manchester would be easier!
Later
Alan
What dates are you guys
What dates are you guys thinking of for the Manchester event?
Date confirmation
Can we confirm the 13th of June as the date of the event?
...especially since hotels are much cheaper if booked far enough in advance...
Karl Craig-West
Business Skills Trainer and Adviser
Phone: 07703 885305
Business Skills Training in Leicestershire and throughout the East Midlands
<a href="http://www.spreadbettingcommunity.com
thats 100% the 13th - just
thats 100% the 13th - just checking
I was just checking to see
I was just checking to see if the 13th was confirmed
agenda / itinerary
Is there a draft agenda / itinerary yet?
Things like start and close times would be useful in the first instance.
As well as the postcode of the venue (in an effort to find a hotel as close as possible).
Don't mean be a pest with the details but because of all that I'm involved with, I have to plan as far ahead as possible.
Karl Craig-West
Business Skills Trainer and Adviser
Phone: 07703 885305
Business Skills Training in Leicestershire and throughout the East Midlands
<a href="http://www.spreadbettingcommunity.com
DrupalCamp Manchester
Finally im back on track again after the latest breakin at our place.
Im still on for sponsoring the key sticks ect . I take it i can wack on our logo/promo :)
Im up to 8 of my Drupal team to do bits at the event so ill make sure im at the next drupal meetup and lets get some bits fixed in place. Ill try convince the other half but many rather be on hand to help ect for workshops if thats still on.
Cheers
Nick
Added event to upcoming.org
Added to http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2565089 for increased exposure outside of the community.
Added event to upcoming.org
Added to http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2565089 for increased exposure outside of the community.