Hi, My name is Jack Spivak. In Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Please check out this full featured and, so far, "unadvertised" drupal communities installation/platform, GrassrootsPower!!
Just got excited to see that Transition is thinking about drupal!
I'm joining your conversation for whatever I can offer/provide. Been working about 3 years already to put a robust Drupal offering together for groups/communities interested in doing productive work together. It is based on a social network backbone but has a purpose and interface with a decided workgroup flavor. It is specifically targeted at social, economic and environmental justice movements and includes some very novel concepts around automatic information sharing based on principles of knowledge ecosystems and communities of practice.
I have not put together a Transition Theme, but as Drupal geeks I'm sure you can visualize what this platform would look like to a single themed Transition Network with various Transition Local Groups, projects and initiatives. One major benefit is that it is up and available now. A second is that it offers a plug and play solution for existing websites looking to simply ADD dedicated workgroup/collaboration/community functionality. Another is that the Transition network could exist beneficially within a potentially rich "ecosystem" of other similarly focused groups in community planning, local-action, energy, ecology and alternative social systems.
That's the good news. The bad news is that drupal has moved on and I can't. several of the modules providing key functionality have not been ported past D5.x. I'm stuck right now at D 5.23
So ... first, I would hate to see a lot of the thinking that's gone into this project wasted and Transitions use unneccessary time, energy and brilliance reinventing the wheel. I would love to contribute what I have ... the concept and actual implementation ... for immediate use to offer a mature flavor of what's possible.
What I would love:
Some early adopters getting benefit from the system
Some good drupal thinking and feedback
Some collaborative energy around a roadmap that might include concepts or improvements to what i've already made available
Energy from anyone who could port key modules to D6 or 7
Energy researching the various contrib module linkages available in D6/7 for the facebook, google+, meetup worlds
Ok. So done with the long intro pitch.
Here's the site with one request that I would like respectfully honored. Please invite whomever you think might benefit or contribute. But please DON'T share this widely on Facebook, Google+, MySpace, etc. 1) It's hosted on a shared server ... untested for major intense traffic. 2) has no engaging user experience values ... currently way too wordy for general consumption ... and not even any good simple instructional video or getting started lessons.
Thanks.
GrassrootsPower!