Fun Drupal Project

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
gavinblair's picture

Hey LonDug!

We've been discussing the possibility of working on a project as a group (to either learn more about Drupal 6, or even test out Drupal 7). We want something fun (of course, this isn't work!), challenging (but not too difficult!) and non-critical (again, this isn't work).

Feel free to pipe in with ideas, here's my current thought:

Flash Forward is a TV series based on an event where every person in the world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, during which time each person sees their lives 6 months in the future. The FBI puts together a website that allows anyone in the world to post what they saw in their future, to build a big picture of what things will be like in 6 months.

I thought it would be fun as a group to build Project Mosaic in Drupal. The requirements are simple: anyone can register and post where they are (or where they are in their flash-forward) and what they saw during their 137 seconds of vision.

This is a project that we can easily fill in the base requirements of, but add features in as we have time/momentum. Some ideas of going the extra mile would be Google Earth integration, advanced searching capabilities (based on name, location and subject), a custom theme, and a custom module.

The idea of working on a pro-bono project for a non-profit organization has been tossed around too, but as this is for fun, and not work, I'd rather not have an organization depending on us for results.

My thought is, as a group we can meet and create the entire website in one or two sprints. The goal will be to have fun and learn from each other over some laptops and pints.

I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks!

Comments

Sounds cool!

mandclu's picture

I like this idea. I think there are some interesting features we can roll into this, and like you say its scope is manageable enough that we can have an initial version up quickly.

Should we scope out the functionality in the next meeting, or try to do that beforehand?

Sure, if we get the

gavinblair's picture

Sure, if we get the requirements down we can jump into playing with Drupal next meeting. Should we stick with Drupal 6, or use this project as a way to help out with D7 testing?

Oh god how did this get in here I am not good with computers

As features dictate

mandclu's picture

I'd suggest we scope out the requirements first and see how much of it can be accomplished with D7. In principle I'd love to use it as a way to kick the tires on D7, but I'm not sure where the work stand to port the Location module, for example.

I'd say Drupal 7, otherwise I

revnoah's picture

I'd say Drupal 7, otherwise I don't see much of a point, especially if it isn't tied to a business or other organization. We've all built a good number of Drupal 6 sites.

I'm less concerned about specific modules, such a Location, and more interested in seeing what's changed in Drupal 7 module development, and the general setup process.

Strictly core?

mandclu's picture

To me the dilemma is how valuable it is as a learning tool if we don't have many modules available besides core. I mean really, when was the last time you built a Drupal site with just core?

I'd prefer D7 too, but if that ends up being too limiting I'd prefer build it in D6 for now and then once D7 is at least close to release we can make a project out of upgrading the site.

That's a good point, Martin.

revnoah's picture

That's a good point, Martin. I was thinking more in the line of module development though. Doing an upgrade would be a good test though, and I'd be interested to see what would be required to migrate a custom module.