Montreal DrupalCamp2008

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
omar's picture
Start: 
2008-10-03 09:00 - 2008-10-04 17:00 Canada/Eastern
Organizers: 
Event type: 
Drupalcamp or Regional Summit

That's right folks, Koumbit.org has decided to host a DrupalCamp in Montreal! While we are still at the very earliest planning phases here, the idea is to hold a 2-3 day open-space style event in Montreal the first weekend of October.

While bigger and better than the small meetups of recent years, it isn' t as crazy as a quarter-million-dollar DrupalCon.

What is open-space? Well, one way to put it is that it'll be whatever we collective make it to be. The other way that I would describe it is to point you towards the wikipedia entry.

We are aiming high here. The event should be oriented around birds of a feather style sessions in a format that allows people to roam from one session to another or to continue working as long as they like on their favorite themes. It should provide real learning opportunities for both developers and users alike and should represent a networking bonanza for Drupal shops, indenpendent developers and existing/potential users. We want to avoid the panelists-in-front-of-audiences format that has become the norm in the bigger events. Oh, and it should be cheap!

So start thinking about what you want to see and do there. I, for one, would to see all the other regional Drupal shops show up in force to create a sort of open-marketplace... I'd like to see people showing off their tools, sites and methods... I'd like to see some coding sessions... I'd like to see people discussing what is and isn't working in the community, both locally and globally... oh and an internet connection that works would be nice too ;-)

Anyway, like I said these are early days. We are starting the planning now to make sure that we have the time to turn this into one of the coolest events in Drupal history.

Comments

First step...

omar's picture

... we'll set up a Drupal-wiki for this. Remember, you are the ones who will determine what happens. Hmm... the possibilities abound!

Sounds great

mvc's picture

This is a wonderful idea, and should be well attended, if similar meetings in other cities are anything to go by. Co-workers of mine in NYC and Toronto have helped organize several of these, so I'll ask them for some tips, too. Let's discuss this more at the April 11th meeting!

Awesome!!!

webchick's picture

I'm super excited about this! Unfortunately, I won't be able to make the planning meetup (I'm in Australia doing workshops), but hugely look forward to seeing what comes out of that, and will help where I can! :)

Très bonne idée | Very good idea

xmacinfo's picture

J'ai hâte au mois d'octobre. Mon mois préféré.

Is Koumbit big enough to host Drupalers workshop? How many of us can safely go there with our computers?

If not big enough, any other venues in plan?

C'est sûr!

omar's picture

Octobre c'est loin... mais cela nous donne beaucoup de temps pour avoir hâte et pour trouver la place pour tenir l'évènement.

This will definitely not be taking place in Koumbit's offices, wherever those will be by then. And we'll need more than a classroom as well... a bunch of classrooms might work... anyway, some of us will be able to talk more about this at the meetup later today. For those who can't make it, please get your brains wrapped around what you want to see at the camp and how you can help make it happen. :-)

I don't know... Maybe it

anarcat's picture

I don't know... Maybe it would be possible to do it at Koumbit's office: it really depends on how many people we expect. How many attended the vancouver drupalcon?

xmacinfo, you're thinking of

Robin Millette's picture

xmacinfo, you're thinking of the space at Bande-Passante, Koumbit's current office. That place is closing down in July so we're definately looking for another venue for this. We're thinking, much much bigger ;)

Perhaps we can use a classroom

mvc's picture

Drupal communities in Toronto and NYC typically use classrooms at local universities or colleges. They've found it's not hard to book a few rooms for weekends or evenings, and often they have wifi. In return, computer science students at the school have a free event to attend, so it's a good deal for everyone.

english or french

joeylockie's picture

will it be in English?

Both languages are welcomed.

Robin Millette's picture

Both languages are welcomed. Many participants are bilingual, it's pretty easy to have someone translate parts for you. (Hello from Twitter ;)

daveo's picture

I posted a note in the wiki to say ... I work with Boris, Jacob and the rest of the Raincity Studios crew as the Community Marketing Evangelist. I recently put together Drupal Camp Vancouver which turned out really well i think. I am happy to offer any advice, estimated budgets, organizational strategies, etc. as needed - I am particularly able to help on promotion and sponsor outreach, and social media topics.

See http://drupalcampvancouver.org for what we brewed up this time with a mix of sponsors and $20 per attendee which included lunch, coffee, beer and bamboo t-shirts. Having a kick-off party is key to building a good vibe and finding a free venue (almost impossible in Vancouver) helps keep the costs down. Coffee and wi-fi are musts.

I also posted more wrap-up notes and announcements at: http://www.raincitystudios.com/topics/drupal-camp-vancouver

We might be able to rally up a crew to come out to participate as well.

Dave O

Crafting social media and evangelizing Drupal
http://raincitystudios.com, etc.

Dave O

Crafting social media and evangelizing Drupal
http://raincitystudios.com, etc.

Interesting !

DynV's picture

I'm glad to see the Drupal community in Montreal is doing well ! :)

Space at McGill

pixelite's picture

We're looking into getting a space at McGill. It sounds like the cost would be $600 for two days, which seems reasonable.

Cool! ... but what's included?

omar's picture

... one big room and many small ones? projectors? food? Keep us posted. :-)

Thanks!

Omar

Let's keep this ball rollling

omar's picture

... is there any news or additional details to share?

Omar

dates

Robin Millette's picture

To fit with the Quebec Free Software Week schedule, happening between September 20 and 28 this year, I was suggesting we have the Drupal Camp on the 27 and 28. I also wanted to mention I just heard about http://podcampmontreal.org/ which is scheduled for September 20 and 21th and might interest a few Drupallers I think.

My insterest is for Drupal only

xmacinfo's picture

Well, I would not mix events together. It's better to have two events than to be split on two.

My interests are 100% for Drupal for now, which is free.

Not suggesting we mix

Robin Millette's picture

Not suggesting we mix podcampmontreal and drupalcamp. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

codeFest PHP Québec 2.2 is scheduled for October 3rd to 5th though. Too bad about this conflict. And too bad about the Free software week too but that's in 3 weeks, so I don't think we'll be ready by then.

Are we still on schedule? Any news?

date change?

liquidcms's picture

I have already made plans around being in Montreal for weekend of the 3rd. So my vote would be to leave the dates as they are.

Peter Lindstrom
LiquidCMS - Content Management Solution Experts

Asking a friend at UQAM

omar's picture

... I'll try to see if he is aware of any opportunities for spaces at UQAM.

Omar

various presentations i could do if any interest

liquidcms's picture

Hey guys,

I am hoping to make it from Ottawa to your DrupalCamp assuming it is still a go and still the weekend of Oct 5. I have a flight to Cancun out of Montreal on the 5th (Sunday).. so planning to come up Friday or Sat for camp before heading south.

I would be up for doing a presentation on any of various modules, projects or even design practices that LiquidCMS has done. I have listed a few of these at: http://groups.drupal.org/node/11843 that were intended for Drupal Meetups we have upcoming in Ottawa.

A quick list includes:

  • presentation of CAPSA (Collaborative Article Publishing System Architecture) which is a very complex Drupal project that i work on for the NY Times.
  • a rnuthrough of my Authenticate module which is a very cool module which scours the net for possible plagiarized content
  • any of the various site admin tools i have developed such as mail_redirect or php_errors
  • RSS feed caching system for Brightcove video warehouser
  • using phpEd to debug a Drupal site

just as a sample.

Let me know if any interest.

Peter Lindstrom
LiquidCMS - Content Management Solution Experts

Cool!

webchick's picture

I can talk about:

  • Drupal 7: Where we are, where we're going
  • Contributing to Drupal... in action!
  • Testing, testing, and more testing.
  • How to give patch reviews that would make Steven Wittens proud.
  • Crazy crap like Organic Groups, Actions/Workflow, Panels, NodeQueue, Views, CCK, etc.
  • Drupal community stuff: Drupal.org redesign, DROP, Drupal Association, etc.
  • Pretty much anything else Drupal related. ;)

Hey, Angie, I just copied

mvc's picture

Hey, Angie, I just copied this list to the wiki page for this event -- hope that's okay. These sound like great sessions! I'm personally interested in hearing about D7, NodeQueue, Actions, and the Drupal Association, since I don't really know anything about them.

Venue found... dates fixed.

omar's picture

OK, folks... I found a venue for the event which I think that hold up to about 75 people. So this means that the dates for the DrupalCamp are fixed for the 3rd and 4th of October.

More info to come soon (in another post probably).

Omar

YOU ROCK!!!!!

webchick's picture

Yes, definitely another post. We can start talking about what we're going to talk about, what we need in terms of sponsors, and other logistics. :D

GO OMAR!!!!

Actually...

webchick's picture

Since this is an event node (didn't notice that before) with signups already, I just changed the date at the top to reflect the actual dates.

But we still ought to do organizing somewhere else, methinks. :)

New post? Stick to top?

xmacinfo's picture

We should stick this post to the top or create a new one.

True... but...

omar's picture

I wanted to make a new post... but then didn't know how to avoid confusing (duplicating) with the original event post. And, I don't seem to have the permissions required to "sticky/unsticky" posts :-/

Omar

Sessions

mvc's picture

I'd be happy to do a session. Since D6 is new for a lot of people, I could talk about using D6 with Views 2 and i18n if that's of interest. For example, I could demonstrate a hack which allows you to translate the primary menu. But really, I'd like to hear more about what people would like to see at this event. Perhaps we could create a new post asking people who have signed up to list things they'd like to hear about. For example, I'd like to hear about NodeQueue and Actions because I've never used them.

I'm an admin of this group but don't have permission to change this post to sticky, so that would be another reason to start a new thread here.

Also, what sort of facilities will be available? I ask because I don't have a laptop (I must be the last holdout in the Drupal community).

D6 with Views 2 and i18n

micheleannj's picture

Yes, please! I actually just gave up on views with i18n (partly because of menu issues) and ended up using taxonomy instead. I would love to know how to do it "right"...

Two interests

EggsOverGreasy@drupal.org's picture

But really, I'd like to hear more about what people would like to see at this event.

I'd like to learn about the possible role of junior Drupal specialists ;-) who aren't inclined to become senior Drupalers (admin-coder-customizers) but instead focus on marketing, client contacts, site planning, and working between end clients and Drupal coders-customizers.

I would also like to know more about what I view as the Achilles' heel of Drupal: The forums module(s). What is the future for forums? Can it ever compete with vBulletin or the other great but less sophisticated BBSs? Is it legitimate to ask a Drupal coder-customizer to provide a vbDrupal.org-like integration rather than use native forums?

Confirmation?

xmacinfo's picture

Avant de confirmer ma présence à cet événement, il faudrait publier l'horaire complet.

Le vendredi 3 octobre, c'est de 9 h à ___ ?
Le samedi 4 octobre, c'est de ___ ? à 17 h

It looks like that I will be able to attend only Saturday, unless there are some activities Friday night.

horaire complet...

omar's picture

So far the idea is that the official event would be Friday and Saturday from 9-17h and that on both nights we would have a social event i.e. supper and drinks.... but the venue for these have yet to be determined... we could, of course, just order a bunch of pizza on Friday and then head over to the Biftek (a cheap bar not too far away)... by Saturday, I figure that people wouldn't want pizza a second day in a row... so maybe we go a little more upscale...

Note also that we will have to possibility of holding extended code/documentation sessions on Sunday if there is enough energy left for this (something I forget to add to the wiki).

Anyway, as you can see there are details in here that haven't yet been added to the wiki page. I'd invite you (or others to add them) if I haven't already done so by then.

Thanks.

Omar

OK for Saturday

xmacinfo's picture

I'll show up only Saturday. I'll make myself available Sunday as well, in case there is a patch review session planned.

Please make sure the door entrance will be unlocked Saturday! I may not show up a 9 precisely.

Cheers.

— Jacques

Friday for me

Robin Millette's picture

I'll be there Friday all day, I have other commitments for that weekend.

I'd like to talk about OpenMicroBlogging since the issue seems to be getting a lot of traction if I believe http://groups.drupal.org/node/14953 but I'm not directly involved in that project.

P.S.: I let Marc "codefest" Laporte know about our date so he can do his event at some other time if it's not too late.

I'll be there

pmusaraj's picture

Hey all,
I'm new to Montreal, and this sounds like a good event for me. I'm very interested in most topics here, including microblogging and Drupal 6/Views discussion.

I would be on for both days.

Also, Omar, if you still need some minor funding let me know. CMS Lounge can shell out a little bit of cash.

Thanks for organizing this.
Penar

restricted

DynV's picture

I will be pretty busy for that weekend after all, I have an important paper to hand out. I will keep an eye on the wiki page and see what people post to replace those "session" so I may determine the most interesting part or parts. If no one announce anything, which I dearly hope they'll do, I may just drop by for a couple hours. I was looking up to this but life gets in the way ...

What is the Program?

Fidelis's picture

Hello all,

Where can I find the (tentative) program for this DrupalCamp? Are presenters supposed to update the table inside the wiki page?

Thanks

patrick cormier

Yes, so far...

omar's picture

... that is the extent of the planning. You can mention topics that you'd like to present, or would like to know more about, or would like to discuss with others.

Omar

As mentionned in the wiki

anarcat's picture

As mentionned in the wiki page, the event will be an Open Space, which means that there is no predefined program and the people that come are going to be the ones that define the program, together, during the first session of the day.

So you are free to update the later sections of the wiki page with ideas of what you want to present, but all will play out during the first hours of the event.

ok thanks

Fidelis's picture

I'll be there. :)

patrick cormier

Montreal DrupalCamp Site Down

LeeHunter's picture

I don't know if anyone is still monitoring this thread but I thought I'd mention that the http://drupalcampmontreal.com website is down (at least as of this morning). There's nothing but a big Mcafee "unwanted program" message on all nodes. I've never seen anything like it before. I don't know how that could even get on to a webserver, let alone Drupal.

Looks OK to me

davemybes's picture

The site seems to be fine now for me. However, the Mcafee thing sounds like a local issue on your system. Do you have Mcafee on your machine? If so, maybe its blocking the site for some reason.

I think maybe the problem is

cbentl2's picture

I think maybe the problem is on your side of things, because the site is up.

Sorry you're right

LeeHunter's picture

Yeah you're right, I was trying to reach it from my locked down job site where there does happen to be a Mcafee scanner (duh, it should have clicked with me) and I can only use IE.

Using my laptop and my own ISP everything's fine.

Still a bit strange though, this is the only site where I've ever seen this happen. Every other website is fine but I still get this totally odd message on the drupalcamp site.

What Mcafee is objecting to on the drupalcamp site is apparently this: http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_131955.htm

I don't know if the cookie is actually there or not, but Mcafee seems to think it is. I get the same message when I go to the real.com website.

Ottawa

Group notifications

This group offers an RSS feed. Or subscribe to these personalized, sitewide feeds:

Hot content this week