BoF to learn how to review code contributions on Thursday 26 August 2010 at 16:00 at DrupalCon Copenhagen.

At the Core Developers Summit on Sunday (22 August 2010), webchick gave a presentation about the CVS application process and what was wrong with it and what was valuable and needs to remain (there's a video somewhere of it). One of the impetuses for this talk is the git migration that is happening for the drupal.org infrastructure, because it offers us an opportunity to rethink our code contribution application process (aka CVS application process).

The agreed upon process is not a complete upheavel of our current mechanism, but does help address a few issues. I am sure there will be some issues created, but the basics are the following:

• Any user that agrees some basic things, like about licenses and best practices, can actually commit to the Drupal git repository.
• Users cannot create releases of their projects without going through a code review process.

Basically what this helps resolve is that drupal.org will be able to offer a very basic place for anyone to store versioned code with very little barriers, instead of code being put on something like GitHub. This also will mean that code can have most of the drupal.org project features, like queues, and can be reviewed a lot more easily. But we still will need to review code to allow for users to create real releases.

Today is Ada Lovelace day; the goal of today is to blog about great women in technology. Ada Lovelace is often considered the first computer programmer, and as someone who loves to code, that's a pretty big deal.

I would never consider myself an activist, but I have always been concerned with gender issues in our societies and specifically with technology. I think it's very important to ensure that everyone is treated equal and with respect no matter gender or other qualities. I think by encouraging and supporting tech minorities, such as women, our community can only be stronger and more valuable to ourselves and others. So, I am happy to write on this subject, even if my body says go to sleep.

Like a lot of posts I have read today, it is very hard to pick just one woman that has made my life, both personal and technical, better. Being a part of the Drupal community means that I get to interact with some amazing woman (and men), and it would be unfair of me to pick just one. So, I want to briefly tell you about some of the fantastic woman in Drupal and how they have made my life better and this world a better place (in no particular order). Some of these women I know well, some just in passing, and some just because of the awesome work they do. This is just a handful of the woman in the Drupal community that deserve notability and only a fraction of the contributions that they make. Remember to encourage women on our community, as well as everyone else. In my opinion, to have a meaningful community, we need to have freedom from elitism, sexism, racism, prejudice, and just general discouragement.

• Rebecca White: becw
  • Bec is a good friend and former colleague who does some great work with web mapping and non-profits. She gets really excited about really nerdy things and is always eager to learn (and physically hurt me).
• Amanda Luker: mndonx
  • Amanda is a previous neighbor and friend. She does Drupal theming for Advomatic and has taught me that there is more to life than Drupal, like cupcakes, dogs, and punk rock. We have spent countless hours in coffeeshops getting work done together and exchanging ideas. Amanda, myself, and a couple others started Free Geek Twin Cities.
• Chacha Sikes: chachasikes
  • Chach is a wonderful friend who works with Gorton Studios and has been invaluable in describing and discussing what it's like to be a woman in her field. She continually reminds me that Drupal is so much more than code, and I keep telling her that her code doesn't pass the Coder rules. I try to have a good attitude when she has troubles dealing with some of the traditional attitudes of technology culture. She has recently started the Drupal Garden Project.
• Allie Micka: vauxia
  • Allie runs her own company, Advantage Labs, which does amazing work in supporting non-profit organizations on a personal level, and focuses on teaching instead of building a product. Allie also has strong roots with GIS and the geo module and maintains many modules.
• Angie Byron: webchick
  • Angie is the Drupal 7 co-maintainer and is one of those people that makes you feel like you are totally inadequate (in a good way) because she just does so much. Even through all her amazing technical work and time in the Drupal community, she still manages to be one of the best examples of an inviting and friendly face to all people in the community, like a hot chocolate with marshmallows.
• Addison Berry: add1sun
  • I have this secret love for documentation that an old boss of mine instilled into me, and though I don't contribute as much as I would like, when I don't dream in code, its often of documentation. Addison has been a great leader in making Drupal documentation better and organizing a community around this often over-looked necessity.
• Ariane Khachatourians: arianek
  • Ariane has worked very hard recently to help get the documentation in Drupal 7 standardized and awesome.
• Karen Stevenson: KarenS
  • I just don't even want to think of a world without CCK, let alone Date or Calendar.
• Bonnie Bogle
  • Though Bonnie has not committed any code (that I know of), she was the main point person behind the very successful DCDC last year which brought Drupal events to a new level.
• Jennifer Lampton: jenlamption
  • Jennifer maintains a number of modules on drupal.org such as the Total Admin module. She is also one of the main coordinators of Drupalcon SF.
• Courtney Miller: floatleft
  • I think Courtney may have the longest standing Drupal account on this list of community members (at 6.5 years). She is a talented and dedicated Drupal developer that is a partner at Float Left which focuses on supporting the non-profit sector.
• Colleen Carroll: caroltron
  • Colleen helps drive large Drupal projects to victory at Palantir. And at a conference where most sessions were about the new, hottest (buggy) thing, Carol and John gave a great presentation on sustainable theming.
• Katherine Bailey: katbailey
  • Katherine works on the very handy QuickTabs module and continually reminds me that I know nothing about Javascript.
• Lin Clark: linclark
  • Lin has recently made a great serious of videos on Drupal 7 that you can see on her blog.
• Laura Scott: lauras
  • Co-founder of PINGV, Laura has done everything from providing documentation, helping maintain drupal.org, to being an avid speaker on all things technology, Drupal, and business.
• Stella Power: stella
  • How would I be able to efficiently fill my need for correct tabs, spaces, and coding standards without the Coder module? I wouldn't. An who doesn't like a fancy Lightbox effect on their images? Not very many.
• Isabell Schulz: Isabell
  • Isabell was one of the main coordinators of Drupalcon Paris last year and continues to work hard on coordinating Drupal events and ensuring that Drupal events are sustainable.

Thank you all for your contributions and support; my apologies for all the great people I have not mentioned. Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

Last weekend (26-28 Feb 2010) DrupalCamp Spain happened in Barcelona at the great CitiLab (pic), which is where DrupalCon Barcelona happened a few years ago. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but there was just about the same number of attendees for the DrupalCon a few years ago as there were for the DrupalCamp just a week ago (before and after)! Drupal is getting huge!

The camp was wonderful. The organizers did a great, professional job. Though my Spanish is not very good at all, all the presenters did a great job and had a nice variety of topics. I met lots of wonderful people, both seasoned Drupal professionals and Drupal first-timers. Unfortunately my trip was short, but I did get to experience some of the beauty of Barcelona. And, of course, there was the poll-dancing Drupal gorilla (pretty standard). Thanks for having me and for all the hard work!

Understanding OpenLayers Presentation

I did a presentation on Understanding OpenLayers and Drupal. I think it went pretty well. I am still getting my sea legs (and by sea legs I mean ability to speak in front of people); but the room was packed, and I got to do my first Prezi presentation. I am pretty pleased with Prezi, though it took some time to put it all together and stop thinking about things so linearly.

Below is an embedded version of the presentation; it actually starts on the second point. This is a presentation based on OpenLayers 2.x which is still in development but doing good thanks to the hard work of the developers. They took video at the camp, so I am assuming one day there will be a video which might help with understanding the presentation some.

Spread the word; Chach Sikes and Erika Stenrick who work with Gorton Studios, have just announced a DrupaChix Sticker Design Contest for DrupalCon San Francisco (sponsored by Gorton Studios). This is a great opportunity for anyone to show off their design skills, and, more importantly, help support women in our Drupal community.

In case you aren't in the know, DrupalChix is an awesome group dedicated to supporting existing women in the Drupal community as well as working towards getting more women involved in Drupal. Drupal has such a great community, but we could be so much better by getting more women (and other under-represented people) involved into Drupal.

The stickers will be made in mass quantity and distributed at DrupalCon San Francisco. Designs are due in by 15 March 2009, so act quick! Post your entries to this thread. And for the non-designers, voting begins on 17 March 2010.

Sorry if French is bad. I have been kind of quiet for the past few months. This is because I have just moved from Minneapolis, US to Geneva, Switzerland to start work at Shelter Centre. It's a very exciting move for me for many reasons; but that isn't really the intention of this post.

Anyway, what is really amazing, is that after being here for only two weeks, (with a little bit of help) I was able to get almost 25 local people together for drinks and Drupal! How? About a month or so ago, I couldn't find any information on a Geneva Drupal meetup; so I started a thread to "announce" my migration and to see if anyone was interested in a meetup, and voila! We had a couple dozen wonderful people talking about Drupal tonight. Also, we had very good feedback, and should be able to make this a monthly thing. My sincerest apologies for not knowing French yet, but I am on my way.

I think it's really great to see how, even in this virtual Drupal community, there is still so much value and desire to get together with local people face to face. We had all types of Drupal people there, from people who have only heard of Drupal, people who just made their first node, to project managers, to developers, and to business owners and freelancers. There is a great community in Minneapolis and I hope I can bring that energy here to Geneva and make this a regular thing. There was even a joking mention of DrupalCon Lausanne (maybe in 2012).

If you are in the Geneva area, or in the greater Romandy (French-speaking Switzerland) region, please join up to the Switzerland group. I believe patchak asked for a new group for Switzerland-Romandy (hint, hint, nudge, nudge groups.drupal.org moderators); so look for that. Also, I will be posting a follow-up on the Switzerland group tomorrow to see how we want to proceed.

Thanks again!

Last night the Twin Cities Drupal User Group had its first, of hopefully many, Drupal Happy Hours. I think it was a big success, and I personally had lots of fun. We thought about what kind of projects we could do as a Drupal group, Advantage Labs raffled off training, drank lots of good Surly beer, had heated discussions about the feasibility of contributing back to Drupal within the non-profit sector, and for some of us, went into the late hours of the night drinking and talking of Drupal. It was like DCDC all over again!

So, Why a Happy Hour?

Is there really a need to answer this question? Not really. But, in wanting to talk about our Drupal community and the larger Drupal community, I would like to explain why I organized this. We already do have a regular meeting (it's the fourth Wednesday of every month at 7PM at Advantage Labs, if you're in the neighborhood). I had two main reasons for organizing this event.

The first being that our regular meetings are more formal. We usually do a presentation style approach where there is one main presenter and then maybe some smaller presentations or talks. It's great and has lots of value, but the meetings are not always that interactive, and are the "presenter and audience" sort of thing. I learn lots of great things, but having just been at DCDC and seeing how much I learned outside the regular conference hours (i.e. drinking), I thought it would be a good idea to bring that informal approach to our fair cities.

Secondly, there are many great Drupalers here in the Twin Cities, that don't make it to the regular meetings. Hell, I don't always make it. But, I think changing the context, time, and place, opens up the local Drupal discussion, and allows for people that otherwise can't make it (for whatever reason) to participate more.

A TCDUG Project, My Second Objective

My first objective was just to get people together and talk (and optionally drink) without any kind of schedule or guidelines (no laptops were opened). But, my second objective was to have a short conversation about ideas for a TCDUG Drupal community project. Meaning that as a group, we decide on a discreet project that we can do in a reasonable amount of time, that helps out the Drupal community as a whole.

We came up with some awesome ideas. The full dynamic list is here, but I will put the initial list below. From the initial discussions, it looks like a documentation sprint is in the lead (I'm sure add1sun will be happy about that).