I was asked to do a presentation on coding in Drupal for our local Drupal user group. "Coding" is a pretty general topic, and the audience at our user group is pretty varied. So, I was not sure what specifically I should present that would encompass "coding". As the time came along and I had to make a decision, I looked to the module that I currently spend most of my free time developing: OpenLayers.

What is OpenLayers?

OpenLayers is a free, open-source Javascript library that provides an easy interface to bring together any sort of map tiles, markers, features, and other GIS goodness. OpenLayers was initially developed by MetaCarta, now a project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. Think Google Maps but open-source and more accepting of other worldly GID data. The OpenLayers has many examples and gallery of sites.

Where Drupal Fits In

Drupal is a great content management system and development framework. OpenLayers fits well into this because it basically is a really great visualization tool for content (the most obvious visualization being maps).

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).