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digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/Drupal_is_a_2008_Open_Source_CMS_Award_Finalist';

Last year Drupal won 2007 Best Overall Open Source CMS. That was before we released Drupal 6. Show your support and vote for Drupal 6 in both categories.

Marketing of Drupal

We've had some great conversations with José Zamora at Knight about open sourcing some of the products we've been working on and about the positive externalities these project have already had for Drupal and that they could have as the modules are expanded and demand continues to grow. Jose would like to get a sense from the community on how valuable modules like context_ui, spaces, messaging and notifications, feedAPI and mapnik maps are. He would also like to know if other shops could benefit from having 8trees (our intranet package) and Managing News (http://managingnews.com/). So we wanted to share with you the three proposals that we have sent to Jose and the Knight team that they would like us to submit all as one package.

Open sourcing Managing News Proposal: Messaging and Notifications and FeedAPI
http://s3.amazonaws.com/developmentseed/knight/knight_managing_news.pdf

Releasing 8Trees Intranet Package Proposal: Context_UI and Spaces
http://s3.amazonaws.com/developmentseed/knight/knight_intranet.pdf

Building a new mapping solution: Mapnik for Drupal
http://s3.amazonaws.com/developmentseed/knight/knight_mapping.pdf

If you would like to make this happen, post a comment :) Our take on the concept Knight is pursuing with the KDI is simply that good tools come out of good projects and good projects need good tools. This cyclical scenario has led to much of Drupal's current growth, just like with all other successful open source communities. We are excited to get started and hear what you think!

Knight Drupal Initiative

With the new PDO-based database API now in core (yay!), there are a number of follow-up tasks that need to be taken care of. They were left out of the original patch for a variety of reasons, mostly keeping the already massive patch from becoming even more massive. :-)

The full Drupal 7 database issue queue contains over 50 items that should be addressed at some point, but the following in particular relate directly to DBTNG. Volunteers welcome and encouraged to help out!

• http://drupal.org/node/299308 - Explicitly require PDO in the installer. We do kinda require this now.
• http://drupal.org/node/298669 - First steps toward restoring database query logging in order to make devel.module work.
• http://drupal.org/node/67349 - Support SQLite databases. Really. We want this. A lot. :-)
• http://drupal.org/node/195416 - Make database table prefixes per-connection. If you want to use prefixing and multiple database connections, well, right now you can't. Let's make it possible. This does impact SimpleTest, too, but if done properly can probably make simpletest's code easier.
• http://drupal.org/node/111011 - Add foreign key support to Schema API. Even though core can't leverage them directly, extra metadata can be useful for PHP-level maintenance. It also is a prerequisite for letting Views leverage Schema API directly.
• http://drupal.org/node/299268 - Support "virtual fields" in Schema API.
• http://drupal.org/node/299176 - Exterminate db_rewrite_sql(). And there will be much rejoicing.
• http://drupal.org/node/299178 - Support subqueries in FROM clauses.
• http://drupal.org/node/299267 - Add "extenders" to Select queries to support tablesort, pager, and views.
• http://drupal.org/node/299269 - Flag slave-server-safe queries for better SQL replication.
• http://drupal.org/node/299433 - Figure out how we want to remap dynamic query operators.

And of course, convert all of core to the new API so we can remove the BC layer. :-) That can and should happen in bits and pieces, as well as part of any new patches from now on.

Database Schema API

Event Info | Sign Up | Location/Maps | Sponsorship Info | Sessions

Important Update: registration is now closed. If you are signing up for the event after 4pm Saturday August 23 [Eastern Daylight Time, GMT -4], you will be considered on the waiting list. You will hear from us closer to the event to let you know if there is space for you

The group has voted, the space is reserved. All we need now is you (and some bagels and pizza -- see note below if you're interested in sponsoring the event).

NYC DrupalCamp 5 event will take place Saturday & Sunday, September 13th and 14th, 2008 at Polytechnic University.

NYC Drupal Camps are free events, but we do need some sponsors in order to make it happen. Please get in touch with Eric to discuss sponsoring the event. As we have done in the past, any funds left over after we cover the costs of the event will be either donated to the Drupal Association or held to cover expenses of the next camp.

Event details
When :: Saturday & Sunday, September 13th and 14th, 2008 10am-6pm
Where :: Polytechnic University Brooklyn Campus - Building A
Six Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Directions

Subway Map

Sign Up / Register (its free)
If you're interested in attending, click the button at the bottom of this page.

In order to register for the event, you have to have a groups.drupal.org account. This is an experiment based on feedback from past camps. We hope that new users will find having to register an account in order to sign up less alienating than having to edit a wiki page.

WHAT IS DRUPAL CAMP?!?
Modeled in the camp unconference structure, drupalcamp is a no-holds-bars discussion, workshop/code-a-thon involving the Free Software content management system Drupal. At drupalcamp you ask the questions and the experts provide the answers; at drupalcamp you discover your solutions to your most pressing problems. Like previous drupalcamps, there will be a number of break out rooms...

Sessions / Schedule
If you're interested in presenting a at the camp or have problems/questions that need to be solved and you would like to see someone address at a session, visit the sessions page and add your idea.

Help out!
Interested in helping to organize the event? join the mailing list at https://lists.mayfirst.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/drupalcampnyc

Sponsors
In keeping with Drupal Camp tradition we hope to provide bagels/muffins, coffee/juices for breakfast and some oh-so-delicious pizza for Lunch. We always do our best to provide Vegetarian (vegan if requested) options.

Sponsors are needed to help pay for these goodies as DrupalCamp is not organization (thus has no cash). Sponsorship can come in various amounts. If you're an attendee chipin a few bucks, if you're a company consider fully or partially sponsoring Breakfast, Lunch or after-camp drinks.

This event is made possible with the sponsorship and assistance of the following:

for providing the space




for providing breakfast (saturday)




for providing lunch (sunday)

Contact eric at openflows.com to become a sponsor.

Tags for flickr, delicious, ma.gnolia, technorati etc.

Please use the tag DrupalCampNYC5 for content related to this event

New York City

On 08.08.08, WorkHabit opened their Southern California Office doors in the San Diego marketspace. The main offices in Sacramento, CA cover all the territory from San Jose and San Francisco to Redding, and now their San Diego based location can service clients in the Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills areas. Please come celebrate with us at the next S.D. Drupal User Group meetup this Wednesday!

Employment positions are 60% filled already, but there are still several job openings available for strong framework-savvy PHP programmers, so act quickly if you'd like to be working with a visionary company! If you are a Drupal developer or themer, and you want to be living and working in sunny, balmy San Diego, now's the time.

We offer amazing working relationships and training, your own Portable Development Environment, a.k.a. P.D.E., long-standing clientele who love us and our work habits, as well as friendly and knowledgeable employees who are interested in helping you to succeed. WorkHabit also has a Community Fridays program that, should you qualify for it, will allow you to get paid to work on any module, test, patch, or document within the Drupal community at large. Ever dream of giving that pet project some love, but can't find the time? Maybe it's time to move to San Diego!

The housing market is still down, so the cost of living here is more reasonable than you might think. The food here is great, and so are the beaches. There is nothing like working on your tan while working on some code. Heck, even the pace of life is perfect for a code-head. You put in the hours required to finish the projects, and we'll give you a paycheck. How simple is that?

Our phone number, as always, is 866-WORKHABIT, and the email address is apply@workhabit.com. Get in touch with us, you'll be glad you did.

WorkHabit
24/7 fully managed Drupal services
for companies with big demands.

"What's your habit?"

San Diego

DrupalCamp Los Angeles 2008, this September 13-14 (2 days) at the Los Angeles Convention Center

We think Drupal is the best open source content management system period and we're not the only ones. Faced with a bigger demand for Drupal developers than even last year... the Los Angeles Drupal Users Group has decided to throw our second annual free community training session to improve the level of Drupal development in Los Angeles. Plus it's a geeky good time!

Drupal Camp LA 2008 will be held from September 13-14th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Attendance is FREE! RSVP required. Register for the event and sign-up for updates at http://drupalcampla.com

Registration

Registration is now open. If you plan to attend and/or sponsor the Los Angeles Drupal annual DrupalCampLA, then please visit the following URLs.

Attendees register at http://drupalcampla.com

Sponsors - http://drupalcampla.com/sponsorship

Proposed Scheduled Sessions - http://groups.drupal.org/node/12528 (add yourself to present)

Who is this event for?

Everyone interested in Drupal. Beginners, Designers, Developers, Community Leaders, Artists, Bands & Musicians, Non-technical People, Technical People, PHP Developers, MySQL & PostgreSQL Developers, CSS & Web Standards folk, User Experience Architects/Designers, CTOs, CEOs, Start-ups, IT & IS teams, Photographers, Videographers, Bloggers, Podcasters, DJ's, Entertainment Agencies, Marketing Firms, Learning and Education Centers, Students, Teachers, Principles, Managers, Project Managers, Development Managers, C#/.Net people, Ruby people, Java people, Python people (no, really), JavaScript & jQuery junkies, Ajax ninjas, Digital Samurai, Models, Open-Source lovers, CMS anyone, Apache heads, LAMP stackers, and of course - Drupal fans!!!

How much does it cost?

The event is free (no ticket charge). We're ironing out details so don't get mad if you have to pay for parking each day as this is a really dope event, and everyone agrees it staying free is insane on our part, but we (and our sponsors) are awesome like that. Parking is a different story as it will cost $12 - $20; mother nature and your wallets would appreciate that you carpool.

If you'd like to see the video from our camp last year or even the promo video for this year.

Do you plan to attend?

Please vote on this poll - http://groups.drupal.org/node/13157 to show your support and interest, but don't forget to register.

Sponsorships

If you want to sponsor the event, please fill out the small form at http://drupalcampla.com/sponsorship - thanks!

*Two levels of sponsorship are available $500 & $1000. Need sponsors to cover costs such as rentals, food, supplies, etc. Keeps food at venue (& people at venue).
*T-shirts ~$1000 (can be multiple sponsors). If we want t-shirts will need sponsorship, design, and someone to head the effort.

Volunteer Info

details coming soon

Where is it at?

The Los Angeles Convention Center.

When is it again?

September 13-14th, 2008 which lands on Saturday and Sunday.

Can I blog about it?!

Yes! Help promote the event with us. :)

Web badges: http://drupalcampla.com/promote
Facebook: Join the Facebook DrupalCampLA Group

Upcoming (Yahoo!): http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/872527/
Flickr (tags): "drupalcamp", "drupalcampla", "drupalcampla2008", "upcoming:event=872527".

DrupalCampLA website - http://drupalcampla.com

Southern California

Drupal has been nominated as one of the three best business applications for the LinuxWorld product Excellence Awards. Starting tomorrow, the judges will be visiting the Drupal booth at LinuxWorld to take a look at Drupal and see how it helps businesses. We were up against a lot of competition and it's great to be nominated in such a competitive field.

Thanks to the booth sponsors HaloSys, Gravitek Labs, AF83, and Acquia for funding the booth in the product section of the expo.

Cheers,
Kieran

Marketing of Drupal

To help group organizers meet eachother and share their knowledge, tips & ticks for organizing and motivating drupal groups i've launched a new drupal irc channel #drupal-groups.

I encourage everyone to join this channel to discuss how to improve user participation in drupal groups and other helpful information.

I strongly encourage group members to join in on the discussion because group organizers are doing this for YOU. Having your feedback on various issues will help us greatly improve different aspects of the group that matter to you most.

SEE YOU THERE!

New York City

http://www.waterandstone.com/downloads/2008OpenSourceCMSMarketSurvey.pdf

The survey shows that three systems lead the race: WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. The survey concludes that these three systems have opened up a large lead on the rest of the pack to become the dominant brands in the market.

The author, Ric Shreves, states: "WordPress enjoys great brand strength courtesy of two complimentary offerings: the WordPress CMS and the WordPress hosted blogging service. Nonetheless Joomla! is positioned to challenge for the lead in brand awareness." He added, "Though it might be surprising to some, Drupal is not far behind. The survey showed that in the crucial U.S. market, Drupal is essentially tied with Joomla!"

Marketing of Drupal

First Annual DrupalCamp Victoria

Yay Content! We have been updating the site and now have a proper schedule listing under the Speakers menu

Please register at http://drupalcamp.northstudio.com, this groups node is a placeholder only

We here at http://www.northStudio.com are happy to present the very first DrupalCamp Victoria!

Beerfest Particulars
http://www.gcbf.com/

We have acquired 80 tickets to the Great Canadian BeerFest that will be given out (TBD) to attendees, and (perhaps presenters will each get a ticket). We will also have a number of other prizes.

FYI: Saturday is already sold out

http://drupalcamp.northstudio.com is now live and ready for registrations. Thanks go out to CivicActions.com and Drupal Camp Alberta, who were very graceful and enthusiastic to help.

The facilities are located just outside the core of Victoria BC, check out the map and pictures on our school site: http://www.vsbt.ca

Hope to see many people there we are anticipating space for about 80 people in total, perhaps more if you don't mind being cozy...

Cheers,
Gord Christmas
northStudio.com

Vancouver Island

We will meet for the next round of proposal reviews on Thursday, August 7th at 15:00 Eastern (US) (19:00 UTC).

This meeting is part of our ongoing monthly review meetings. To be held in #drupal-dojo on IRC [freenode]. (See http://drupal.org/irc for information.)

We will meet for 1:30 with the following agenda:

1) Review current proposals that need decisions:
-- http://groups.drupal.org/node/11859
-- http://groups.drupal.org/node/13071
-- http://groups.drupal.org/node/12721

Participants are asked to review these proposals before the meeting.

The project sponsors are welcome to answer questions during this review. The possible outcomes of these reviews are:

* Submit the proposal to Knight for possible funding. * Reject the proposal, with reasons why. * Ask the proposal to be revised for the next round of review.

2) Introduce the new proposals for review:
-- There are currently no new proposals.

The purpose here is to get eyes on the new proposal, and let the submitter answer questions.

3) Time permitting, work on publicizing the efforts of the KDI.

Marketing of Drupal

The Media Code Sprint is underway! Here's a cross-post from my blog detailing the goals of this sprint, which runs through Saturday. We need your help!

Andrew Morton (drewish), Darrel O'Pry (dopry, remotely), and I are heading up a Media Code Sprint in Portland this week! Come help, in person or remotely, if you're interested in multimedia and Drupal! It has now officially started, and as I've volunteered to help keep folks updated, here goes...

First the reasons.

Number One: Better Media Handling in Core

Dries conducted a survey prior to his State of Drupal presentation at Boston Drupalcon 2008, and number one on the top ten (or 11) list of what would make THE KILLER DRUPAL 7 Release was "Better media handling".

Let me repeat that. Better media handling.

People have done really amazing stuff in contrib, but it is difficult (if not impossible in many cases) for developers to coordinate the use of files, as there is no good means for file handling in the core of Drupal. Thus, we have several dozen (or more) media modules doing some small part, or even duplicating functionality, sometimes out of necessity.

We need (better) media and file handling in Drupal core. In particular, there has been a patch for a hook_file in the queue for over a year, which has been in the Patch Spotlight (for the second time, no less) since May! (And has been RTBC several times during that process...) Come on folks.

One of the powers of Drupal is its system of hooks. We have hooks to modify nodes, to notify changes to user objects, to alter nearly any data (such as forms and menus). Noticeably absent is a consistent handling for files or any sort of notification. We need hook_file.

So goal Number One: get media handling in core. The means? Add hook_file and make files into a 1st class Drupal object. We'll be creating a test suite for functionality in the hook_file patch to validate it and "grease the wheels" to get it committed.

The other goals of this sprint pale in comparison to the first in utility, but are still highly desirable and worthwhile.

Number Two: Refactor File Functionality in Core

As an extension to the first goal, there is a lot of inconsistency with how Drupal currently handles files. For instance, in some areas a function may return an object, and in others a string. Additionally, some functions are misnamed, or try to do too much to be useful as a file API.

Some specific examples: for what it does, file_check_directory may be better suited as something like file_check_writable, or maybe even split into that and file_check_make_writable. Also, for instance, file_scan_directory needs to return file objects, rather than the current associative array (keyed on the provided key) of objects with "path", "basename", and "name" members corresponding to the matching files. (The function does what it needs to, but the returned objects have keys not corresponding to anything else used in core.)

So goal Number Two: refactor file functionality in core. The means? Go through and check for (and fix!) existing file functionality for documentation and consistency.

Number Three: Spruce up Existing Contributed Media Modules

There are several much needed multimedia modules that have not yet been upgraded to Drupal 6 (or which are still in heavy progress). This includes (but is not limited to) Image Field, Image API, and Embedded Media Field. Additionally, some major improvements can be made, both to these, and to other essentials, such as the Image module, such as creating a migration path from Image to Image Field (once that module is stable).

So goal Number Three: spruce up existing contributed media modules. The means? Get these modules upgraded!

I want to recognize the valiant and heroic efforts made by everyone to date, as fortunately, there has already been significant progress on all these fronts. That makes our job (relatively) easy. In some respects, we just need to finish up the jobs that have already been started.

Thus, drewish declared this week the Media Code Sprint!

We need your help. If you are a developer, or want to be a developer, jump on in! If you aren't ready to develop, or consider yourself too new for that, you can still help test patches and functionality. Jump on in! And please, even if you don't know how to apply a patch, you can still help with documentation and other small (but important) tasks. Jump on in!

If you're in Portland, You Have No Excuse®. If not, you can jump into #drupal in IRC any time you're available.

The official dates for the sprint are today (Wednesday July 23, 2008) through Saturday (the 26th). We'll be online and working most of that time. I'll make sure we continue to post progress as the week develops.

Of course, as is the wonderful nature of Drupal, this is an ongoing process. Even if we achieve our stated goals, there will always be more.

Thanks,
Aaron Winborn

Video

So I just read about Ms. Byron's award at this year's OSCON in Portland, OR for "Best Community Supporter" (with Drupal, of course). Quite the feat for both Drupal AND a drupalchix . . . Congrats, Angie!

Drupalchix

I think it's time taxonomy module got some more love in core. Drag and drop etc. was nice to get in D6, but there's much more we could do. Also I keep seeing various taxonomy administration helper modules cropping up - which is good, but there's no core patches cropping up alongside them, which is a shame, so I'm starting this in the hope of generating some discussion about things we could do this release cycle.

There's three obvious areas where Taxonomy could use some help.

Administration:

Merging terms.
Moving terms between vocabularies.
Mass operations (delete, edit).
Editing individual terms quickly
Administration of large vocabularies
Mass addition of terms (the quickest way to add them at the moment is free tagging at node/add)
Cleaning up old crappy terms and preventing creation of new ones.

There are modules which deal with some or all of these, but some of them have serious UI issues (i.e. taxonomy_switch) and it's often necessary to install 4-5 different modules on one site if you need people without db access to manage large numbers of terms.

User interface:

Apart from administration, the biggest problem IMO is mile long select lists:

http://drupal.org/project/hierarchical_select
http://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/sessions/usability-enhancements-...

API:
Atttaching taxonomy terms to stuff other than nodes (fields in core)
Maybe try to get term_parents reworked to use the menu system, and move multiple parents to contrib (if this is even possible).

I reckon the quick wins would be:

term_edit and hierarchical select into core for D7.

Maybe adding a 'vocabulary' field to the term edit screen.

For mass administration I'm sure loads could be done with Views 2 but I've not looked into the possibilities in any depth.

Usability

Over the last several weeks I've been contacting people in the DC Drupal community and the Drupal Association to evaluate whether DC would serve as a good space for the Spring 2009 North American DrupalCon. As we all know, it will and it will be awesome!

With our large and very active Drupal community, we'll be able to support it, and with all the nonprofits, associations, and political organizations based here there is a huge user and potential user base that we can engage and get to invest in Drupal. Our Convention Center is centrally located and surrounded by hotels and restaurants, which makes it convenient for people traveling from anywhere (including DC and the 'burbs) and for meeting and socializing after sessions are over. Plus, Washington, DC is a great city and a tourist destination in itself - it will be great to share the city with the entire Drupal community.

So, we are going to go for it. The proposal has been submitted to the Drupal Association, and now that the formalities are started, it's time to engage more people to further develop this and let the community discourse shape this into what will be an awesome conference. Here is the formal proposal we submitted if you'd like to give it a read: http://is.gd/X3m.

In a few weeks we'd like to have a meeting to get everyone interested in participating together to talk. If you want to help with this effort or just learn more about it, please post in the comments! Don't worry about committing to anything yet - this is all very preliminary.

A big thanks to everyone who helped with the proposal! I've posted it so everyone can check it out: http://is.gd/X3m.

Washington, DC Drupalers

Time: 6pm - 8pmish

Date: Monday 7 July 2008

Venue: Southern Cross Club, Woden. View Southern Cross Club in Google Maps.

We are meeting in the Members Lounge located behind reception. If you arrive late ask for Allan McDonald to be paged.

Drink, nibbles and meals can be purchased at reasonable club prices.

Agenda: In Gordon's post of 28/06/08, he offered to talk about some of the cool things he has been working on. With the venue now organised we look forward to Gordon's talk.

This is a great opportunity to meet some other Canberra-based Drupalers and to share our experiences.

Australia

Drupal has been selected as a finalist for the SourceForge 2008 Community awards in 5 categories.

Special thanks to Nicholas Thompson, Michelle, Rahul and others in who were involved in the nomination and promotion of this award: http://drupal.org/node/267469

Marketing of Drupal

I think (I philosophize) that an awesome woman coder is easy to spot, and no one doubts her skills. As a mediocre (currently) middle-aged female new Drupal coder I think it's harder to gain respect, to be included in the conversation, and generally to be seen as having the potential to gain the skillset. Sometimes, I wish I were male and 25. The assumptions are different.

(Recently told on a job interview that they were looking for someone fresh out of school... both in initial phone call, and at the interview... so, in that case, she didn't mean male, she just meant half my age...)

Anyhow, enough philosophizing about barriers: They're real, they're annoying... Now I've got to overcome them.

How to get good? I think one helpful thing would be to be able to print the handbooks. This link is several years out of date: http://drupal.org/node/20874
This one just has the getting started PDF.
http://drupal.org/handbooks

I've got the Pro Drupal book (and the new Packt module book), but I think I basically need a book of hints, or something like that. Or, something like this, for which I'd love a recipe just for printing the thing!
http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook

Any good ideas for how to print handbooks without having click on each page?

A second thing that might help is promoting a meetup culture of "basic is cool." So many meetups feature shining stars, and then people with more basic problems may be too afraid to ask their questions. (Last night I asked a basic question and then I felt stupid when I saw how easy the answer us... I sincerely wished I hadn't asked! So lots of self-censoring going on.) Asking leaders to promote questions at all levels maybe a helpful idea.

Third thing would be publication of a Drupal workbook. I find slide presentations don't really get me where I need to go. I would probably find a good Drupal coding workbook to be a great thing. I look forward to the Lullabot book, which will strengthen skills on the admin side. I think the market-still-to-be-filled will be a workbook style, book, with work-aday, routine examples. Heck, maybe even old-fashioned multiple choice...

Fourth: I need to spend time LOOKING at code.

Fifth: need to get in there and try stuff.

These are my thoughts for the evening, on how to get good, and eventually get to the point where the skill is so obvious that gender and age don't exclude me from the conversation.

Here's hoping... and striving...

Drupalchix

It's official! The next Drupal Camp Colorado is happening the weekend of July 26th and 27th in Denver. Come join us in the mountains for two full days of Drupal wisdom and knowledge. We are going to host a mix of sessions and BOF's geared towards both the new Drupalers out there as well as the experienced veterans. Come join companies such as pingVision, Growing Venture Solutions, Aten Design Group, Blue Tent Marketing, Deproduction, and Civic Pixel among others.

Location:

Deproduction (Map)
700 Kalamath
Denver, CO 80204

We are finalizing t-shirt and sponsor information but expect to charge a nominal fee for admission to include refreshments, t-shirts, etc.

http://drupalcampcolorado.org for registration and additional information as we will be updating it in the coming days ... You still have time to influence the sessions so make sure to post your session proposals

Denver/Boulder Colorado User Group (DBUG)