Growing Drupal track

Overview
In this session I will show you how to create a small business network on a multi-site Drupal installation. I will be using the small business network within my own community as an example.

In small-town Canada we have seen an increase in the "cottage industry" as people in their 50s cash out of urban centres and move to the country. These micro-enterprise businesses often have only the owner (and their partner) as staff. Although the businesses offer a huge range of services, they have one thing in common--very small budgets. Individually these businesses can rarely afford expert technical support, sophisticated Web sites and beautiful Web design--but with a Drupal-based business network, small businesses can now afford to look like pros on-line.

Agenda

• The Clients
  • developing your client roster (my network includes: farmers, a gourmet restaurant, a bookshop, a naturopathic doctor and a retreat centre)
  • creating self-sufficient clients: training materials; Drupal help nights (my group has nicknamed themselves "The Drupesters")
  • managing expectations (their budget and your time)
• The Business Model
  • you are now a business coach, congratulations!
  • how and how much to charge: tips on appropriate prices
  • reduce, reuse, recycle: you must become efficient
• Technical (Drupal) Information
  • Drupal modules your clients will want
  • using template designs
  • tips on creating and using a multi-site Drupal installation

Goals
By the end of this session I hope that Drupal enthusiasts will see how they can turn too-small-for-me clients into a potential source of income.

Resources
Please come with your stories about how you've used Drupal in your (small business) community.

Overview

This is a round-table session, gathering those who are interested in collaborating on a Drupal Certification program.
As Drupal grows, the need for Drupal training grows as well, and so - more companies offer Drupal training and courses.
Training people to Drupal, has many benefits:

• It helps customers make a better use of their websites or Drupal-based web applications
• It increases the offer of Drupal savvys in the jobs market, whether as webmasters, developers or designers
• It creates another channel for people to get to know Drupal, and as such... (see next bullet)
• It helps the community grow

It is important therefore, that all those who are involved in this area, collaborate, in order to achieve a coherent, collaborative Drupal training curriculum. There is an ongoing effort to achieve that on g.d.o, but it doesn't prove to be the right platform. In this round table we will try to find the best way for us to collaborate and share over this matter.

Agenda

Some key issues that will be discussed (not necessarily in this order):

• What is a Drupal certification at all? Can there be ONE certification?
• Who is allowed to certify anyone to Drupal?
• What are the implications of not collaborating over a certification program?
• Does the Drupal association have to take the control over certifications?
• What impact will Acquia's certification program have on other Drupal training programs? (see this discussion on g.d.o.)
• How should the collaborative platform look like? How should it behave?

See this g.d.o. wiki page for more background (feel free to participate): Associations, ideas, and possible questions, that comes to your mind, when talking about...

Goals

At the end of the session we should have a clearer picture about the Drupal's certification program, and about the ways to achieve collaboration from all those who are involved in the area.

Resources

Here (Szeged 2008 related sessions)

• The Alexandria Project (seems to have dropped)

Groups.Drupal.Org

• Curriculum and Training group
• A brainstorming wiki page in preparation on this session
• Drupal training syllabus
• What impact Acquia new Training and Certification project will have on Drupal community ? (comments are interesting)

Acquia.com

• Yellow Jersey
• A skeptic plans a certification program
• A Certification Success Story

Overview

This session will show off the results of Drupal's Google Summer of Code 2008 projects. Students who make it to Drupalcon will be demoing their own projects, and we'll also show off projects from the students who can't be there.

Agenda
The following projects will be shown during the course of the session, as time permits.

• Apache Solr Improvements
• New Aggregator for Drupal core
• Bookings API
• Charts module Views integration
• Color module improvements
• Document Import Module
• Embed Widgets
• Revamped Help system
• Icon module
• Image manipulation GUI
• Memetracker
• New nodequeue sub-modules
• OAuth/Services module integration
• Open ID Attribute Exchange
• PluginManager
• Core search improvements
• Security scanner
• Usability Suite
• Validation API
• Version Control API / Project module integration
• Views datasources

Goals

This session will allow Summer of Code students to show off their hard work, and for the Drupal community to get a first-hand look at all the cool stuff that was produced over the summer. Summer of Code students typically make excellent employees as well, for those looking to hire. ;)

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NOTE TO ORGANIZERS: I put down "90 minutes" because that'd be a much more comfortable time frame during which to show off 21 projects. But every other year we've managed to do it in 60, so if 90 minute slots are short, you can push the time allotment back.

Overview

The Knight Drupal Initiative (KDI) is an ongoing, open grant funding process for the Drupal open source project. We want to enable more people to enter the digital conversation by lowering the technical barriers to entry. We will provide powerful tools for digital publication, free and open to all. Our goal is to encourage people to improve their communities by supporting the free exchange of information and ideas.

Agenda

* Introduction to the KDI
* Program goals
* How to apply for a grant
* How you can help the KDI
* Project brainstorming and questions

Goals

We want everyone to participate in the KDI, in order to increase funding for the goals of the Drupal project. This session will let you know how you can get involved.

Resources

* KDI group
* Frequently asked questions
* KDI flyer [pdf]