Drupalosophy 101: Metanarrative

Overview

"How do you keep your priorities straight when there's so much to learn and so much work to be done?"

A story is being told by the Drupal community, and you're a part of it whether you know it or not. As a Drupal user, developer, or advocate, you are learning what Drupal is all about and how the community around it operates. You're understanding the community goals and desires. You're figuring out where you fit into the big picture and trying to be productive, earn a living, and have fun doing it.

But wait... didn't you have a life before coming to Drupal or diving into a fast-paced, time intensive industry? What happened to all those hours you used to have, or have you not seen them in so long you don't remember what you'd do if you had them again? What is your story and how does it mix and mingle with the community's? How do you want it to?

This session will be devoted to briefly covering the idea of metanarratives (or worldviews), thinking about our own, and thinking about the way ours mix with the "community" (as ambiguous as that is). Being convinced of your own values, beliefs, and distinctives is the first step toward not losing them along the way as you engage with the exciting, global Drupal world.

Or maybe... you don't consider that a bad thing at all. : )

The BoF will be an informal discussion moderated but not dominated by me. I'm interested in folks who know more about the topic showing up and pitching in, and I'm interested in helping people maintain their pursuit of who they want to be apart from and engaged with their work environment and the global Drupal community.

Should the BoF not materialize (since there's so much other cool stuff going on), I'd be more than happy to broach the topic over dinner or drinks on the town.

Agenda

* Define metanarrative/worldview with examples.
* What is yours?
* What would you say is "Drupal's"?
* Gauging your engagement with the Drupal story.
* Understanding how to communicate with others who are more or less engaged than you.

Goals

The goal is to have a little bit of fun thinking thinking outside the code. Attendees should be willing to take part in the discussion or at least not get bored listening to others talk. The goal is not to confront the way people are engaging with the Drupal story, but to spend some time focusing on the unconscious decisions we make that have very real, long term effects on the things we do and accomplish.

(Disclaimer: I do approach the topic from a Christian theistic worldview, but this BoF is not purely interested in religious practice so much as it is actions, priorities, and values. Obviously, for many people like myself, this includes faith, but the discussion will be moderated in such a way that attendees should not expect a religious defense, debate, or Bible study.)