Drupal Association

Drupalcamp Atlanta - Final Updates Including the Official Schedule

Dave Terry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:15:00 +0000

Drupalcamp Atlanta - Final Updates Including the Official Schedule

We are now less than a week to go and final plans are being ironed out for the inaugural Drupalcamp Atlanta happening this Saturday, September 19th. We have coordinated what we think will be an informative, exciting, and fun event with lots of opportunities to network with your peers. For those who can’t make it, we are trying to provide as much video footage as possible.

Furthermore, we have released the official schedule, and posted detailed directions on the Drupalcamp Atlanta website. In addition, we are trying to accommodate all those who are on the waiting list – if you are on the list we will be sending out updates this week. Keep in mind, this is an all-volunteer, first-ever initiative in our region – we are bound to run into some speed bumps, but are doing our best to pro-actively address any issues.

Here are some additional numbers that we wanted to share:

We SOLD OUT and reached a max capacity of 250 attendees one month in advance– there are 30+ on the waiting list.
We have over 25 sessions ranging from Intro to Drupal presentations, case studies, and more advanced topics like integrating Flex with Drupal. We’ll have at least 6-8 rooms dedicated to Birds of Feather (BoF) gatherings.
Thanks to 9 very generous financial sponsors the event is completely FREE – some serious props go out to Kennesaw State University as well for donating their facilities.
We have 2 Drupal authors (Addi Berry and Ben Finklea) who will by giving keynote presentations.
There are numerous volunteers who have offered to help with everything from the registration booth to posting photos online.
Although the event is in metro Atlanta, over 50% of attendees will be coming in from outside Georgia.
Finally, we have reserved a nearby pub from 6-9pm, where Drupal'ers can network and continue to talk shop.

On a personal note, I am proud of Mediacurrent’s involvement – along with ADUG member Bill Shauoy we designed and developed the DCA website, spearheaded the organizing efforts, and we will be presenting 6 individual sessions. They include:

Paul Chason – Best Practices and Tips on Migrating from a Legacy System to Drupal and Josh Estep and Paul will do an in-depth case study on an enterprise level Drupal site.

Derek Dunagan – Power Theming

Trent Wyman – Theming Drupal Menus

Jay Callicott – Getting the Most Out of Views 2.0

Chris Hales – Getting Started with Version Control Using Subversion

Next, we will be offering official DCA t-shirts for $15, and any profit will be used to offset expenses – please note that we will accept only cash or check.

Lastly, we could still use volunteers to help video record sessions. If you would like to help, please reach out to me via the DCA contact form.

Registration will start promptly at 9:00 am. We look forward to seeing you on September 19th!

Dave Terry Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:15

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Drupalcamp Atlanta Fever is in the Air!

Dave Terry — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:00:46 +0000

Drupalcamp Atlanta Fever is in the Air!

Whenever a group organizes a conference for the first-time there are a lot of unknowns – the phrase "if you build it will they come" is always in the back of your mind. However, I am happy to report that the response so far to the inaugural Drupalcamp Atlanta has been just awesome – as I write this, we have 158 attendees, 15 sessions, 9 sponsors, 2 keynote speakers with strong Drupal credentials, and a passionate organizing committee. We’re setting a goal of trying to sell out at 250, which is the max capacity the venue can adequately hold.

Surprisingly, a large number of out of state attendees are making the trip to Atlanta, which exemplifies how Drupal’s popularity is spreading like "kudzu" (as we say in Georgia).

Next, there have been made a number of updates via a Q&A page on the Drupalcamp Atlanta website that I would encourage everyone to check out if you have not done so already. For example, the after-hours party has been firmed up at a nearby pub. We’re blocking off a section of the restaurant and will have a few pool tables and dart boards at our disposal.

Here are some pertinent deadlines to be aware of:
August 19th – discounted price deal for lodging ends at Marriot
Sept. 9th – deadline for submitting sessions
Sept 13th (week of) – official schedule released
Sept. 19th – Drupalcamp Atlanta begins

Finally, we could really use your help. We need volunteers to help with registration, clean-up afterward, and some "official" photographers to post pictures online. Please get in touch with us by filling out the contact form on the website. In addition, we really need more presenters to step forward and lead a breakout session. Most importantly, if everyone would take a moment and invite a colleague or reach out to their network I’m positive we can reach our goal. For your convenience, we have created a promotional flyer that you can download and hand out, email, or hang on a public bulletin board at your university or job.

Mediacurrent is a proud sponsor and organizer of Drupalcamp Atlanta - please follow-us on Twitter for additional updates. I look forward to seeing you on September 19th!

Dave Terry Mon, 08/03/2009 - 17:00

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Case Study: How Drupal is Helping the Medical Advertising Community

Dave Terry — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:23:42 +0000

Case Study: How Drupal is Helping the Medical Advertising Community

We recently completed a relatively small, but really cool Drupal v6 microsite that exemplifies to me how open-source is impacting traditional advertising channels (i.e. print, TV, radio, etc.). Unfortunately, the website (Neurowebcast.com) is for invite only guests, but works similarly to other messaging chats you have probably seen online. Our collaborators on the project, Shaw Science Partners and Turner Studios, are two Atlanta based organizations with world-class reputations in their respective fields. Shaw is one of the leading pharmaceutical marketing agencies in the world, and work closely with prominent thought leaders in the medical community. Turner Studios is a subsidiary of Turner Entertainment Group (TEG) and provides turnkey services for film, video, and audio production.

The project involved helping Shaw take a pharmaceutical product to launch via a series of webcasts that are hosted by doctors and discussed live with invited users (nothing quite like a live, interactive broadcast!). The doctor facilitates questions and answers, while explaining product benefits to curious guests. The more archaic way of marketing a new drug or medication usually involves a pharmaceutical representative going to a doctor’s office and handing out samples or pleading to get a few minutes of time. However, the webcast with Drupal model allows for real-time discussion and in-depth product overview chats with the medical community in the convenience of your home or office.

The Drupal advantages were obvious from the beginning even after several external options were discussed. To summarize, the cost of ownership was significantly lower, the deadlines were sensitive, certain features need to be customized, and site hosts needed a user-friendly layout. In short, we were able to blend a specific recipe of modules at a cost that did not involve any type of licensing fees that a proprietary based solution would require.

The most beneficial module was Comments (Drupal core), and more specifically AJAX Comments. This module allowed for webcast attendees to submit questions in real time to the webcast host doctor. The producer moderates the questions and the host answers the approved questions. This is all happening in real time and Drupal makes it possible. You can read a more in-depth sampling of the modules we utilized in our Neurowebcast development case study.

This real world example shows how Drupal’s extensive library of modules is helping innovative agencies like Shaw Science Partners change with the times. If you are a creative/design/PR type agency solely relying on non-digital ways to reach targeted audiences than you are missing out on the benefits of what an open-source content management system (CMS) like Drupal can offer your customers. If you’d like to further discuss how a webcast series like this could help your firm then do not hesitate to contact us today.

Dave Terry Wed, 07/22/2009 - 12:23

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Why the Marketing of Drupal is Critical

Dave Terry — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Why the Marketing of Drupal is Critical

There was some little reported financial news that came out of Wall Street last month that did not make much traction in the Drupalsphere, but it should – particularly to our partner Acquia and those of us in the open source world. The news was that the darling of commercial open-source business models, Red-Hat, reported that business is good, very good, despite the global economic recession. To capsulate, Red-Hat revenue was up 11%, earnings up 25% share, and the stock price over 45% this year. You see Acquia has long asserted that they aspire to be to Drupal what Red Hat has become to Linux.

Moreover, venture capitalists and investors are always intrigued by organizations, particularly in the technology space, who generate recurring revenue streams (i.e. subscriptions), have excellent leadership, and most importantly fill a void within the vertical they work. Universally, companies want two things from vendors – the ability to save time and money. If you don’t believe me then look no further than what Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst himself said when addressing his company’s growth. "Our enterprise customers want to save money in a challenging IT spending environment – they are demanding we offer them new capabilities, efficiencies, and functionality". In my opinion, here is what Red-Hat has done a masterful job at – it has never been about them. It was always about the community and their customers. Incidentally, I once asked a wise, older relative of mine to give me the best piece of advice she ever received…her immediate response was "focus on others, not yourself".

Most importantly, the market has come to value Red-Hat’s services. I would classify Drupal as still a work in progress here, but the signs are encouraging. This is where evangelizing needs to take hold – more case studies, white papers, analyst reports, webinars, certification programs, open-houses, seminars, media coverage, etc. all leads to better credibility and general recognition. Information technology decision makers (i.e. CIOs, Directors, Project Managers, etc.) need validation and precedence that their idea to implement Drupal is not some trendy selection, but one cemented with well-grounded justification – choosing the bigger logo or brand will always be the safe play, but it’s certainly not always the smartest. Dries Buytaert, the co-founder of Acquia and Drupal project lead, recently spoke to this in a blog post. I read with great interest the comments from Mike Veers, who is the former CIO of the respected magazine The Economist, and apparently spearheaded the case for adopting Drupal:

Drupal relies on word of mouth more than anything else for marketing and has done very well on that so far. To take the next step, though, marketing efforts needs to be beefed up. When convincing the editor of The Economist that Drupal was the right choice for Economist.com, I had to do that without the help of a professional sales team. That, in itself, is not a problem, but when a professional sales team from Escenic or FatWire are involved, Drupal pales somewhat. The lack of something as basic as a flyer for people to read shows where Drupal is compared to established players.

In essence, Drupal could be the most amazing content management system (CMS) in the world, but if the brand lacks consumer awareness this is a serious problem. Acquia has taken the first baton, but it must be a concerted effort. Drupal vendors (Mediacurrent included) must continue to quantifiably demonstrate how open-source based solutions are benefiting our customers. When soliciting new business, the best advertising channel will always be showcasing how your firm’s track record has helped others solve similar problems.

While growing pains will inevitably occur, for Drupal to continue its meteoric rise as *the* leader in the CMS space, we must keep our foot on the throttle when it comes to the marketing side of Drupal. The Red Hat financials are telling us that if we can trumpet the virtues of Drupal then the rewards will follow. However, if we just think of marketing activities as an afterthought then we've taken a significant step backwards.

I’d be very interested to hear from you. How critical do you view the marketing of Drupal?

Dave Terry Tue, 07/21/2009 - 00:00

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Drupal Case Study: Mediacurrent Launches Website for Major Publisher

Dave Terry — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:41:09 +0000

Drupal Case Study: Mediacurrent Launches Website for Major Publisher

We recently launched a new website for In-Fisherman, a division of publishing powerhouse InterMedia Outdoors (IMO). This is a really robust, feature-filled Drupal site that we are profoundly excited about. In a nutshell, IMO is recognized as one of the strongest brands in the outdoor sportsman industry. They produce award-winning television shows, have 16 leading magazine brands like Guns and Ammo, generate instructional DVDs, etc. Our development team has been hunkered down for months working on this site, and we are excited to share details, particularly with the Drupal community.

First and foremost, this website represents a microcosm to the changing face of the publishing sector. It is no secret that publishers have been forced to rapidly adapt to the online world. More specifically, corporations are no longer doing big spends on customary advertising techniques (radio, print, television, etc.). Those dollars are now being allocated on more targeted, measurable, digital-based campaigns. Ironically enough, Dries, Drupal project leader and Acquia CTO spoke to this in a blog post the other week. Let me paraphrase one passage he mentions, "many large media companies have underestimated the risk of the internet – many have waited too long to embrace the web. With advertising revenues declining, and a global economic downturn life isn’t getting easier for a traditional publisher." In essence, Drupal is filling a much-needed void in the publishing industry. Simply put, companies like IMO that learn how to effectively leverage Drupal, and open-source in general, will have a competitive advantage over those that do not.

Next, the IMO use case shows how Drupal continues toward wider scale, enterprise level adoption. Information technology executives are appreciative of the lower cost of ownership and the myriad of options that Drupal offers. This recent Forrester report asserts that claim. On the numerous occasions when IMO management asked Mediacurrent, "Can we do that in Drupal?" It was gratifying to answer, "YES, sure, we can make that happen in Drupal." This is one of the biggest, but sometimes overlooked appeals of Drupal – developers constantly get to harness their craft on projects that challenge them to solve problems in creative ways. The result is a mature code base that is actively supported by a passionate community. Anyway, I will not get into nitty-gritty technical details here, but would encourage everyone to check out our development case study of In-Fisherman for more specifics.

To summarize, if you are a conventional media organization, do not get left in the dust. The time to reduce costs, avoid proprietary CMS vendor lock-in, gain access to thousands of free modules and features, and add value to your IT department is now.

Dave Terry Mon, 06/22/2009 - 09:41

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