Henry Poole
Fri, 01/11/2008 - 04:27 — Henry Poole
What is your motivation for being a member of the Drupal Association?:
Drupal rocks! I'd like to see the entire network scale. I'd like to see a strong sustainable business community emerge that respects and supports the core values and the core technology.
What are the primary goals you would like to work on?:
1) SUPPORTING SMALLER FIRMS IN THEIR GROWTH - to develop the capabilities to land large Drupal projects and deliver quality service
2) SUPPORTING DRUPAL WITH LEGAL ISSUES, making sure that the we reduce risks be cleaning up and professionalizing our practices
What strategy will you employ in order to accomplish said goals?:
OPENING UP BEST PRACTICES OF DRUPAL CONSULTING FIRMS: I would very much like to see an increased level of sharing in best practices for professional services firms using Drupal. This, like the DrupalCamps, will just help to expand the total market and help every firm in the network. Large NGOs and large companies need multiple large vendors to feel confident in choosing Drupal.
PROFESSIONALIZE OUR LEGAL PRACTICES: I introduced Dries to Eben Moglen and setup the SFLC releationship with the association. I'd like to continue this work around the legal arena, and do what I can to make sure that the board (and our big users and vendors) have good sound legal advice.
What yearly budget would you need in order to accomplish said goals?:
None. Just lots of openness from the professional community around us to experiment.
What strengths/experience you have to help you accomplish the goals?:
I've been on the Board of the Free Software Foundation for 5 years. I've been a entrepreneur since age 16 - I'm now 44. I've started numerous successfull companies, including two very successfull professional services firms providing solutions to large NGOs and large corporations. One of my previous firms, Vivid Studios, launched Windows95 for Microsoft online. We secretely used free software;)
How long have you been using Drupal, and how'd you get your start?:
Began playing with Drupal in 2001 when I setup a blog while working on the Affero project. I've mostly been a user - I stopped coding in 1991.
Have you made existing community contributions, and if so, what?:
My firm, CivicActions, has financialy supported numerous contributions. The only personal contribution that I've made (of importance) is the work to get SFLC together with the association. I'd like for the association to have more places for non-technical people like me to add value. I think I can assist with that and would be honored to be chosen to help.
How much time can you invest in your Drupal Association work?:
6 hours/month
Apply for Board of Directors membership:
Apply for Permanent Membership only
Statutes:
I have read and understood the Statutes of the Drupal Association. I am prepared to participate by following those statutes.
Comments
Legal expertise a much-needed contribution
And thanks again for introducing our SFLC relationship.
Could you provide further details in how you plan to break through the (real or imagined) perception within the service provider community about their business practices being "trade secrets", e.g. how do you "sell" a successful company on the idea of directly helping their competition become more, well, competitive? :)
Additionally, what do you feel are the biggest legal issues that the Drupal Association might run into in 2008?
Re: Legal expertise a much-needed contribution
Could you provide further details in how you plan to break through the (real or imagined) perception within the service provider community about their business practices being "trade secrets", e.g. how do you "sell" a successful company on the idea of directly helping their competition become more, well, competitive? :) First of all, you don't 'sell' this. For some firms, their business practices will be proprietary, and for those firms that might make the most sense given their history and their core values. I think we should just start small, with firms that are willing to experiment. We've done this exact thing at CivicActions, and the openness and the adherence to sharing all of our works under public license has only helped our bottom line, helped us attract and retain talent and clients. This approach tends to 'align' the internal culture of an organization so that everyone has and shares the same core values. For the larger firms that hold things secret...it wouldn't make sense for us to try to convert them.
Additionally, what do you feel are the biggest legal issues that the Drupal Association might run into in 2008? While I think this is an excellent question, those possible 'negative' issues should probably be discussed in private. On the less risky side, I think that assisting the managing board with assembling an agenda that includes general education around legal issues would be a good thing. I wouldn't want to tell the association management how to operate (since this is not a job of the permanent member), but we could certainly share some ideas - like brining in legal professionals to speak at some of our conferences, and getting folks commenting on our community forums, etc.
Another vital perspective
Again, there are a number of great applications and I feel most compelled to comment where it looks like a Drupal Association affiliation will be special mutual benefit because of a unique approach the applicant already takes in their work to promote Drupal and strengthen the community.
Poole wrote:
"I would very much like to see an increased level of sharing in best practices for professional services firms using Drupal."
Nothing to add, except to stress that aside from general wonderfulness, this broadening of sharing from code to practices would be a huge "competitive advantage" for Drupal apart from the technical quality of the code.
And of course a very likely byprodict would be greater collaboration in funding and developing Drupal software useful to Drupal shops and their clients.
The Association's job, as I see it, isn't to make things happen for Drupal – it is to help everyone make things happen for Drupal.
Henry Poole looks to me to have the qualities and vision to help create that environment.