Dries Buytaert

At BlogCom I was unexpectedly interviewed by Stefan Kolgen from Kolgen & Laenen. The raw and uncut interview (mirror) is now up at Antwerpen Blogt. The interview is in Dutch and talks about Drupal.

Sharing photos, audio and video is hot. Every week, new tools are made available to make sharing videos online easier. Recently, the Flemish Radio- and Television Network (VRT) started using Drupal for 16+, an online community that allows students to share pictures, music and video. The written press touted it as the "Flemish YouTube". For details, see my older blog post on 16+.

This afternoon, I'll have a meeting with the VRT to talk about Drupal and 16+. While preparing my presentation I started wondering: why would a traditional radio- and television broadcast company like the VRT encourage people to share pictures, audio and video? Is the VRT preparing the ground and developing a platform for citizen journalism? Would the VRT dare to upset their "professional journalists" and embrace journalism practiced "by the people"? Will they open up the scope and target audience of 16+?

I don't know, but I'm going to tell them that traditional media has no choice but to move forward. I spent the last 5 years of my life developing software that enables individuals to publish and share content on the internet. Soon, amateur content providers will have very powerful tools to compete with traditional media. I'm going to tell them that we are reshaping the future of news, information and journalism, and that, if they want to avoid getting left behind, they have to position themselves at the forefront of citizen journalism, take part in it, collaborate with amateurs, and embrace new internet technologies.

Could be an interesting afternoon ...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is using Drupal for their Academy of Program / Project and Engineering Leadership website (APPEL). Sweet!

The Flemish Radio- and Television Network (VRT) uses Drupal for 16+, a community website to accompany one of the television programs they broadcast. The website allows people to upload and share pictures, music and video. Belgian newspaper De Standaard described 16+ as the "Flemish YouTube". Belgian newspaper De Morgen refers to it as being an "online community". Development of the website was coordinated by the Interdisciplinary institute for BroadBand Technology (IBBT), a research institute founded by the Flemish government. Next week I'll meet some of the people behind 16+ and IBBT as I committed to giving them a short Drupal presentation.

Hagen Graf has written a German Drupal book: Drupal: Community-Websites entwickeln und verwalten mit dem Open Source-CMS published by Addison-Wesley. I got a copy of the book in the mail today and took some pictures. Thanks Hagen, Boris and Uwe!

I pre-registered the drupal.eu domain name but unfortunately it was awarded to an earlier applicant. As the pre-registered .eu domain names were awarded on a first come, first served basis this sounds fair ... until you find out that the system might have been gamed.

The European Registry of Internet Domain Names (EURid) operates the .eu domain. However, you had to pre-register the domain name using one of the official domain name registrars. A domain name registrar is a company accredited by the EURid to sell .eu domain names. To setup an accredited registrar, you pay 10.000 EUR and sign an agreement with EURid.

To award the .eu domains to each of the domain name registrars, the EURid laid out a system to provide each domain name registrar an equal chance at getting domain names for their customers. Supposedly, the system EURid used was to repeatedly iterate over the list of domain name registrars, and on their turn, each domain name registrar got to make one request for a domain name on behalf of their customers.

Now, if you look at the domain name registrar that obtained the drupal.eu domain, and if you investigate the list of official .eu registrars, you'll see that there are (at least) 7 other domain name registrars that share the exact same postal address and phone number as the domain registrar that obtained drupal.eu.

Legitimate? I don't know. However, it is fair to believe that by creating multiple phantom registrars, a single person or company could increase the likelihood of obtaining more and better .eu domain names than other companies. If not, companies wouldn't have spend 80.000 EUR (or more) to setup phantom registrars ...

The EURid should have known better.

On May 20, Peter Forret is hosting the first Belgian Barcamp: Barcamp Brussels. A Barcamp is an ad-hoc un-conference driven by its attendees. It is free and open for everyone but it has no visitors, only participants. Attendees must give a demo, a presentation, or help with one. It has no fixed agenda either. Things just happen, and in happening, cause other things to happen.

I attended two Barcamps so far and both have been a blast. That said, I might prepare two sessions for Barcamp Brussels:

1. A brief presentation on Drupal.
2. A discussion on photoblogging software.

After talking to Pieter Baert (co-founder of drieduizend.be) and Ine Dehandschutter (co-founder of photoblog.net and official photographer of Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt), I'd like to figure out what the ideal photoblogging software looks like. Being relatively new to photography and photoblogging, I'd like to meet other photographers at Barcamp to share how they (want to) manage their photos on their websites.