Drupal
Happy fifth birtday Drupal
Today, five years ago, Drupal 1.0.0 was released! The following snippet is taken directly from the original announcement:
Today, drop.org announces the release of drupal 1.00 after an extensive period of testing. Drupal is a full-featured content management/discussion engine using Apache/PHP/MySQL and suitable to setup a news-driven community or portal site similar to kuro5hin.org and slashdot.org. Current features include discussion forums, web-based administration, theme support, an open submission queue, content management, a modularized design, PHP sessions, user management with access control and username/profanity/hostname filters, error logging, a public diary module, an affiliate site module, backend/headline generation (RSS/RDF) and much more.
To celebrate the event, Karlijn and I made you a cake:
The Ockham's Razor Principle of Content Management Systems
Chris Messina wrote: Firefox set a good model for the rest of the open source world when it infused simple, clean design into a very useful tool. [...] The core differentiator that will set one application above the rest or result in widespread adoption will be rooted in user experience, not in the number of features or power. [...] WordPress will continue its meteoric rise over more complicated and ugly applications like Drupal and Joomla!.
Those who have read my Drupal predictions for 2006 will know that I tend to agree with these statements. Here is what I wrote: Furthermore, by the end of 2006, most other systems will provide role based access control, localization, clean URLs, some sort of node system, etc. Functionality-wise there will be less differentiation amongst the available content management systems, and as a result, more emphasis is put on ease of use, out of the box experience, the (support) community and performance. Some of the more obscure functionality like the aggregator, the taxonomy system, and the throttle system will be subtle but important differentiators. It's been a long, well-run race so far, but unless we manage to make Drupal more accessible to new users and to get back to the basics, we'll find the ground shifting beneath our feet.
I disagree with Chris' statement that functionality is secondary to aesthetics (see quote above). Maybe that is not what he meant, but clearly, form follows function and not the other way around. Drupal is growing because it offers critical functionality. Wordpress is growing because it offers critical functionality. Read on for more.
It is only when two systems offer the same same functionality (or just the required functionality to build a particular website) that the Ockham's Razor Principle of Content Management Systems kicks in (I made that up just now):
It asserts that simplicity is preferred to complexity. Most people want to build simple websites, it is easier to build simple websites with Wordpress, and so Wordpress will often be preferred.
Is Chris wrong when he says that simple, clean designs are key to success? He is not. Aesthetic designs are perceived as simpler to use and of better quality -- whether they are or not. It is uncommon for people to be attracted by things that look ugly, but it is common for people to be attracted by things that look beautiful. Aesthetics drive adoption when there are no critical differentiators.
For many people, Drupal's built-in forum functionality is not a critical differentiator to build a simple website. When it is not, Wordpress is likely to be preferred because of Ockham's Razor. When forum functionality is critical to succeed building a particular website, Drupal is likely to be preferred because form follows function.
For long I focused, completely and utterly, on the aesthetics of Drupal's code, neglecting eye candy and ease of use. I spent days trying to do something better, with fewer lines of code and more elegant than elsewhere. The aesthetics of Drupal's clean code has attracted many developers, but has also given Drupal the reputation of being developer-centric and hard to use. Similarly, aesthetics of user interface design (as opposed to aesthetics of code) attract users and designers, and gives you the reputation of being user-friendly. I believe that Wordpress' nicely laid out user interfaces have been an important reason for its success.
I have since learned that elegant design and ease of use are equally important as clean source code. Over the past year, I have been hammering on the importance of Drupal's usability, and we have been actively working on making Drupal easier to use. As a result, the next version of Drupal will be easier to use than any previous versions of Drupal. At the same time, we added critical functionality. I strongly believe that both are important to guarantee Drupal's continued growth in 2006. (Of course, I do realize that Drupal has a long way to go in terms of design and usability.)
How Drupal looked like in 2003.
How Drupal looks in 2006.
For Drupal to remain competitive in the future,
- we'll have to offer critical functionality not available in other content management systems, or
- we'll have to make Drupal easier to use and improve the aesthetics of Drupal's user interface design, and
- we have to maintain the aesthetics of Drupal's code.
As other systems are catching up in terms of critical functionality and because the amount of critical functionality is limited, we have little control over (1). Hence, we should focus on (2) and (3). To grow the number of users we should focus on (2) and to grow the number of developers we should focus on (3). Because the ability to make changes to Drupal's code is restricted, we can easily enforce (3). That pretty much leaves us with (2) to worry about ...
Robert's Drupal book in the mail
Last year in February, I introduced Robert Douglass to Matt Wade, an editor at Apress. Yesterday, 11 months later, I received a copy of the book, Building online communities with Drupal, phpBB and Wordpress, as a result of that introduction.
In roughly 200 pages (the part about Drupal), Robert Douglas teaches you everything you need to know in order to install, configure and maintain a Drupal site. I only spent 2 hours exploring the book so far and already it teached me some new things about some of the contributed modules. I doubt any Drupal user will be disappointed with this book. Highly recommended.
DivX
The company behind DivX, one of the world's most popular video technologies, is using Drupal at http://labs.divx.com/.
Lullabot
Drupal rockstars Matt Westgate and Jeff Robbins launched a new Drupal company: Lullabot. Lullabot provides Drupal consultation, training, and support. As part of their strategy (mission), they plan to publish video and audio podcasts for the Drupal community. Check out Matt's first videocast which shows you how to install Drupal 4.7.0.
I'd like to mirror those on drupal.org and link them from the release announcement when Drupal 4.7.0 is released.
My Drupal predictions for 2006
My personal highlights for 2005 include the Drupal 4.6 release, the three Drupal conferences I helped organize, the Drupal books that are being written, the fund raise, the new infrastructure (including the support from Sun Microsystems and the OSL), and the unexpected exponential growth of the community. 2005 was a blast. Not only for Drupal, but for many Free and Open Source content management systems.
What is in it for 2006?
In terms of code we'll see forum improvements, image and/or document improvements, some basic install profiles, more AJAX, incremental theme system improvements, significant node system changes, and various improvements to the administration pages.
The exciting trend in 2006 will be the many new media services on the web; people want to publish more content. Most of this will be social media published by individuals or online communities. Not just more content and pictures, but also a lot more video. Information overload, a direct result of this, will drive the adoption of RSS, Atom, aggregators and news readers. Lots of people will figure out that, to stay productive and up-to-date, content aggregation and content filtering is a must. By the end of 2006, people will not only want to aggregate all interesting or relevant content, they'll also want to consolidate the functionality of the various web services. In short: more content, the need for aggregation and filtering, and ultimately, consolidation of functionality. Clearly, Drupal is in a proper spot to benefit from these trends.
The less exciting trend of 2006, but probably the more important one in terms of growth and revenue, is the increased adoption of content management systems for small, basic websites. Millions of small websites will start using content management systems. The biggest mistake we'll make in 2006 is that many of us will be neglecting small website owners. This is where more traditional systems like Mambo, Joomla! and even Wordpress will shine, and because of that, they'll grow faster than Drupal. Fortunately, Drupal 4.7.0 will be a great release for many of the small website owners. Much of the work we did in 2005, will have its impact in 2006. We'll continue to grow, but the growth will be linear rather than exponential.
Furthermore, by the end of 2006, most other systems will provide role based access control, localization, clean URLs, some sort of node system, etc. Functionality-wise there will be less differentiation amongst the available content management systems, and as a result, more emphasis is put on ease of use, out of the box experience, the (support) community and performance. Some of the more obscure functionality like the aggregator, the taxonomy system, and the throttle system will be subtle but important differentiators. It's been a long, well-run race so far, but unless we manage to make Drupal more accessible to new users and to get back to the basics, we'll find the ground shifting beneath our feet.
Even with many good or exciting things happening in 2006 (make no mistake, they will happen), we'll find ourselves at the base of a new mountain. Just like in 2005, there will be growing pains, yet they'll be bigger. A community with 40.000 members has many voices, and each such voice demands slightly different things. Some people will be unhappy, disorientated and impatient for things to improve. At times, they'll be highly articulate about this. It is going to be a long and complicated climb. Growing is learning to climb bigger mountains, learning to deal with bigger growing pains. Fortunately, you've been the best community I know, and the best I have ever had the privilege of working with. You have the enthusiasm, the passion and the determination of the world to climb that mountain.
Despite the slightly worrisome tone of this message, 2006 promises to be an exciting year. Drupal will make more inroads on companies, governments, public institutions like school and universities, open source projects, and -- most of all -- non-professionals. Just like in 2005, we'll make substantial progress.
