Australia
Wanted: more Drupal talent in Melbourne -- and elsewhere in the world
As some of you may know from my recent tweets and blog posts, I'm currently on a tour down under in Australia. After attending Drupal Downunder in Brisbane, I spent two days in Melbourne. Although my schedule was packed, I was able to meet with several Acquia partners based in Melbourne. I also met with various Drupal users such as the Australian Conservation Foundation (AFC), Monash University, Lonely Planet, Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC), Victoria University, Red Cross, State Library of Victoria and others. In the evenings, we organized a Drupal meet-up at the Belgian Beer Cafe in which I met about forty Drupal developers. Good times!
In talking to these people, I noticed a common pattern, other than the fact that everyone was excited about Drupal 7. In Australia, Drupal had a reputation of being a system for those who couldn't afford a "real CMS". Over the past year, though, that has changed. And now Drupal is considered in competitive evaluations and often wins. Interest in Drupal is growing rapidly and, like everywhere else in the world, the big challenge is to find enough Drupal talent, both for the Drupal shops as well as the large organizations that are looking to build internal teams.
We need to train more good Drupal people. We can do this through more and better documentation, mentoring, evangelizing, organizing code sprints, meet-ups and conferences. Whatever it takes, we have to figure out how to keep up with the demand -- not just in Australia, but everywhere in the world. If only PHP were more sexy, it would be much easier to attract more talent. Most good engineers don't realize how much better Drupal is compared to raw PHP, and that building a big, scalable Drupal site involves much more than PHP.
The next 36 hours I'm in Sydney to meet with more partners, users and developers. Should be fun and productive.
Some of the Drupal developers that showed up at the Drupal meet-up in Melbourne. About 30 to 40 people showed up in total.
Lizard
In Europe, dogs eat left-overs from the lunch table. Not necessarily in Australia ... this lizard joined us for lunch.
Drupal Downunder wrapup
I am currently in Australia, and I'm rapidly falling in love with it. The country is beautiful, and the people are great. In a way, it feels like Australia combines the best of Europe and the best of the United States. And oh yeah ... Aussies know how to have fun. Within 24 hours of setting foot in Australia, they had me converted in Crocodile "Dries" Dundee, or "Drundee" for short. Crocodile teeth included.
Drupal Downunder, the Drupal conference in Brisbane that I attended and the main reason for my trip, was a great event. A lot of people flew out from other parts of Australia and New Zealand to attend so it was very much a national event. There was a great vibe that reminded me of early Drupal events. It is clear that Australians are passionate about Drupal, and that Drupal is getting a lot of traction. At the same time, based on the size of the Drupal shops, the size of projects being launched on Drupal, and the developer centric audience at the conference, it felt like Australia is a few years behind in terms of Drupal adoption. That makes for a great opportunity because based on what I saw, there is no doubt that Drupal will see a lot of growth in Australia.
Notable was also that quite a few people that I have talked to feel somewhat disconnected from what is happening with Drupal in Europe and the US. No surprise given the time zone differences and Australia's geographical remoteness. It was clear that improving our documentation and our communication would help them get more involved. As we grow Drupal, we need to over-invest in communication and maintain high-quality documentation. That is hard, because as we grow, we also tend to get more busy and more fragmented.
All in all, I had a great time in Brisbane! I'm in Melbourne now for meetings (and writing this blog post in between two meetings), and later this week I'll be in Sydney too. All meetings combined, it should give me a good take on the state of Drupal in Oz. I'll keep you posted.
Hanging with my Aussie Drupal friends: let's meet up
To celebrate Drupal's tenth anniversary and the release of Drupal 7, I have decided to go on a Drupal tour, to celebrate, educate and spread the word on all things Drupal. I'm kicking-off my Drupal tour with a trip to Australia.
It's important for me to meet with other community leaders around the globe and promote Drupal. While down under I will be meeting with Drupalistas and non-Drupalistas, Acquia customers and partners, press and analysts. My goal is three-fold: (1) to promote Drupal, (2) to gain insight from users and prospects on the choices they make when it comes to choosing a web platform and building websites, and (3) to figure out how to further improve Drupal.
If you would like to meet to discuss Drupal, community building, web platforms, photography or anything else please let me know! I am currently in Brisbane (a little tired from the flight), I look forward to meeting you Down Under.
Here is where I will be and when:
- 22-23 January – Brisbane: I'll be at Drupal Downunder.
- 24-25 January – Melbourne: there is a Drupal meet-up scheduled on January 24th at 6pm in the Belgian Beer Café Eureka.
- 26-27 January – Sydney: there is a Drupal meet-up scheduled on January 27th at 6pm in the The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel.
For more details, keep an eye on the Drupal.org Australia group, my Twitter account and this blog. To schedule time with me please contact Laurie Vertuccio and Matt Ackley; they help manage my schedule while I am traveling. Looking forward to meet!
About to land in Brisbane where I kick off my Australia tour.
Flying around the world for fun and Drupal
I have agreed to speak at Drupal Downunder, to be held in Australia on January 22 and 23, 2011. In addition to delivering a presentation, I hope to pick out a 'Crocodile Dundee hat' (minus the croc teeth). It could be a new, alternative look for me.
Given that Australia is pretty much located on the other side of the world, I figure I would use this opportunity to literally fly around the world, making a couple of stops along the way. I'd like to meet more of the Drupal community on this voyage, especially people I haven't met yet or in places where I've not yet visited. I can only pick 2-4 cities to stop but places like Bangkok, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Bejing, Dubai, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Moscow and Munich come to mind. I'm open to other suggestions.
I will book my "around the world ticket" in the next month or two. So, if you are organizing a Drupal Camp or a Drupal meet-up during the last week of January 2011 let me know. I’ll see if I can make a stop in your town.
