Looking back at 5years in the Drupal Community
My Drupal.org account is about to turn 5years old! I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect back on it and remember some of the good times!If you make it through this list, feel free to leave a comment when you see the event where we met or some occasion that sticks out in your mind!This could be fun!!
December of 2007 is when it all started. I was helping a retired Indy-Car driver develop a large social networking site for Boat enthusiasts. I ended up steering [no pun intended!] the project away from ASP and into OpenSource. My 1st choice was Joomla! But I quickly discovered that Drupal was the better solution! It was an easy decision to toss everything out [almost 2yrs efforts] and start over in Drupal! We launched the site within 10 weeks of 1st hearing the name, "Drupal!"
2008 was the big plunge! [I started the local Users Group, attended 4 Lullabot workshops, and my 1st DrupalCamp!]
January - I held the 1st ever local Indy Drupal Users Group Meeting! Yah, just two of us.. but hey! :-)January - Portland, Drupal 5 Module Development workshop with LullabotFebruary - Redondo Beach, Drupal 5 Theming workshop with LullabotMarch - DrupalCon Boston http://boston2008.drupalcon.org/May - Minneapolis, Drupal 6 Module Development & Theming workshop with LullabotJune - Toronto, Drupal 6 Comprehensive Training with LullabotJuly - Chicago, HostingCon [Kieran had asked for volunteers to man the booth]October - Chicago, DrupalCamp [I delivered 7 sessions and 2 BoFs at my 1st DrupalCamp]November - Indianapolis, Business & Arts Network & Get together [Indy BANG] I set up a Drupal booth to create some local awareness.
2009 was a game changer!
The local users group meetings were in full swing and growing!
March - Washington DC Drupalcon http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/May - Chicago, My good friend Slurpee from Chicago invited me to the CMS Expo where I delivered Drupal training with him and we actually got paid for it! [this was when I realized that was even possible!]June - My 2nd DrupalCamp this time in Wisconsin. Someone there reached out to me, asking if I'd come and deliver some Drupal intro sessions. WOW!June - Chicago, I accept a position with Duo Consulting a shop that was working in EZ-Publish, CFM, ASP, Cascade Server, Drupal, and other technologies. I encourage them to go ALL IN for Drupal & to truly engage the community. They do and now they are a well known Drupal shop with an impressive and growing client list!August - DrupalCamp Los Angeles [My 3rd]September - Ohio Linux Fest [My proposed session got accepted!]September - DrupalCamp Atlanta [Their 1st, my 4th]December - DoItWithDrupal [I was invited to give a Drupal intro session]December - DrupalCamp Chicago [my 5th]
2010 a WHOLE LOT MORE of the same!
February - DrupalCamp Florida [my 6th]March - DrupalCamp Nashville [At my 7th camp I gave 6 sessions]March - leave Duo Consulting to start an awesome freelance career!April - Chicago Drupal SpringFling. Slurpee set up this cool one-day camp [my 8th] to showcase the upcoming Drupal 7 goodness!April - San Francisco DrupalCon http://sf2010.drupal.org/ we hit over 3000 attendees? Me, Jeff Robbins & Dmitry Gaskin perform the Drupal Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdbFVWupSswMay - Virginia, Library Camp, a one day DrupalCamp for ppl working with libraries. [my 9th]May - Denver CO, DrupalCamp [my 10th]June - South Carolina DrupalCamp at SouthEast LinuxFest [My 11th camp] July - DrupalCamp Los Angeles [my 12th]July - DrupalCamp Wisconsin [my 13th]August - DrupalCamp Dallas at OpenCamp [my 14th]September - DrupalCamp Asheville NC [my 15th]October - Atlanta DrupalCamp [my 16th]October - Indianapolis DrupalCamp Indy [my 17th]
2011 had even more travel! [most of it to Columbus, Ohio]
January - Picked up a big project with The Ohio State University. I ended up renting a house just off campus for 6 months!March - Chicago, DrupalCon http://chicago2011.drupal.org/ June - South Carolina, DrupalCamp at SouthEast LinuxFest [my 18th]August - Asheville NC, DrupalCamp [my 19th]October - Atlanta, DrupalCamp [my 20th]November - San Francisco, DrupalCamp [my 21st]November - Ohio, DrupalCamp [my 22nd]December - Chicago, DrupalCamp [my 23rd]
2012 was a return to the DrupalCamp tour!
January - San Diego, DrupalCamp [my 24th]March - Denver, DrupalCon http://denver2012.drupal.org/June - Charlotte SC, DrupalCamp at SouthEast LinuxFest [my 25th]August - Asheville, DrupalCamp [my 26th]October - Atlanta DrupalCamp [my 27th]October - Los Angeles DesignCamp [my 28th]November - San Francisco, DrupalCamp [my 29th]November - Chicago, DrupalCamp [my 30th]November - Ohio DrupalCamp [my 31st]December - Indianapolis, accepted a full-time position on staff with ExactTarget.com as an Ineractive Developer building out Drupal sites for our internal use.
2013 What is to come?
As I mentioned... I accepted a full-time gig. So that means my days of hitting 12 camps a year are over. So are my days of hitting 3 Linux Fests a year. It also means the days of traveling across the country to deliver onsite Drupal training and consulting are over. I really enjoyed that immensely. I met all kinds of people from all kinds of organizations. I brought Drupal into some fascinating places. I now know people who I introduced to Drupal who are now making excellent careers out of it or using those skills to further nonprofits, or libraries, etc! That's pretty rewarding.I'm looking VERY forward to 2013. I expect it will be NO LESS exciting than years previous; just in different and equally rewarding ways! Drupal has been a HUGE BLESSING to me and my family. I cannot even imagine how this year will outdo the past!