Drupal Camp Colorado

June 11-12^th, 426 Drupalers of all experience levels gathered in the mile high city to share knowledge, meet new people, and of course, drink beer.

I want share a few brief highlights from my time at Drupal Camp Colorado.

Angie “webchick” Byron's keynote talk

If you've been apart of the Drupal community for any amount of time, you've probably heard the name webchick. And you've probably heard it more than once. Angie “webchick” Byron was the co-maintainer for Drupal 7 and has been a growing influence in the Drupal community for years. As a keynote speaker, I found her topic incredibly relevant, and her passion contagious.

Angie clearly has much to say. Her brilliance, coupled with her commitment to open source projects like Drupal, makes her a wealth of knowledge to new Drupalers like me. As one who still twitches at the sight of question marks nested in corner brackets, I have often struggled to see where I fit into the Drupal community. With Drupal being heavy on the developer side (which is what makes it so awesome...) how can I contribute with out speaking PHP as a second language? This is a question that I've asked for the last year and a half. It wasn't until Angies keynote, that I felt really empowered and able to contribute back.

Sure I've submitted a few issues and answered a few questions, but somehow I thought that those contributions were sub-par. Angie helped by reminding me of how much I know and that contribution at any level is what the community needs. I left her keynote excited about where I fit into to the Drupal community, whether that be sitting in IRC and answering questions, writing documentation, explaining a Drupal core install, or otherwise. Thanks Angie for helping broaden my view.

The community

The Drupal Community is awesome. Let's just come out and say it. Anyone who has been to any sort of a Drupal gathering knows what I am talking about. From local meetups to international DrupalCons, from IRC to blog posts and anything in between, the community can be seen at the center. While this is my first experience being a part of a community focused on an open source project, I have an inkling that not all tech-driven communities are the same.

What makes the Drupal community stand out? What makes the community vibrant and healthy? Here's my two cents. First, I suppose the obvious answer is there is shared love for a great platform that has changed the way that we do websites. Due to this love, there is an excitement and urgency around moving the Drupal project forward and upward. But when it comes to the community, its not as much about ideas and code as it is about people. Relationships. Connection. Any bystander watching interactions at the the recent Colorado Drupal Camp would be able to see the true relationships exists that extend beyond the project itself. One response might be that “Hey, these people seem to actually like each other.” Drupal might have been the initial connection point, but there is something more that adds depth and life to the Drupal community.

Out of this genuine connection grows an openness that fosters an attitude of helpfulness. Both new and veteran Drupalers are a part of this same community. This affirmation of different experience levels provide a rich landscape for connection and interaction that seeks to benefit the whole by answering questions and lending a helping hand. This is a unique gift to the Drupal Community. We've probably all been part of groups that don't express their commitment to the community in the same way. There might not be commitment at all. Elitism or other divides diminish the community and its ability to grow. The openness and genuine desire to help that is normal in the Drupal community is not the norm otherwise. Thanks to the Drupal community for their commitment not only to code and the project but the people that make Drupal what it is.

The sessions

Note to all designers: Check out John's session called the 10 Commandment of Photoshop Mockups. Out of 15 years of Photoshop experience comes many tips and tricks to making your life easier as a designer. Watch it & love it. And learn lots of sweet stuff.

There's a few sessions that I found particularly helpful. Most of these are centered around the helping the front end developer. That's me.

SS3 and LESS: Faster, easier, more powerful CSS by Ken Woodworth

This session helped show the true power of CSS3. I am excited to start implementing this in our designs as we seek to follow progressive enhancement design principles. Ken also talked about LESS which was helpful in learning how CSS preprocesors work, but at the end of it all and due to several further discussions, Pixel Whip is excited about experimenting with SASS in a few upcoming projects. (Ken, I think you approve... :-) )

Git with the program by Larry Garfield

Pixel Whip started using Git a couple months ago on a few projects. While Git still largely remains a mystery to me, Larry helped me understand the power and some of the overarching ideas of Git. While Larry presented very quickly and I probably only caught half of what was presented, I learned a few commands that have helped to demystify the the process and workflow of Git. I still find myself getting really frustrated with Git, but I know how to better troubleshoot the problems I am having. Larry helped me more fully see the benefit of Git and I am eager to feel more comfortable using all of what it has to offer.

Theme preprocess functions: an Introduction by Carl Wiedemann

Like I said before, sometimes I still twitch at the sight of question marks nested inside of corner brackets. Carl's introduction was a great how-to tutorial for starting to work with preprocess functions. I learned about how PHP works concerning these fairly simple preprocess functions. I don't twitch now. Learning how to decifer the variables needed using the dpm function along with Devel was probably the most helpful tool I discovered at Drupal Camp.

There you have it. Humble thoughts about Drupal and the community that makes it what it is.

In my eyes, Drupal Camp was a great success. I am thankful for this chance to learn and to be a part of this vibrant and growing community.

Cheers,

Todd