DrupalCon

Drupal and Alexa: The Next Big Thing?

Katherine Druckman — Wed, 11 May 2016 16:00:00 +0000

DrupalCon is underway in New Orleans, Louisiana, and it kicked off with the always energetic keynote from Drupal project founder, Dries Buytaert. While these regular keynotes, known as "DriesNotes" in the Drupal Community, tend to focus on the state of the Drupal project, with updates on the development cycle and community interests, there is frequently also a particularly inspiring look toward the future. This year, Dries wowed the audience with a quick demo of a Drupal site communicating with an Amazon Echo to provide a personalized shopping experience via Echo's conversational interface. And perhaps most interesting was Buytaert's take on conversational interfaces as the next big shake-up for developers and content creators, much like mobile interfaces changed the way we approach web development in the recent past.

The integration is achieved via the recently released Alexa Module for Drupal, and should be exciting for developers anxious to experiment with the Amazon Echo as well as generally exploring the concept of a conversational interface and all its possibilities.

You can watch the Dries Note below, and you'll find the Echo demo around 41:00.

You may also want to check out the Ultimate Guide to Drupal 8 for more info on the latest version of Drupal. It's written by one of our favorite Drupalers, Angie Byron.

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DrupalCon London is Around the Corner

Katherine Druckman — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:39:50 +0000

by Katherine Druckman

Many of you know what a huge Drupal fan I am, and while I am a bit heartbroken that I will not attend the upcoming DrupalCon London, happening August 22-26 in Croydon, I'd like to give the rest of you the skinny on DrupalCon so you can all go have fun without me. To that end, I got a few tidbits from Robert Castelo, one of DrupalCon's organizers.

Don't forget to go check out http://london2011.drupal.org/ for all the details, and enjoy the pub crawl for me!

KD: How will DrupalCon London differ from previous DrupalCons like Chicago and Copenhagen?

RC: DrupalCon London will be the biggest European Drupal event to date, and the diversity of attendees reflects London's cosmopolitan character and importance as the headquarters of many international organisations.

KD: What's the expected attendance at this point?

RC: When the event sold out there was so much demand that room for 200 extra people was added. With a waiting list that's almost twice as long as the number of new tickets available, DrupalCon London is expected to be sold out again with attendance at 1,800.

KD: What if I am a web developer, but I have never used Drupal. Should I go to DrupalCon?

RC: DrupalCon London will cater to a full range of attendees, from absolute beginner to core developer. Many people say that attending previous DrupalCons changed their lives, and with demand for people with Drupal skills at an all-time high, this is a great opportunity to become involved with one of the Internet's fastest growing technologies.

KD: How about job seekers? Should they go to DrupalCon? Is there anything specific they should look for?

RC: There is incredible demand for developers, designers, and project managers with Drupal skills - as well as sessions covering each of these topics at different skill levels. DrupalCon London also features a full day of hands on training to give attendees the practical knowledge employers are looking for.

Bear in mind that with Drupal's point-and-click features, many complex sites can be built with just configuration, so organisations looking for a 'Drupal Developer' may not require traditional coding skills. In Drupal, templates are called 'themes', so designers should seek out Theming training and sessions.

KD: Will there be any lingering effects from the recent riots? Do you expect the recent incidents to have an impact on the conference? How?

RC: DrupalCon London organisers have been working closely with the Croydon Business Improvement District, the Croydon Town Council, and Fairfield Halls, and they are intimately aware of the event's schedule of activities.

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On My Way to DrupalCon!

Katherine Druckman — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:33:31 +0000

by Katherine Druckman

As you may have heard, Drupal's biggest annual event starts next week. This year's North American DrupalCon will draw an expected crowd over over 3000 attendees, and offer something for a wide variety of Drupalers and future Drupalers, as well as web developers and designers in general. I'm very excited about next week's event, as I believe it will offer some fantastic programming options, as well as provide a fitting venue to celebrate Drupal's 10th year.

As Drupal adoption and community participation continue to grow, the DrupalCon event has necessarily grown with the project and community. An event of this scope must satisfy not only the core Drupal developers, many of whom have been involved with the project for quite a few years, but also provide options for those new to Drupal, those evaluating Drupal, as well as the non-developer business audience. It's a tall order, but after speaking with one one of DrupalCon Chicago's organizers, George DeMet, Founder and CEO of Palantir, I have some pretty high expectations.

This year's event will include more peripheral events, which should cater to a wider audience than previous DrupalCons. For the first time, the expo portion of the event will feature a full day stage, and have a dedicated, separate space. It will be interesting to see how this will affect the overall feel of the event, but I do get the impression that there is emphasis on catering to a more business-oriented audience that may be used to more structured conferences and trade shows. There is a dedicated community track as well, which should help retain at least some of the intimate feel of a community-oriented event.

With the recent release of Drupal 7, and with some recent interesting moves within the Drupal community, it is certainly a fun time to get together with Drupalers. It's also a great time to get involved with the Drupal community if you are a LAMP developer looking for work. The demand for Drupal talent continues to grow, and with tons of content aimed at getting developers up to speed with Drupal 7, I'm thinking DrupalCon may be a pretty great place to be if you've been hit by the rough economic times we're all most likely still experiencing.

I am particularly interested to hear more about what the great minds at Phase2 Technology are up to. Their recent acquisition of Open Atrium, the Drupal-based intranet tool, has further legitimized Drupal as a product platform, and may prove to be yet another avenue for increased Drupal adoption in enterprise environments. I'm a bit of a fan of theirs, so I am anxious to see what they have on the horizon.

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