Drupal’N'Go

DrupalNGo

Ah, makes me proud. The French Drupal community (of which my current employer AF83 is a core supporter) is taking the WineCamp style models, and going to host a DrupalCamp with the specific goal to barn-raise a Drupal website for one lucky French NGO. It’s called, in a smart blend of pun and brand, Drupal’N'Go.

(There is discussion whether this is specific to NGOs, or French non-profits in general. Regardless of specific designation, I think the idea is to pick an organization that supports a broader social good instead of a local sports org, which could also be a nonprofit).

A few of the breadcrumbs that led here:

• The original WineCamp Calaveras (California) - which had a significant Drupal presence. (My notes here).
• A follow-up on the the Drupal website built - as a dare, really - at the first WineCamp.
• Some notes about WineCampFrance organized by intrepid French nonprofit-tech evangelist Gregoire Japiot (also the idea man behind Mapovino). Fwiw - our WineCampFrance organizing site has since been taken down since the spin off projects moved elsewhere. This WineCamp was also heavily represented by Drupal folks.
• Notes (in French) about the first Drupal Meetup in Paris; and planning notes about this upcoming Drupal’N'Go.

Technorati Tags: drupal, af83, drupalngo, winecamp

Drupal 6 release party @ PariSoMa - tomorrow night!

Get all the details.  Nuff said.

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Open source CMS - for arts orgs!

I’m behind the curve on this one - as usual.  The Center for Arts Management and Technology - who run an excellent arts and technology conference - have recently (well, recently to me, at least) launched a free, hosted open-source CMS service for arts organizations, based on your choice of DotNetNuke or Drupal.  (At first glance, it looks like an arts version of CivicSpace OnDemand.  )

My immediate thoughts:

1. Bravo!
2. Good luck!

Hosting templatable CMS websites is a great idea - and can work - as long as the users accept the limitations of the design and the system.  But it does not take long for any organization to want to grow out of a template website design, and to hear about all the amazing cool awesome things that open-source CMS’s like Drupal can do, and we want that too!  (Just ask the folks at CSoD….)

Nonetheless, this is a great step forward for arts orgs, and CAMT. I mean, part of me wants the job of managing that system.  (Yes, the masochistic but altruistic part of me.  :-))

A tip of the hat to prodigious and prolific nonprofit tech blogger Beth Kanter for this.  Her blog may not have been the source, but she deserves a tip of the hat anyway. 

Technorati Tags: camt, drupal, arts, nptech

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WineCamp reportback I: First things first - break the network

As I mentioned previously, we started with small conversation about creating a European-specific nonprofit-and-technology portal which could combine a networking community (of geeks and nptechies and regular nonprofit folks), mapping of people and projects, tag clouds, and resources pages (potentially even stuff pulled in from TechSoup and translated into other languages).

So the first order of business was to build a WineCamp organizing and documenting platform - and because of the people in the room (including Hagen and myself) - we of course built a Drupal site.

We had lunch, and Phillippe and Sylvie showed up.  Then after lunch, Roel, Ed and Matthew showed up .  That’s 11 people for WineCampFrance - for me, we broke double digits, and it’s a great success!  And since Roel is also a Drupal developer - and the other two were working on a Drupal site - WineCamp has (predictably?) turned into a DrupalCamp.

A couple of folks we having problems accessing the network (using Ubuntu), so we reset the Apple Airport.  Then realized we didn’t have the original documentation, so had all sorts of problems actually configuring it. After an hour, we got the network back up, and we all celebrated the fact that we had gotten nowhere….  (At this moment, they still cannot get online).

After the celebration, we went for a hike, and talked a bit about alternative economies (a project discussed by one of the group).

Technorati Tags: winecamp

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I’m at WineCamp France

I arrived yesterday, and the first night we spent talking in general about how the nonprofit and civil sciety world and the technology world come together (or don’t).

Today we sat down and began talking about a generalized European nptech community portal.  Of course, within minutes Hagen had a Drupal site up, and then all of a sudden the conversation stopped and the typing began.  Maybe it’s now time to stop the typing and return to the conversation.

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Technorati Tags: winecamp, nptech

I’m at WineCamp France

I arrived yesterday, and the first night we spent talking in general about how the nonprofit and civil sciety world and the technology world come together (or don’t).

Today we sat down and began talking about a generalized European nptech community portal.  Of course, within minutes Hagen had a Drupal site up, and then all of a sudden the conversation stopped and the typing began.  Maybe it’s now time to stop the typing and return to the conversation.

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Cal Shakes and the under 35 Web set

I haven’t blogged about arts and technology for a while, but I just stumbled on this and thought it should get a nod - CalShakes new Ambassadors program, another strategy for appealing to the under 35 set (in addition to cheap ticket for people under 30).

A lot of it has nothing to do with technology; and personally, I don’t know they’l get out of having a MySpace page - except people get to boost their “friends” numbers by adding local theatre orgs as friends? (Then again, what do I know?)

But checking out the CalShakes Ambassador Flickr pool definitely makes me want to sign up. But I’m already 35, and most people I would be bringing are not in that “sweet spot” of 20-35 year olds…. As the the aging joke goes: time marches on… my face. Oy….

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Oh hell yeah!

Ça se dit comment “Oh hell yeah” en français?

The first photos of the proposed WineCamp France chalet are up.

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WineCampFrance - a multilingual challenge

I’ve just finished trying to organize the WineCamp France wiki into pages that will reduce the need to maintain changes in several languages across several pages. It’s makng me think of not only the i18n sessions at OSCMS, but also my own work on a US-focused volunteer site that aims to hook up theatre contacts from around the world. I mean, forget translating content - if someone speaks French, shouldn’t the pull down list show “Français” instead of “French”? (And what flag should be used? For France, colonialism dictates, I guess - but then again, what would the Swiss say? And for Portuguese, the official dictionary is now the Brazilian one…)

Stephanie Booth, Swiss multi-lingual bloggeuse* extraordinaire (and very first tipper of the WineCampFrancophone hat) has some deep thoughts on multi-lingual blogging, as well as pointers to some great little hacks / tools.

Technorati Tags: i18n, winecamp, translation, nptech

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