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2009

2009 - A Look Back At My Professional Year

Posted Thu, 2009-12-31 20:24 by matthew

2009 went by fast. Lots happened during that period of time and lots changed.

I continued to run and moderate a site to support adoptive and foster parents that my wife and I built in Drupal in November of 2008. It is called TraumaAdoption.org. We updated the theme and watched usage of the site increase. Guest blogger KCassio started documenting her family's journey towards becoming an adoptive family. I'm looking forward to watching the trek continue in 2010.

I launched my own art site in Drupal to showcase my own artwork and then put together a package that allows other artists to use the same set of modules to sell their own artwork.

The October 2009 Blizzard in Colorado

Posted Thu, 2009-10-29 17:43 by matthew

Wow, it has been an interesting couple of days. The snow started falling on Tuesday night. It has kept falling pretty much straight since. We've had over two feet of snow in that period of time....in October!

Digging out was a three person affair. The plow has come through. The snow is slowing down. Hopefully we'll be able to get out and about tomorrow.

I've taken a few photos and a video of the dogs playing in the backyard.

Welcome to the Jungle! Basic Drupal Recipes and Best Practices for Beginners

Posted Sun, 2009-06-28 16:43 by matthew

Carl Wiedemann did a basic session on basic Drupal usage as a live demo. These are my notes from the presentation, such as they are. He had a drupal instance set up where he:

We'll explain how high-level user needs translate into Drupal concepts. We'll start building a simple Drupal site with common features such as news, events calendar, downloads, and contact forms.

Day 1 at Drupalcamp Colorado, 2009

Posted Sun, 2009-06-28 08:44 by matthew

Today was the first day of Drupalcamp Colorado. I attended several sessions including:

  • Welcome to the Jungle! Basic Drupal Recipes and Best Practices for Beginners
  • Functional Interactive Design
  • Starting Your Own Drupal Business: What's It Take?
  • Modules You Should Use On Every Site OR Stump the Chump
  • Increase ROI with a user-friendly, great looking Ubercart store
  • Getting the most out of Drupal's taxonomy system

The day began with the opening session. There were roughly 200 people in attendance.

Drupalcamp Colorado, Right Around the Corner

Posted Thu, 2009-06-25 21:11 by matthew

Do you want to learn a ton about Drupal? Do you know what a node is? Have you ever heard of a tpl file? Does the idea of creating an ecommerce site from scratch without (or with) having to code a single line appeal? Can you see yourself hanging out with a whole bunch of cool, nice, and geeky people (about 200 so far)? Interested in creating custom work flows? Ever heard of Apache Solr? Do you want to? What the heck is a Skinr? Or Studio? Explore APIs. Learn about SEO. Discover beautiful Drupal design! How do you use media? Agile Project Management best practices. AHA!

Sound fun? Are you going to be near Metro Denver this weekend?

Should My Nonprofit Take the Drupal Plunge?

Posted Thu, 2009-05-28 21:54 by matthew

Anybody who knows much of anything about me knows that I'm a Drupal Evangelist and know a little bit about nonprofits. Drupalcamp Colorado is fast approaching on June 27th and 28th and I'm submitting a panel proposal.

Drupal is free but free doesn't mean it doesn't have a cost.

This session will take time to discuss Drupal as a tool in the nonprofit's tool box and whether it fits well within your organization's strategy.

  • How can you easily evaluate the value of Drupal in your organization?

Colorado DrupalCamp 2009

Posted Thu, 2009-05-21 21:22 by matthew

Drupalcamp Colorado has opened up registrations for the event on June 27th and 28th. Last summer the event drew over 100 attendees from as far away as New York and the Carolinas. This summer we have space for 400 or so souls.

Drupalcamp is kind of a mini-drupalcon or mega-meetup. It gives you the opportunity to attend a structured event over a couple of days where you can learn (or teach) at a lower cost than the more corporate Drupalcon. Session submissions are being solicited now - so if you have something to share, please submit a proposal.

Colorado Blizzard of 2009

Posted Thu, 2009-03-26 21:41 by matthew

CO March Blizzard 2009

It seems that once a year we get one heck of a dump of snow in Metro Denver.  Spring has sprung and we’ve had crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips making their presence known.  Shrubs and trees have been leafing out.  The temperature has already hit nearly 80F/26C.  We’ve been out in shorts and t-shirts.

This morning, the snow started.  The snow kept on going throughout the day and actually forced me to turn around about a third of the way to Boulder from Westminster.  There were cars spun off the highway and many accidents.  I spent quite some time on the highway at a full stop.

The storm is bad enough that the Governor has declared a state of emergency.

Pregnancy.org -- A Casestudy at Drupalcon DC

Posted Sun, 2009-03-22 22:40 by matthew

Ben Jeavons, Mollee Bauer, and I put our heads together and talked about the Pregnancy.org project during a session at DrupalconDC. The slides and video from our presentation are below. You can see the case study on Drupal.org in the News and announcements section.

Usability Testing of Drupal - Drupalcon DC

Posted Mon, 2009-03-09 21:52 by matthew

This report was done on the latest usability testing from Baltimore this past week.  I don’t think that there were any real surprises, but it sure underlined how much work we have to do to make Drupal more intuitive and accessible for the average user.  These are my notes from that presentation.

“I won't release Drupal 7 until I crossed off at least 90% of the problems they identified” – Dries