2010 was a bit of an epic year for me professionally. It was a bit like drinking from a fire hose - and I loved it. So much was accomplished across many layers of life - and somehow pretty much all of it touches Drupal.

Examiner.com
My major focus for 2010 was Examiner.com and that continues into 2011. I purchased an iPad, partially for the large screen and 3G connectivity so I could jump on a usable IRC client at pretty much any time to work with the team. 2010 kind of backwards bled into December 2009. You see, I started working with the Examiner working through a plan to move the site out of Cold Fusion into Drupal. When I arrived, the decision to build it in Drupal 7 had been made because of the performance benefits and scalability improvements that could be gleaned from the pluggable architecture. This was the largest and most ambitious Web project I have ever engaged in my life. The work that I have done for previous companies like WESTAF and pingVision all had led up to the point where I was able to undertake the shepherding of such a project. I send HUGE kudos to the entire examiner "family" - we made it because of the team effort in every corner of the business. It wouldn't have otherwise been possible.

It was a sprint like no sprint I've ever been involved with before. From the start of my work through to August, the team launched the consumer side of Examiner in Drupal 7. This past year sported quite a few "reach outs" to the Drupal community including a code sprint following Camp.

Having come from the consulting world, it feels somewhat strange that I've been focused on a single site for over 13 months, but it has also been a highly fulfilling experience.

I've been playing with Drupal forums quite a bit lately for TraumaAdoption.org, a site for parents of Children of Trauma.  The discussion forums are a focal point for the site for parents.

Drupal's core module "Forum" is basic.  It uses the node and comment system to allow for conversations but not much more.  The look and feel isn't like other forums like vBulletin or phpBB and users may have some difficulty getting used to the interface, particularly if  your participants have used other forum systems in the past.  There are, however, a plethora of contributed modules that can help improve the user experience. 

I am a Dad.

I became a father about three and a half years ago by adopting a little girl in my immediate community that needed a mom and a dad. My wife and I had looked at adopting internationally but ultimately decided that there was so much need in our own backyard that we would grow our family through social services. My wife and I started out as foster parents and ultimately segued into finalising.