Drupalcon Boston 2008 - Schedule Discussion

The Conference Schedule - Updated 5 March 2007

sooz — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:09:40 +0000

Here’s the updated conference schedule (attached PDF) with 64 sessions plus info about breaks, lunch, general sessions, industry networking events, conference social party and birds of a feather discussions.

The session viewer is available, too.

Thanks to Kent Bye for setting up the initial session-focused spreadsheet view of the schedule.

Unofficial DrupalCon Session Calendar

redndahead — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:54:01 +0000

I have put together a site that will display a session calendar like the one the lullabots put out. This one is different as it performs a screen scrape of the sessions page, site maintainers please don’t be mad at me it only does it once an hour, and will update the calendar every hour as things change. You will see some holes in the schedule, but this is because the sessions are not listed on the session page. I have added the keynotes and the Earl Miles manually.

http://drupalcon.redndahead.com/

red

Drupal Podcast Live shows wrong time

redndahead — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:19:30 +0000

On the sessions page the Drupal Podcast live shows it is at 1:30 when it is at 2:30.

When are sessions going to be chosen?

Roger Lopez — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:29:37 +0000

I’ve scoured this site looking for the answer to what should be a simple question. Less than 2 weeks out, I would like to know if I should continue to spend my free time composing the session I have proposed or give up on it if it wasn’t selected.

Any insight into this will be greatly appreciated.

Drupalcon video archiving (and streaming?)

mfb — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:48:57 +0000

Last year I videotaped and uploaded many of the Barcelona Drupalcon sessions, and once again I’m planning to help with video archiving at Drupalcon Boston.

Volunteers and equipment are needed! Videographers, video cameras and other equipment are needed if we’re going to cover all simultaneous sessions. Laptops are needed if we want to do live video streaming. Audio recording can also be useful if we don’t have enough video cameras. Comment here if you can help and the Drupalcon team will follow up with you.

Donate :) I setup a ChipIn to cover the cost of video tapes etc. Depending on the community’s generosity it could also help cover my travel costs to attend Drupalcon.

Update: Please signup for the audio/video meetup and rehearsal at 4 p.m. on Sunday!

Drupalcon documentation sprint?

highermath — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:18:34 +0000

Any thoughts on the idea of doing a “documentation sprint” in parallel with the Friday code sprint?

How do we register for sessions?

tvalleav10 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:41:17 +0000

Am I missing something here? How/when do we sign up for specific sessions?

Tony

What does a vote mean?

Dave Cohen — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:19:13 +0000

I noticed we can vote on each session (and the interface is great!)

But what does this mean? Are sessions with higher votes more likely to be accepted?

The Journalist Inside Has a Place at DrupalCon

Shai — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:39:44 +0000

As someone who has “watched” previous DrupalCons via pixel and not ponim (Yiddish word for face), I can report two things:

I’m thrilled to be attending DrupalCon Boston 2008 in person.
The reporting has been a little on the spotty side

Now don’t get defensive — there has been some great writing and video. But there is always room for improvement, yes? (that’s why we’re already talking about D7 - may the evolution continue).

So maybe we can improve the reporting with a little forethought and planning. It might also be fun to gather a group of reporter types for short morning meetings where we share the buzz and plan on covering a good portion of the sessions.

I remember when I was 7 I wrote the “Killion Street News” on a Corona typewriter. I can’t remember how we duplicated it… It was 1965.

In any case, I think I’ve got the journalistic itch again and was wondering if there were other folks who wanted to spend just a little time planning about how we might share all the Drupal love that will be blossoming in Boston.

And indeed, maybe there are already folk from the Association or the drupal.org Newsletter team that are thinking about this. If you need a volunteer, I’m onboard with my MacBook and Canon 2S IS.

And if others haven’t really thought about it yet… here is the thread to start!

Possible Session on "Models for Working with Clients" -- Especially Small Business/Non-Profit Clients

Shai — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:58:43 +0000

I’m interested in moderating a panel which explores how “shops” (including individual freelancers) work with clients. How have you designed your relationship with clients to maximize a profitable business for the “shop” and an excellent relationship with the client. Consider the following areas:

RFP process
work-flow
pricing
terms of contract
training
maintainance/ongoing relationship
???

In my own case, I’m just in the process of starting a shop and I’m looking to create what I think is a somewhat alternative model. I see a lot of problems with RFPs, especially with small business and smallish non-profits. Frankly, their RFPs are often terrible because they don’t know what they want — what would most benefit their business model — and they don’t understand the technologies available. Bigger businesses or non-profits often hire a consultant to write the RFP and possibly to project-manage the project from the client’s side. Small businesses/Non-profits often can’t hire such a consultant. I’m trying to develop a model in which a “shop” can function in multiple capacities including an emphasis on mentoring and training the client. This evolving model includes:

Long development cycle but with quick launch with basic functionality
iterative approach with client where the spec-sheet for the site evolves over time based on experiments on a live site
commitment by both the “shop” and the “client” to training
one-stop shopping for for client re: marketing/strategy and web development. (This is one of the hallmarks of big shops. Seems like part of the power of Drupal is that smaller shops would be able to provide site-building and strategy because the power/flexibility/ease of use of the CMS allows a small shop to focus more on clients’ content and how the site fits into overall business plan of the non-profit or small business.

At first I thought about offering my own session but then I thought it would be more interesting to organize a panel where shop owners or freelancers could share their model for working with clients.

Anybody interested in being on such a panel?

Feedback on this idea?

Shai