The key is building a community - The White House blogs on success with Drupal

A few weeks ago I said that Barak Obhama beoming president for a second term was a win for Drupal (indeed open source in general). The White House started selected Drupal as a platform for their web presence almost immediately Obhama was elected.

A couple of days ago I stumbled across by Peter Welsch, Deputy Director of Online Platform for the Office of Digital Strategy at The White House. He talks about the improbable way open source software is built and how it can benefit organisations and the success they've achieved thanks to Drupal and it's community. It is an interesting read.

You say sure. When she returns the screwdriver a couple days later, your friend mentions that she made an improvement: now it works with both Phillips and flat head screws. Another friend hears this and asks if he can take a look, too. When he returns the screwdriver, it's been upgraded again: now it's a power screwdriver. Then a third friend gets excited and adds some extra speeds and a better battery.

Read the full story on Whitehouse.gov

Contributing back to Drupal

The White House recently created a Drupal.org user account and have created a poject FortyFour, a base theme currently in alpha. They also have a Git Repo containing open sourced Drupal modules. You can hear Tom Cochran talk about the "We the people" project which he presented at DrupalCon Denver.

It will be interesting to see what developments occur during the next presidential term and what positive impact this has on open source adoption beyond government.

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My role as Drupal Director at CTI Digital

Today marks an important new phase in my career, I start at CTI Digital as Drupal Director. I will be heading up Drupal operations, leading a team of developers and front end specialists. Having already appointed two significant new team members, I look forward to driving new wins in 2013 for CTI and Drupal.

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One last chance to get TWIG in Drupal 8 Core @DrupalCampNW UK

Before Drupals Feature freeze 1st December Frontend, themers & Developers are joining forces to replace the now 8 year old phpTemplate.

Drupals old theme system doesn't need help it needs an axe & TWIG is the answer!" @Mortendk

Its a chase against the clock come and join the last stand before we push twig into core.

Be a part of the movement to massively improve the theming layer of Drupal by coming to DrupalCamp North West, Manchester 24-25 Novmber 2012.

More information: DrupalCamp North West TWIG Code Sprint lead by MortenDK

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Amazon trial delivery lockers in Cooperative stores

In an interesting move Amazon are trailing lockers at selected Cooperative supermarkets. Customers can elect to have deliveries to lockers rather than a shipping address. This provides a solution to people who are out at work, unable to take delivery of larger goods.

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WANTED! Mid Weight Drupal Developer - Manchester

I'm hiring a Drupal Developer. Livelink don't just use Drupal, we are committed to driving it forward. Our team are working closely with Commerce Guys on Drupal Commerce, developing innovative solutions addressing Responsive Design in Drupal and contributing to community initiatives and DrupalCon.

Would you like to work on exciting projects pushing the boundaries of Drupal with clients like Manchester United, Aldi Stores and several other household names?

If you are talented, ambitious and genuinely want to progress your career, I'd love to hear from you.

Click here for more information.

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DrupalCon Sydney, Australia

After a series of succesful Drupal Down Under events and in recognition of rapid acceleration in Drupal adoption in Australasia, The Drupal Association have announced DrupalCon Sydney, Australia.

New Zealand and Australia are not the only areas outside of Europe and USA where Drupal adoption spiked. South America, India and China are experiencing unprecidented growth in use of Drupal in enterprise, public sector and NGOs.

DrupalCon Sydney will be held February 6-9, 2013 at the Crowne Plaza Coogee. This beatiful coastal suburb features unspoilt beaches and the dates fall right in the middle of summer. With good public transport to Sydney city centre, I have no doubt this event will be fabulous.   

http://sydney2013.drupal.org

Drupal Association official announcement

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Tip - Pitching Responsive Designs to clients #rwd

I've recently been involved in conceiving several projects which have used Mobile First and Responsive Deisgn approaches.

Clients often struggle to understand Responsive Design without experiencing it. Building out a design would be too expensive, so I came up with a quick and dirty approach which wowed clients.

During the design stage I came up with the idea of getting my designer to create jpegs of the iPhone and iPad designs, upload them to our server and present them using an iPad and iPhone. The clients were instantly sold. It gave the impression of a finished design and allowed them to scroll and interact to some degree, they gained ownership of the design because it was a tactile experience.

Another tool I have enjoyed using in these circumstances has been Prezi.

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