Planet Drupal

This is a listing of Drupal-related articles and weblog entries that are of interest to the larger Drupal community.

Greater Los Angeles Drupal Governance Meetup #1

  • Posted on: 2 April 2013
  • By: christefano

The Downtown Los Angeles Drupal group is now Greater Los Angeles Drupal and we're having our first Greater Los Angeles Drupal Governance Meetup on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 between 4-6pm. This is prior to the Downtown Drupal meetup in Downtown Los Angeles that's scheduled the same evening from 7-9pm.

In the spirit and tradition of our user group and events, this meetup is open to all Greater Los Angeles Drupal members and is an excellent opportunity for anyone who's interested in getting involved or is just interested in observing our open governance model.

Join us in person at Droplabs or remotely via Google+ Hangout!

Meeting minutes from the Downtown Los Angeles Drupal Governance Meetup #3

  • Posted on: 2 March 2013
  • By: christefano

On Wednesday, Droplabs hosted the third Downtown Los Angeles Drupal Governance Meetup for those interested in the group's open governance model. This meetup was announced and put on the Drupal Groups community calendar about 2 weeks prior, and we had a Google+ Hangout video conference for those who were interested in participating but unable to attend in person:

   http://groups.drupal.org/node/282903

In attendance were Oliver, James and myself (Christefano). Miguel wasn't able to make it, but gave his input earlier in the day. Others RSVPd but were not in attendance. We discussed SCALE 11x, Drupal Sprint Weekend, GLADCamp, and a few other topics, but dedicated most of our time on our proposed governance policy:

   http://groups.drupal.org/downtown-los-angeles/governance

Drupal Sprint Weekend

  • Posted on: 2 March 2013
  • By: christefano

Droplabs is happy to host Drupal Sprint Weekend: Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, March 9 & 10, 2013. On Saturday, coffee and pastries are being sponsored by Exaltation of Larks. Lunch will be provided by Princess Cruises.

This event is taking place simultaneously across the globe. See http://groups.drupal.org/node/277768 for a list of other Drupal Sprint Weekend themes and locations around the world.

Those interested in attending this meetup remotely are welcome to join us via a Google+ Hangout.

What's a "code sprint"?

Code sprints are organized events where attendees meet online or in person (and sometimes both) and work toward a shared goal.

Local area organizers have produced several code sprints in recent history, including sprints focused on building the SCALE conference website, resolving issues in the Drupal 7 issue queue and updating the Conference Organizing Distribution (COD) project to Drupal 7.

See https://drupal.org/node/247982 for more information.

What's this code sprint about?

Good question! There will be 4 separate themes at this event:

  • The Droplabs Operations Management Group (OMG) is hosting a code sprint for advancing Otto, a Drupal-based coworking space management system, towards its first public release;
  • Jen Lampton, who ran the Twig code sprint at Drupal Design Camp LA (the last code sprint before Twig was committed to Drupal core!), has asked Droplabs to be a remote location for Twig Sprint. Droplabs is providing a venue and resources for anyone who's interested in participating;
  • Members of the Greater Los Angeles Area Drupal Camp (GLADCamp) organizing team will be working on the GLADCamp website and adding content about the conference, including sponsorship levels, hotel information, and local attractions;
  • Droplabs will also provide a FREE mentored Drupal training using Build a Module videos. Just bring your laptop and a pair of headphones. A Droplabs staff member will set up you with a day pass.

We're following up on Sunday with a virtual sprint. Below is the IRC channel and Google+ Hangout information:

   IRC: #gladcamp on freenode
   Google+ Hangout: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/4a4d7c5f754a472fe50db4e09bd1d23330f69387
   Short URL: http://ex.tl/ZM8  

Downtown Los Angeles Drupal Governance Meetup

  • Posted on: 14 February 2013
  • By: christefano

Several organizers of the Downtown Los Angeles Drupal group are meeting for the year's first Downtown Drupal Governance Meetup on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 between 5-6pm.

In the spirit and tradition of our user group and events, this meetup is open to all Downtown Drupal members and is an excellent opportunity for anyone who's interested in getting involved or is just interested in observing our open governance model.

Join us in person at Droplabs or remotely via Google+ Hangout!

Drupal Coworking Friday

  • Posted on: 4 February 2013
  • By: christefano

You don't have to work alone. We're happy to take part in yet another Drupal Coworking Friday at Droplabs, a collaborative coworking space, classroom and hackerspace. Join us!

We're in Downtown Los Angeles and are happy to host members of our local community and anyone who is just passing through for some coworking, networking and collaboration. We'll be offering the following FREE services to help rock your workday:

  • Free parking on Clover St. and N. Main St. and in our large parking lot
  • Free, metered WiFi
  • Desks, chairs and Ergotron mobile workstations in our open coworking room (on a first-come, first-served basis)
  • Hundreds of square feet of whiteboard space
  • Use of our private conference room (unless previously reserved)
  • Access to our shared lounge area (unless previously reserved)
  • Heat / air conditioning

Droplabs is supported by memberships, donations, sponsorship of our events, venue rental and paid upgrades, including high-speed, unmetered WiFi, access to a full kitchen (with stove, oven, fridges, sinks, etc.), equipment rental, locker space for your belongings and unlimited coffee, tea, filtered water, sodas and espresso.

About Drupal Coworking Friday

This event coincides with Drupal Coworking Friday, a worldwide event spurred in part by the DrupalEasy Podcast #65, which featured Droplabs.

  • Proposed date: Last Friday of each month
  • It takes place in your local city
  • Anyone can start/host one
  • Focused on Drupal Professionals (freelance, fulltime, part time, in office, home, etc.)
  • This is not a meetup, code-sprint, BoF or presentation
  • Attendees would still do their regular work/calls/etc
  • Other Drupal folks would be there to talk to, collaborate, advise (and likewise for the attendee)
  • Ideally, an entire section of the space will be dedicated for Drupal professionals

See http://groups.drupal.org/node/195983 for the Drupal Coworking Fridays FAQ and the Coworking group at http://groups.drupal.org/coworking for general information about coworking.

Introducing the Drupal Jobs Summit!

  • Posted on: 16 January 2013
  • By: christefano

Droplabs wishes to thank everyone who's expressed interest and signed up to sponsor our Los Angeles Drupal Job Fair! We've updated our Job Fair page to show our current sponsors and exhibiting companies:

   http://droplabs.net/events/2013/01/28/los-angeles-drupal-job-fair#curren...

Our job fair is now under 2 weeks away, but there's still time to get ready.

If anyone has questions not answered here, post a comment at http://groups.drupal.org/node/275138#comments or contact us at jobs-jan28jobfair [at] droplabs [dot] net or at http://droplabs.net/contact

Introducing the Drupal Jobs Summit

The sponsor benefits have just been updated to include tickets to the Drupal Jobs Summit later in the evening from 7-9pm:

   http://droplabs.net/events/2013/01/28/los-angeles-drupal-jobs-summit

The jobs summit is a roll-up-your-sleeves working meeting for companies and organizations who use and depend on Drupal, as well as a healthy business community and marketplace. We'll be meeting one another (many for the first time) and discussing the following topics:

  • Building a healthy marketplace of colleagues and potential partners;
  • Getting the most out of our recruiting and marketing dollar;
  • What we're doing now to staff up, from local recruiting and in-house training to outsourcing and hiring out-of-town or overseas;
  • Identifying the skills, job titles and qualifications of desirable candidates, employees and vendors;
  • Workshops, trainings and other programs that most or all of us can get behind in order to solve our business needs.

We'll have an open bar and cocktails will be served. It is also a private event. Those who qualify to attend include sponsors of any of the Drupal job fairs we've had, and any companies and organizations who host Drupal meetups, trainings or other Drupal community events.

Hosting a meetup at your office qualifies you for this event. Buying pizza at a meetup, while appreciated, does not. If you do not meet the above qualifications, contact us at jobs-jan28summit [at] droplabs [dot] net with a request to attend.

Los Angeles Drupal Jobs Summit

  • Posted on: 14 January 2013
  • By: christefano

Do you own or help manage a company or organization that uses Drupal? Does your team depend on professional Drupal service providers in the Greater Los Angeles Area? Have you and your projects been affected by a shortage of Drupal development and theming talent?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then consider coming to our first-ever Drupal Jobs Summit from 7-9pm on Monday, January 28, 2013. There is no charge for this event. It is open to any and all companies and organizations who qualify, by:

  1. Hosting any Drupal meetups, trainings or other Drupal community events, including Frontend Drupal, High Performance Drupal, Downtown Los Angeles Drupal, LA Drupal, and so on;
  2. Sponsoring or exhibiting at any of the Los Angeles Drupal job fairs, including this month's Drupal Job Fair on Monday, January 28th.

Hosting a meetup at your office qualifies you for this event. Buying pizza at a meetup, while appreciated, does not. If you do not meet the above qualifications, contact us at jobs-jan28summit [at] droplabs [dot] net with a request to attend.

This is a roll-up-your-sleeves working meeting and we will be meeting one another (many for the first time) and discussing the following topics:

  • Building a healthy marketplace and business community of colleagues and potential partners;
  • Getting the most out of our recruiting and marketing dollar;
  • What we're doing now to staff up, from local recruiting and in-house training to outsourcing and hiring out-of-town or overseas;
  • Identifying the skills, job titles and qualifications of desirable candidates, employees and vendors;
  • Workshops, trainings and other programs that most or all of us can get behind in order to solve our business needs.

We'll have an open bar and cocktails will be served.

Announcing the 3rd Los Angeles Drupal Job Fair

  • Posted on: 3 January 2013
  • By: christefano

Droplabs is excited to announce the first Downtown Drupal Job Fair of 2013. It's from 5-7pm on January 28, 2013, and is once again at Droplabs in Downtown Los Angeles, California.

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free and open source web development platform used by millions of sites on the web today. It is used by sites big and small to manage online communities and their content and can be customized for any device to match any visual design.

Companies and organization that use Drupal include Riot Games (publisher of League of Legends, the world's most popular video game), countless non-profits and universities such as the Jamie Oliver Foundation and UCLA, and governmental agencies including Energy.gov and Whitehouse.gov.

For more information, see http://drupal.org/about

What Droplabs is Doing Differently

Droplabs is dedicated to helping both the Drupal developer and business communities grow in Los Angeles and in the larger Southern California area. In addition to being the venue of the only Drupal job fairs ever in Los Angeles in June, 2011, and November, 2011, Droplabs hosts the majority of Drupal activity, from meetups, topic-based summits and code sprints to free workshops, tutoring sessions and paid trainings, in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Meanwhile, this is our 3rd job fair at Droplabs and we're doing things a little differently this time around. Apparently we did so well at our last job fair that we were visited by employers and recruiters who didn't register for the event. This time we've created a new "Party Crasher Sponsorship" level in case that happens again!

Any employers or recruiters who are discovered attending the job fair without having registered in advance will be given a last-minute chance to register for just $100. They'll receive a "special" mention during the opening and closing announcements of the job fair and via social media unless they upgrade to a "Valued Sponsorship" for just $100 more.

We are also raising the sponsorship levels. Even though these job fairs are beneficial to our developer and business communities, producing an event like this is a significant investment of time and work. Fortunately, our previous sponsors have preferred pricing this time.

Marquee Sponsors of our previous job fair are automatically being given a Featured Sponsor table at this job fair at no additional charge, and our Marquee Sponsor of this job fair will be given a Featured Sponsor table at the next job fair. We feel this is fair to all involved and is a good incentive for keeping our business community engaged with our local developer community.

How to Register

Information for Job Seekers

The job fair is FREE for individual job seekers! We strongly recommend the following guidelines to help you improve your prospects:

  • Arrive at the job fair when it starts at 5pm;
  • Come prepared with plenty of resumes or your business cards;
  • Update your profiles on Drupal.org and LinkedIn;
  • Check this page often to see which listed employers match your expertise and job interest.

There is nothing else to do other than arriving at the event between 5-7pm.

Information for Employers and Recruiters

Are you an employer or representative of a company or organization? We have a limited number of tables for exhibiting companies and organizations. Tables are provided on a first-come, first-served basis for our Featured- and Marquee-level sponsors.

Contact us at jobs-jan28jobfair [at] droplabs [dot] net or at http://droplabs.net/contact to discuss sponsorship opportunities. All of our sponsorship levels are detailed at http://droplabs.net/events/2013/01/28/downtown-drupal-job-fair#sponsorsh...  

Your sponsorship is immensely appreciated and all contributions go directly towards funding this event. Any unused funds will be used for other Droplabs events and infrastructure, promotion and distribution needs, including future Drupal meetups and job fairs. Thank you!

Thank You to our Previous Sponsors!

Sponsors and exhibiting companies at our previous job fairs include Microsoft, Oversee.net, Marketplace / American Public Media, The Recording Academy, Patexia, Q Connects, TheWrap, Gofobo, SaaSMAX, IJHANA, Stauffer New Media Development, Sage Tree Solutions, KWALL, Loconuts, JustDeals, Avanti Interactive, Flixor, Chernick Consulting, and Exaltation of Larks.

Drupal School at Droplabs

In closing, we're excited to tell you about our upcoming Drupal School at Droplabs. With help from our corporate and training partners and sponsors, we're preparing a 10-week series of hadns-on, exercise-drive classes and workshops designed to teach participants how to become Drupal developers.

This series is under active development and will be launced in 2013. Please help us make this a success for everyone by giving us your feedback and completing a brief survey at http://droplabs.net/surveys/drupal-school-at-droplabs  

Los Angeles Drupal Job Fair

  • Posted on: 3 January 2013
  • By: christefano

Are you a freelancer or service provider who's looking for Drupal work? Do you represent a company or organization that's looking for Drupal talent? Come and make new friends and turn new connections into long-term relationships at the next Los Angeles Drupal Job Fair from 5-7pm on Monday, January 28, 2013.

This event is FREE for individual job seekers and is being hosted by Droplabs, a collaborative coworking space, classroom and hackerspace in Downtown Los Angeles. In addition to being the venue of the only Drupal job fairs ever in Los Angeles in June, 2011, and November, 2011, Droplabs hosts the majority of Drupal activity, from meetups, topic-based summits and code sprints to free workshops, tutoring sessions and paid trainings, in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

As a longtime member of the Drupal community who had worked remotely in development positions for both Drupal shops and organizations that leveraged Drupal, I was very interested in getting into an office and spending my days with other like-minded teammates in the Los Angeles area. The Droplabs job fair provided a fantastic opportunity for me to explore the available Drupal positions in and around the city in a way that no other event provided. I left the job fair having met many good employers and received multiple offers, one of which I accepted, within the coming weeks.

A special note of thanks can be made to the Droplabs organizers of the job fair. It was obvious their intentions were in line with serving the greater good of the community. I thank Droplabs and their continued effort in improving the presence of Drupal in Los Angeles with events Iike these, and hope many job seekers can have as much success as I have!

  — Anonymous (by request)

Light food and drinks are being provided by Chimney Coffee House, our favorite neighborhood cafe, bakery, sandwich and dessert boutique.

Learn Drupal with Droplabs' Drupal School

  • Posted on: 26 December 2012
  • By: christefano

With help from our corporate and training partners and sponsors, we're preparing a 10-week series of hands-on, exercise-driven classes and workshops designed to teach participants how to become Drupal developers. This series is under active development is will be launched in 2013.

Please help us make this a success for everyone by giving us your feedback and completing a brief survey.

   Drupal School at Droplabs Survey
   http://droplabs.net/surveys/drupal-school-at-droplabs

Droplabs hosts Drupal meetups, trainings and coworking Fridays every month and is the host of next month's two signature events, the Los Angeles Drupal Job Fair and Drupal Employers Summit. To hear more about these events, follow @Droplabs on Twitter, "like" us on Facebook at https://facebook.com/DroplabsLA or sign up for our newsletter at http://droplabs.net