What do you want from me?

Submitted by Larry on 24 May 2010 - 12:59am

One Con down, one more to go. DrupalCon Copenhagen is already taking session proposals. Yoinks!

I've spoken at several DrupalCons by now. It's always an interesting question deciding what to submit for a session, knowing that only some will get picked but not knowing if I'm going to end up doing just one session I wasn't really interested in or 4 that I have to prepare (yoinks!). So this time I'm going to do something different. I'm going to ask you.

Hey, Drupal community. What do you want to see? Is there anything in particular folks are burning to hear?

My main interest areas these days relate to software architecture in various forms. Are there any architectural subjects that would be of interest to a Drupal audience?

Some ideas off the top of my head, which may or may not be worth developing into a session proposal:

  • Some sort of "part 4" to my ongoing series on software design patterns. I've covered this topic from three different angles so far at DrupalCon DC, DrupalCon Paris, and DrupalCon San Francisco. I don't know what Part 4 would be, but if there's something along those lines you'd want to see, say so.
  • Code smells: How to tell if you're "doing it wrong" or "doing it right". This was my only session proposal for SF that didn't get picked up (and I'm glad it didn't, as 4 sessions would have been too much), but I could always resubmit it.
  • I'd be willing to present on Views 3 for Developers again, if people want an encore. The challenge there, however, is that it's a complex subject and really hard to cover in an hour except in a cursory, "here's some code, download it to really walk through it in detail" way (which is what I've done in the past).
  • I don't know if there will be anything to present yet on the Butler project that came out of DrupalCon SF. Maybe? Probably not by the time I need to put the session together.
  • Is there something else entirely you're dying to see me try to present?

There are some things I want to avoid, though. I've already presented about Drupal 7's database layer 4 times now, twice on each continent. I'm done with that and moving on to bigger and better things. :-) Also, of course, I'd rather stick to subjects I actually know something about (duh).

I also want to try and stick to two sessions for this conference, which means only submitting sessions I know people want rather than gambling with a shotgun approach. (Does anyone else think this voting-with-mystery-weighting setup doesn't work so well anymore?)

So, let's try crowd-sourcing this. What shall I submit for Copenhagen? (And for that matter, for DrupalCamp Chicago.)

Kidding of course, but there’ll be a lot of Europeans in Copenhagen that did not attend DCSF, so Views 3 sounds particularly awesome, but Butler and code smells would be very interesting for me too :)

And given that I’m one of the organisers of said conference, I’d like to see as man high quality sessions as possible :)

tizzo (not verified)

25 May 2010 - 8:30am

I'm very interested in the developments around butler! I'd love to hear more about it!

heather (not verified)

26 May 2010 - 3:44am

I think the developers in Europe are a different breed from the ones in the US. Do you think? I'd expect people coming to Drupal would have a stronger formal education in programming. This is my impression.

They'll be coming from experience with different languages, and the biases of those.

I'd love to see you address nay sayers head-on.
Maybe that was done in DC "why I hate Drupal" by walkah.
You, know why Drupal is the way it is, sacrifices and benefits from the way it's set up. But how developers can leverage this. Why it's better than a custom CMS.

I find myself trying to address this at camps, but I lack the background and experience.
I'd love to hear someone like you, with your experience and demeanor address these head on. I can send you links to example nay sayers if you like.

Well, that wasn't on your list!

I'm not entirely sure I follow, though. :-) I'm not sure I'd agree that European devs are more likely to have a formal programming background, but I have no actual data either way.

What sort of nay saying do you mean? Respond to the "OMG it's not OOP therefore it sux" people? Examples of what needs responding to would be helpful here. (Feel free to send them directly if you don't want to spread nay-saying via my blog. :-) )

Also, what would be the audience? Would such "nay sayers" even be coming to a DrupalCon in a non-cheap city?

Yeah, no, I don't have any data about backgrounds of EU/US Drupal devs in formal education of programming either. Maybe it's a bad idea actually. I think you're right, would they be there? Would they watch it? Maybe not worth the effort.

It's more a selfish reason. I am preparing learning materials for people who have been developing in other languages, and/or are moving to Drupal, perhaps not of their own choice. Drupal, I think, has a unique conceptual model, not it's not a framework, but no you can't do many things 'out of the box'. So when compared to either Django or Wordpress/Joomla- Drupal supporters (me included) cry: "apples to oranges".

I also think it has a wide-user base in not-for-profits, activism, political use, and I think this has lent to its particular community flava. So people used to different flavor or people imprinted with different systems- both need to be addressed specifically and directly. And I don't think it would be nailed in a conference session. Back to the drawing board for me!

Anyway! Sounds like you have alot of good ideas there already :)