Episode 35: Why The Drupal Community Cares with Rachel Lawson

Sponsored By:
Panelists Justin Dorfman | Allen “Gunner” Gunn | Richard
Littauer Guest Rachel Lawson Drupal Association Show Notes In this
episode, we have Rachel Lawson, from the U.K., who is the Community
Liaison for Drupal Association. She is going to tell you all about
the Drupal Association, what role she plays, and what she does.
Since DrupalCon has been canceled due to COVID-19, there are some
major things going on with sponsors that are still contributing
money, the founder of Drupal making an unbelievable donation, as
well as some other campaigns and match donations happening!
[00:01:08] Rachel explains about working with Drupal in the U.K.
and also talks about how many people are using Drupal to power
their websites. [00:02:50] Justin has noticed that Drupal has a
very big adoption within government, and he wonders why is that? Is
it a security thing? Rachel answers this. [00:04:14] Rachel tells
us how Drupal gets paid as an open source product. She also talks
about what’s been going on since DrupalCon has been canceled in
May. [00:10:37] There is a list of sponsors that are still
contributing money to Drupal, despite the event being canceled, and
a HUGE SHOUT OUT is necessary to them, so please see the list
below! [00:012:01] The Founder of Drupal, Dries Buytaert, made an
unbelievable donation and Rachel talks about what it was and how it
affected everything. It is AMAZING!! There have been some other
match donations mentioned as well. [00:16:16] Governance is brought
up by Gunner and he wants to know the civilian’s version of how
governance at Drupal works and how the decision-making works that
others could learn from and Rachel explains. [00:23:00] Rachel
explains her role with Drupal and what she does. [00:25:00] How
does someone join the Drupal open source community and how does
Drupal capture all the contributors, not just the Devs? Rachel
explains. Spotlight [00:33:01] Justin’s spotlight is The Ruby Blend
Podcast-Episode 9. Listen to it! [00:33:49] Gunner has two
spotlights: Qubes OS and Subgraph OS and the Tails Project
(tails.boum.org). [00:34:39] Richard’s spotlight is the EFF
(Electronic Frontier Foundation). [00:35:33] Rachel has two
spotlights: A pub in Leeds, Yorkshire where she was attending a
Drupal event. It made her reflect back to being there before and
how much it changed her life. Also, OS FEST in Lagos, Nigeria, that
she recently attended. It was a huge experience for her and truly
incredible. Quotes [00:20:54] “We’ve been going through a process
at Drupal association about raising money and we have a campaign on
at the moment called Drupal cares (#DrupalCares) and you will
notice there is quite a lot going on with that.” [00:23:33] “If
just downloading Drupal or downloading any open source projects
isn’t enough, you need the services around it, the support around
it, regular security updates so where you can work on new code and
have thousands and thousands of thousands of continuous integration
tests run every time you say, “Hey, I propose that we do this new
thing in Drupal!” [00:25:18] “Do you want to give a shout out to
those sponsors that have done that because that warmed my heart!
You know, the sponsors that said, keep our money, we believe in the
project, we know we won’t get any real value out of the event not
being alive. Please, give them some props.” (They are listed
below.) [00:40:41] “I said look, if you’re going to do this, call
it a Community Liaison. It’s a liaison between the wider Drupal
community and project and the Drupal Association. It was later on
and I said all those things and I’m actually quite fond of the job
now!” [00:42:13] “The single most important thing we changed was
that getting attribution for work doesn’t just apply to code. We
celebrate, we recognize, and we attribute work for all different
reasons. If there is one thing we have done that has transformed
Drupal into a wider thing than just a piece of software, it’s
that.” Links Rachel Lawson Twitter
(https://twitter.com/rachel_norfolk?lang=en) Drupal
(https://www.drupal.org/) The Ruby Blend Podcast-Episode 9
(https://www.therubyblend.com/9) Qubes OS
(https://www.qubes-os.org/) Subgraph OS
(https://subgraph.com/sgos/) Tails (https://tails.boum.org/) EFF
(Electronic Frontier Foundation) (https://www.eff.org/) OS Fest,
Lagos Nigeria (https://festival.oscafrica.org/) DrupalCon
Minneapolis 2020 Sponsors: Pantheon (https://pantheon.io/) Acquia
(https://www.acquia.com/) Phase2 Technology
(https://www.phase2technology.com/) Mediacurrent Interactive
Solutions (https://www.drupal.org/mediacurrent) Tag1
(https://www.tag1consulting.com/) Platform Sh
(https://platform.sh/) Elevated Third
(https://www.elevatedthird.com/) FFW
(https://www.drupal.org/ffw-agency) Amazee Group
(https://amazee.com/home) Palantir (https://www.palantir.com/)
Srijan Technologies Pvt Ltd
(https://www.drupal.org/srijan-technologies) Acro Media Inc
(https://www.acromedia.com/) Contegix (https://www.contegix.com/)
Four Kitchens (https://www.fourkitchens.com/) Last Call Media
(https://www.drupal.org/last-call-media) Lullabot
(https://www.drupal.org/lullabot) Gatsby
(https://www.gatsbyjs.org/) Chromatic, LLC
(https://chromatichq.com/) Third and Grove
(https://www.thirdandgrove.com/) Chapter Three
(https://www.chapterthree.com/) Hook 42 (https://www.hook42.com/)
Lemberg Solutions Limited
(https://www.drupal.org/lemberg-solutions-limited) AnyforSoft
(https://www.drupal.org/anyforsoft) Electric Citizen
(https://www.electriccitizen.com/) Kanopi Studios
(https://www.drupal.org/kanopi-studios) QED42
(https://www.drupal.org/qed42) Drupal Association #DrupalCares
Match Challenge
(https://www.drupal.org/association/sustain-da-covid-19) Credits
Produced by Justin Dorfman at CodeFund Edited by Paul M. Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by
DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Ad
Sales by Eric Berry at CodeFund Special Guest: Rachel Lawson.