By leighcan on

If Drupal adoption is going to increase, we’ll need to grow the community— and that means continuing to bring developers, web designers, and digital experts into the Drupal fold. For the finale of our series on Drupal training options, we spoke to several of the many experts in Drupal training, and wanted to share their thoughts with the community.

When it comes to increasing the amount of Drupal talent in the market, there are more options to learn the platform than ever before.

"Prior to some of the formal training options we have now, everyone got their start with community documentation, IRC, and the original Drupal.org content that wasn’t necessarily curated,” said Andrew Wilson, a senior account manager at Drupalize.Me. "The Drupal Association, Drupalize.Me, BuildAModule, and other new players are helping make Drupal more accessible to more people.”

“There’s a tremendous volume of resources for people who learn Drupal,” said Doug Vann, a well-known Drupal trainer, consultant, and developer, “and there’s surprisingly little overlap between some. BuildAModule, Drupalize.Me, Drupal Planet, and the many other resources really complement each other quite well."

And for those interested in diving into Drupal, not only do training options abound— but so does incentive. Demand for Drupal developers has always been high, and though there’s a bit of a learning curve deeper in, building simple sites with out of the box Drupal can be easy and intuitive — making it a friendly jumping off point for new developers.

According to Ben Ortega, Acquia’s Director of Learning Services, "What Drupal does for folks that run into execution issues, who have their concept but get hung up on building a website, is that it helps them hack together a web presence quickly and make that idea more real. Even people who aren’t tech savvy can use Drupal— it’s something that can spur innovation because, with a little creativity, Drupal can make great things happen.”

Dive In!

While resources abound for those learning Drupal, we asked Doug Vann: what’s the best way for someone who already knows a bit about Drupal to increase his or her skill set?

“Get on the hook to build something for someone. Whether it’s free or cheap, put yourself in a situation where you have to deliver or produce,” Vann recommends. "Bite off more than you can chew— though it can go wrong, maybe you can find a sweet spot. Offer to do something for your church or for someone who wants a free site. Pop into the forums, go to your local meet up, and ask for help with your problems. It forces you to solve problems instead of sending you wandering through the toy store of Drupal. You won’t learn anything unless you do it. “

All in all, the future of Drupal is looking bright. With major anticipation mounting around the Drupal 8 release, new programs in place to sustain and grow the Drupal community, demand for Drupal expertise high, and new training options springing up every day, things are certainly looking up in terms of growing and sustaining a healthy community.

“The neat thing is that there are programs like Drupalize.Me, BuildAModule, Acquia, and so on out there, but there are other organizations doing things out there on a smaller scale and what they’re accomplishing is really cool,” said Wilson. “We just passed one million Drupal websites— and so many people could use Drupal training that the more groups that provide training help, the better."

“Our home-grown solutions are going to take care of training for Drupal,” added Vann. "The true home-grown heroes who live, breathe, and eat Drupal… they are your best source. Those who live it, eat it, and believe it.”

“May the nodes be ever in your favor in the Drupal Games,” he added.

Comments

Anonymous’s picture

stevepurkiss (not verified) commented

I forget sometimes what it's like to not be 'in' the Drupal community. For many years before I went to my first Drupalcon I saw Drupal very much as a product - something I used to make my life eaiser, something which was over there and I was over here, nothing connected apart from a download over the internet. A bit like those public domain 3.5" floppies I used to buy off the market which kept me going for a couple of weeks - unlike Drupal where I'm still here after more than eight years. But why is that? I still get the mick taken out of me every day for using Drupal - all the 'cool' coders do language [insert_trendy_name_here] but still I use this Drupal thing.

IMHO we must remember that's where many people's entry into Drupal is - a product they've been told or decided they want to use - and this is wherein the problem lies - Drupal being sold as a product. Drupal, for me, is not a product but more of an opportunity for us to create a platform where anyone can make use of the web no matter whether they can code or not. We see this happening in the Drupal community, but we do not shout about it enough. When I went to DrupalCon Chicago I went to an OpenAtrium BoF and during our round of introductions, most who were from government institutions or universities, one guy who was sat next to me said "I'm an ex con. I came out of prison and now I help other ex prisoners on their 12-step programme and we use OpenAtrium to organise everything. I saw DrupalCon was on just down the road and as the ticket was affordable I thought I'd come down and see what else this thing can do".

And that's why I use, and contribute to where I can, Drupal.

We should tell more stories like this - we can change so many people's lives, we owe it to them to communicate the wonder of what essentially is a bunch of zeros and ones.

 

/my tuppence

 

leighcan’s picture

leighcan commented

Thanks for that wonderful comment! I think you've made a very valid point about how many people get introduced to Drupal. What a great story about the ex-con-- that's just the kind of thing we're trying to hilight moving forward. Not just Drupal as a product, but Drupal as a way of changing people's lives.

heather’s picture

heather commented

I think there are two very distinct audiences. Andrew Wilson's quote makes it sound like people "in general" learned via IRC, documentation etc; whereas now "people in general" are learning with training now. 

There are two audiences: self-teaching early-adopters and late-adopters.

The early adopters are motivated solely on their curiosity for the "new shiny". They are the same people Steve refers to, the ones he meets at his monthly geek night at the pub (I've literally been there and it's awesome!). They're off trying out new CMSs and frameworks. Drupal is not the "new shiny" and won't be "cool" in that community where the passion is learning (self teachers, auto-didacts).

But those little CMSs and frameworks don't have the robust maturity of Drupal. They don't have the wide support, stability and ubiquity. They aren't at all what the late-adopters need. Late adopters need a wealth of features and flexibility. They also need guidance in many formats. They aren't going to spend their evenings geeking out on the new shiny, but they are building sites for their not for profits, for their communities, for their livelyhood. They are often older and have other responsibiities, so time is precious to them. 

We really need to think deeply about this in Drupal 8. We need VERY distinct pathways for these two audiences. I've been working on Drupal 8 personas with my colleague, Craig Norris at Acquia. I see almost a matrix, which would cross between early adopter personas who have seen Drupal before, and those who haven't. And late adopter personas who have seen Drupal and haven't. These suggest very unique needs for D8 training. 

We do need to draw back those early adopters who poo-poo'ed Drupal's architecture before. They can be attracted by Drupal 8's new shiny. And we can guide the late adopter personas through the robust maturity of Drupal 8, which even out of the box is a great platform. That isn't going to be done through access to training, they are self-teachers. They need great documentation and to know it's new and truly truly shiny :)

heather’s picture

heather commented

My last sentences were mixed around. I mean the early adopters aren't going to be attracted with training, but marketing and direct developer evangelism. :)

steveburge’s picture

steveburge commented

@heather

As you know, we do an enormous amount of Drupal training via: http://www.ostraining.com/drupal-training/

There's one additional persona that needs good training / documentation.

This persona may technically be a big sub-set of the late adopters ... people who need reasurrance about Drupal 7 as much as learning for Drupal 8.

Often we've heard people ask: "Do I need to upgrade to 8 as soon as it's released?", or a variation on that question.

Especially with a new release cycle, it's important to explain that as clearly as possible. Those late adopters need to know their Drupal 7 sites will be great platforms, even longer after Drupal 8 has released.

 

 

 

heather’s picture

heather commented

Hmm, you mean maybe non-technical personas or decision makers? I do agree we have to be sensitive how we promote Drupal 8 and to what audience.

For example, I think I jumped the gun myself in the autumn, with a Site Building preview of Drupal 8.

https://www.acquia.com/blog/tutorial-drupal-8-site-building-preview-less...

The webinar was laden with warning signs, (see recording here: https://www.acquia.com/resources/acquia-tv/conference/drupal-8-preview-s... )but still... I think now I should have waited til the Beta to invite "Site buiders" in. It's just that the discussions at the time were making people wonder. I just wanted the message to be clear for that audience: D8 isn't very different from D7, and many of the improvements have been back-ported.