About Me: 

Hello! I am Erica Reed, a Senior Director of Product Technology at Turner Broadcasting (now WarnerMedia), hailing from Atlanta, Georgia. I am part of a Technical Product Management team supporting the NBA Digital brand at Turner. We focus on multi-platform tech strategy to understand our business goals and define technology solutions for the NBA.com website and NBA app on over 20+ device platforms. Drupal is our core CMS to support news and video publishing, as well as web page creation, content tagging, and content distribution to all of our platforms. I have previously worked as a Development Manager overseeing a team of Drupal developers that creates and manages the NBA basketball team websites. I have a long history with Drupal going back to 2011 with Drupal 6 and can share many stories on editorial, UX, and tech strategies we have solidified over the years. In my spare time, I enjoy driving fast cars and interior decorating. Great to virtually meet everyone!

Feel free to check out my 2014 talk at an Atlanta Drupal Users Group meetup. https://youtu.be/c_gSMiCE78k

Statement of Candidacy Video: 
https://youtu.be/iZhGG2gjDkI
Board meeting attendence: 
none
Have you served on a board or committee?: 
No
If so, tell us about it.: 
n/a
What perspective will you bring to the board when discussing strategic topics?: 
Multiple Perspectives: Business Executive, Technical Product Manager, Dev Manager of Drupal Developers
What existing board topics are you most passionate about? and why?: 
The following strategic topic is the one that I am most passionate about, as a candidate for the Drupal Association Board: * Understanding what the Drupal project needs to move forward through the Association, Drupal.org, and DrupalCon. The Drupal project is at a pivotal state for accelerated growth in the small business and large enterprise markets, particularly with how Drupal has expanded beyond being a core CMS product to now forming an integral part of a larger tech stack with front-end frameworks, content APIs, cloud services, and industry-specific content workflows. Education, adoption, and onboarding initiatives can continue to expand to define how full business and technology ecosystems can be built around Drupal.
What unique skills would you bring to the board?: 
I possess both strong business and technical acumen on Drupal as a CMS and website framework with nearly 8 years of experience. I know and understand Drupal from many different perspectives, including as an everyday user, content publisher, development manager, technology product strategist, and business owner. I understand the higher-level goals of the Drupal strategy, while also understanding the ins and outs of publishing workflows and technology integrations for CMS business goals. I am very familiar with the "puzzle at large" (CMS/Web implementation for business requirements and long-term tech strategy) and the "puzzle pieces" (screens, modules, content flows) that make up Drupal. Also, I have helped lead and define Drupal site-building, tech stack architecture, and custom module creation for Drupal versions 6, 7, and 8 since 2011.
How have your past contributions to Drupal prepared you for board candidacy?: 
Beyond working with Drupal for several years, I have attended DrupalCamp Atlanta sessions to stay in tune with the local community here and see how others are using Drupal to power their websites and other content-based platforms. Also, I have given a speech at a DrupalCamp Atlanta gathering to share my team's project experience with doing a full website redesign project from scratch, along with the pros and cons for our implementation decisions. I am a strong advocate for the open-source CMS paradigm where a community of developers and organizers can sustain the livelihood and future of Drupal. I wish to become an even stronger advocate by joining the Drupal Association board leadership team.
Why should we vote for you?: 
I bring both a strong history of in-depth Drupal experience and personal eagerness to see Drupal grow farther in the marketplace, particularly around usability, capabilities, skilled talent, and real-world practices. I understand the current state of Drupal and future focus areas. I can bring many new and innovative ideas for board consideration.

Questions for the Candidate

rachel_norfolk’s picture
rachel_norfolk:
Comment: 

As Dries stated in his Driesnote at DrupalCon Seattle 2019 (https://youtu.be/BNoCn6T9Xf8?t=2149), work on diversity & inclusion is a key priority of the project (https://youtu.be/BNoCn6T9Xf8?t=5793).
How can your knowledge or experience of diversity & inclusion help the Drupal Association meet Dries' call to action?

ericabanks’s picture
ericabanks:
Comment: 

Hey Rachel. Thanks for your question. See my reply in the next comment post below.

ericabanks’s picture
ericabanks:
Comment: 

Hey Rachel. Thanks for this question. As a minority female tech leader, diversity is a top priority and everyday consideration for me. My education and work experience have built me to be a strong advocate of creating opportunities for all. I truly believe that diversity of thought and talent will yield innovative outcomes, high levels of collaboration, and grow each of us through new personal experiences. Considering that Drupal is an open-source product with a large, supportive community, there is a phenomenal opportunity to teach and share the capabilities of Drupal beyond its core audience. From code camps to publishing introductions to technology careers, there are many ways to build awareness for Drupal across people, geographies, and industries.

mherchel’s picture
mherchel:
Comment: 

As a board member, you would be responsible for directing strategies for the DA. What changes would you like to make? What strategic initiatives would you like to start/continue/discontinue?

ericabanks’s picture
ericabanks:
Comment: 

Hey mherchel,

Thanks for your question. Here are a few ideas that I would consider for the strategic direction of the Drupal Association.

Evolve Drupal education to reach younger audiences.
As a "techie kid," you always remember your first connections to computers and software. The days I spent learning to write my first traffic light in BASIC on an Apple IIe computer (back in the late 80s) will forever keep me loyal to my love for computer programming. I would propose programs to introduce and expose Drupal to younger generations. Given its open-source origins and humble beginnings (Dries' dorm room), this serves as an inspirational moment for kids and teenagers to dive into a technology product that can power entire web sites. For example, the Drupal Association could link up with kids programs to introduce them (e.g. local coding camps, General Assemby, Girls Who Code).

Build stronger talent initiatives to connect employers with Drupal talent.
In my past role as a hiring manager for Drupal developers, it was TOUGH finding experienced candidates. With Drupal being an open-source product, the level of knowledge that candidates possessed did not always match with the complex project needs for a high-traffic enterprise software product. There is huge online community of Drupal module creators, Drupal maintenance gurus, and Drupal documentation writers. I would propose defining effective ways to connect these Drupal knowledge experts with small and large businesses needing Drupal help. For example, the Drupal Jobs site could evolve from a job board format to a matching system with some AI to guide Drupal developers to positions and vice versa.

Build stronger awareness of the Drupal Association Board.
Spread the word about the good things (initiatives) happening at the Association Board. Educate the Drupal community on the mission and values of the board and how it aligns with Dries' vision. Offer a forum for the community to suggest strategic ideas back to the board.

rivimey’s picture
rivimey:
Comment: 

I can see above that you could bring a lot of valuable experience, especially of enterprise use of Drupal, and that you are an advocate of open source. I am concerned for Drupal in two ways at present:

- that the project is becoming "enterprise only" (the small users and SME users are being forced out by Drupal's development costs c.f. Wordpress / Wix / ...)

- that contrib projects, even "important" ones, are being left unmaintained far too often, usually because the maintainers are busy earning money elsewhere. This is perhaps a symptom of the first point.

How would you meet these challenges?

ericabanks’s picture
ericabanks:
Comment: 

Hey rivimey,

Thanks for your question.

These are really important concerns, especially as Drupal grows far beyond its small beginnings. Here are approaches I would consider for these two areas of concern.

1. Projects for SME Users

With technology now becoming so easy to build with, Drupal does pose a significant challenge for small and medium projects. I have easily built small websites in Wix in under 4 hours of time based on the platform's simplicity and ease of use. I stay tuned in to MakerPad and Glide, as I am curious to see how far these no-code movements will go. I think the Drupal community needs to take a look at how do we create user-friendly and practical solutions for smaller solutions. This starts with looking first at the pain points for SME users. Enhanced Drupal themes, Layout Builder, and the Gutenberg editor experience are steps in that simple-to-build direction. I don't think we need to eliminate the need to code, but there can be huge gains on helping these customers define a simple path forward to building a Drupal site. I remember when I created my first Drupal site back in 2012, I was overwhelmed with reading the breadth of documentation and choosing from hundreds of community-built modules. There could be a path where site building can be defined in a simpler way, with easy-to-use tools to move faster to a finished product.

2. Maintainability of Contrib Modules

I would say that some incentive needs to be created for contrib modules to stay maintained and updated for the latest Drupal versions. We all believe in "do good for the community," but maintaining open-source projects will always contend with other priorities for time and income. In addition to funding programs for module maintainability, there could be an incentive reward program where avid maintainers receive something in return for their hard work -- recognition on Drupal.org, Drupal swag, free admission to Drupalcon or Drupalcamp, etc. I think there is also a huge opportunity to connect module maintainers with the very businesses that rely on their work. This 1:1 connection allows both sides to hear each other and makes module progress more of a real, meaningful endeavor.

rivimey’s picture
rivimey:
Comment: 

Erica, thanks for your thoughtful reply :-)

awasson’s picture
awasson:
Comment: 

@ericareed, excellent reply to the answer @rivimey has been posing. Thanks for that. I'm happiest when I'm writing code but I'm second happiest when clients are dragging, dropping and successfully maintaining their sites without my intervention.

Good luck with the election. I think you'll make a great addition to the Drupal Association.

Cheers,
Andrew

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