Tushar Thatikonda

About Me:

I stepped into the Drupal and its awesome community back in 2012. I began my career working in Drupal 6 version. Drupal amused me with its great features, flexibility, extendability, multilingual capabilities, security and community support. The documentation related to Drupal and its API which is available on Drupal.org and its sub-sites was really helpful for everyone using Drupal. The documentation on Drupal.org helped me a lot in learning, understanding and acquiring Acquia Certified Grand Master credential in Drupal 8.

While working on Drupal, I realized that I was using a code which is being developed and contributed by a vast and diverse community. I then decided to work in Drupal with an intention to contribute the code back to Drupal. I started learning the process to contribute patches to Drupal core and contributed modules, and also contribute new or unavailable modules.

Apart from code contributions, I contribute in maintaining Drupal.org as a Webmaster. I also reviews and approves Drupal.org security advisory coverage applications. As a Drupal.org Webmaster, I work on following issue queues,

Drupal.org webmasters
Drupal.org content
Drupal.org project ownership
Drupal.org infrastructure
API.Drupal.org customization
Drupal.org security advisory coverage applications

DrupalCon is a fantastic opensource community event which happens twice a year. DrupalCon Asia was my first Drupal conference in attendance and it allowed me to socialize with my mentors and community members. I met my mentors in DrupalCon Asia which allowed me to know them personally and gaining trust to attain elevated roles on Drupal.org. Since then, I managed to attend almost all DrupalCons till date. I also volunteer at on-site and mentor new contributors during DrupalCons.

Board meeting attendence:

2-4

Have you served on a board or committee?:

If so, tell us about it.:

n/a

What perspective will you bring to the board when discussing strategic topics?:

My perspective would be to grow Drupal adoption, enhance Drupal.org, community related activities / engagements and knowledge through academics. Bring in much more enhancements to Drupal.org to move the Drupal project and the community forward. Maintain the documentation of Drupal project and related processes up-to-date, and make it easily available to the newcomers or developers.

What existing board topics are you most passionate about? and why?:

I am most passionate about Drupal.org and Drupal Conferences to facilitate Drupal project development and community growth. I am also passionate about performing activities related to Drupal adoption, code and non-code contributions as well as mentoring. Drupal Association is putting a lot of effort to increase Drupal project usage. I would like to help in increasing the adoption of Drupal globally and also grow the diverse and widespread Drupal community. I believe Drupal.org, Drupal Association and DrupalCons are greatly responsible for bringing up the development and growth of Drupal project.

What additional strategic topics would you like to introduce?:

I believe Drupal is growing and gaining its adoption, considering its performance, scalability and community. The area that needs focus is, Help and Support for Drupal Core and Contributed code. Support or guidance related to Drupal Core or Contributed code can help users rely much more on Drupal. Also, inclusion of Drupal in academics, encouraging users to contribute back to Drupal and its community in both ways, code as well as non-code. There might be many initiatives already in place, I would like to revive them so that the Drupal is much more flourished.

What unique skills would you bring to the board?:

As a developer, I have built and contributed code to handsome of modules. These modules helped websites including e-commerce, third-party services, and more. This required a mix of technical expertise, community vision and intention to contribute. As a non-code contributor, I have contributed in maintaining Drupal.org and its sub-sites, volunteering at on-site and mentoring during DrupalCons. That should provide me an ability to contribute to Board and Drupal Association initiatives.

How have your past contributions to Drupal prepared you for board candidacy?:

Working on Drupal.org everyday gave me an insight of the issues that are being faced by the community regularly. Volunteering and Mentoring at DrupalCons helped me to understand and know the community personally. It gave me an experience interacting with many areas of the community. Attending DrupalCons helped me to develop leadership skills. It helped me to know about the challenges faced by the open source community.

Why should we vote for you?:

From technical background perspective, having more than 7 years of experience in Drupal, I would be able to thoroughly understand the issues or problems being faced by developers or code contributors. I would be able to share my insight into how newcomers or existing developers are perceiving Drupal as a software and organizations as a product. And, from non-technical background perspective, as a webmaster of Drupal.org, I will be able to judge the issues being faced by the community and could provide suggestions to trigger initiatives for betterment of the community. I also volunteer and mentor at DrupalCons every year. This helps in interacting and knowing the issues being faced by the community. Having been involved in Drupal community since such long time, I would love to put my time and skills in helping the Drupal Association as a Board Member.

Questions for the Candidate

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?

th_tushar:

Comment:

Thanks for asking the question, Rachel. Good to hear from you!

I generally contribute in managing mentor booth and mentor during code sprints during DrupalCons (https://twitter.com/drupalmentoring/status/1115761813973417984). I feel proud that I helped in setting up Diversity and Inclusion booth, some way during DrupalCon Seattle (https://twitter.com/drupaldiversity/status/1115751867630272512).

As Dries mentioned in the keynote, supporting Diversity and Inclusion is obviously essential to maintain the successful open-source project. Drupal Association is already doing an incredible job like involving contributors from underrepresented groups to speak at DrupalCons, presentations or sessions on Diversity and Inclusion during DrupalCons. Attending a DrupalCon is a dream for many contributors. Drupal Association is providing grants and scholarships to many, so that they could make it to DrupalCons.

Drupal.org also plays a crucial role in supporting Diversity and Inclusion. It is currently having great initiatives incorporated already, such as, Credit for non-code contributors, Pronouns field for users, etc. I would like to get more features to Drupal.org which would allow contributors to reach the Drupal Association and community to express their views, gain recognition, share their thoughts and experiences. Drupal.org can guide and encourage the contributors to keep going and be a part of this community.

I would like to encourage community to contribute as a Mentor on Code Sprints day during DrupalCamps and DrupalCons. Currently, there are very few from underrepresented groups who come forward as a Mentor and be available on Code Sprints day during community events. I would like to put in efforts and spread awareness about the privilege to be a Mentor and lead sprints during Drupal Camps and Conferences.

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?

th_tushar:

Comment:

Thanks for your question, Mike.

Drupal Association is doing a great job and there are no initiatives that I would like to stop or discontinue, honestly. I would like to continue Growing Drupal adoption initiative, Drupal association membership programs and enhance the Drupal.org and its sub-sites as a webmaster. Also, I would like to bring in more value to Drupal Global Training Day program so that more people get trained on using Drupal to build better websites.

I would also like to start an initiative or plan to mentor new joinee in large organizations who do not know what Drupal is. I agree that Drupal.org and its documentation can help them in some ways, but they need an initial guidance to start with Drupal.