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Drupal Association blog: Piyush Poddar Joins the Drupal Association Board: A Journey of Growth, Open Source Advocacy, and Global Collaboration
We're excited to welcome Piyush Poddar, the latest addition to the Drupal Association Board. Piyush, Head of Sales and Partnerships at Axelerant, co-founded the Jaipur Drupal User Group and serves on the Board of the Drupal Association of India. Known for his active involvement in writing and speaking at events, Piyush covers a range of topics, including the growth of Open Source and Contribution culture in India. His expertise extends to assisting global Drupal agencies in business expansion through strategic account management, transformed outsourcing practices, and success-driven partnership frameworks.
As a recent board member, Piyush shares insights on this thrilling journey:
What are you most excited about when it comes to joining the Drupal Association board?
I’m excited to join the Drupal Association Board after having known Drupal for over 16 years. As a long-time advocate and active non-code contributor, I look forward to influencing key decisions and giving back to the community.
This is a pivotal time for Drupal's growth, and my position on the Board allows me to contribute significantly to its expansion, relevance, and commitment to openness and inclusion.
And I’m very excited that with my position on the Board, I will be able to contribute significantly to some of these motions.
What do you hope to accomplish during your time on the board?
From a humble dorm room project to a platform globally embraced by businesses and organizations, Drupal has come a long way. As a board member, I aim to actively push to advance Drupal's business dimension, ensuring its continued relevance in the dynamic Martech space. The Drupal Association's recent efforts at the Web Summit were good, but we need to do more.
I also want to connect the global and Indian Drupal communities, bringing back the energy that faded during the pandemic. Developers are vital for Drupal, and we need to support and empower them for the community to keep growing. Coming up with plans for this is a top priority.
Personally, I look forward to learning a lot, improving my skills, and having valuable experiences in this role.
What specific skill or perspective do you contribute to the board?
My background in Sales, Customer Success Management, and Community Engagement offers a unique viewpoint.
Digital agencies, being prominent advocates and practitioners of Drupal, have significantly driven its growth and commercial adoption. With over a decade of experience partnering with digital agencies for their growth, I have consistently interacted with their leadership. I aim to bring their challenges and needs to the forefront.
How has Drupal impacted your life or career?
Drupal has hugely impacted both my professional journey and personal growth. Professionally, it has been instrumental in molding my understanding of complex business challenges related to content, marketing, and publishing. Working on Drupal projects introduced me to the agile methodology, revolutionizing how I approach work. The global adoption of Drupal has broadened my perspective, allowing me to gain a comprehensive understanding of the digital and creative industries on an international scale.
On a personal level, my experience with Drupal has profoundly transformed my views on openness and inclusion. The thriving Drupal community, rooted in open-source ethos and built on selfless contributions, has been a powerful influence. Engaging with people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and genders, all united by a common cause, has significantly broadened how I engage with people. This exposure has made me more open-minded, vulnerable, and accommodating, deeply enriching my personal values and perspectives.
In essence, Drupal has not just been a part of my career; it has been a journey of learning, growth, and personal evolution.
Tell us something that the Drupal community might not know about you.
I really enjoy traveling. I've explored over 65 cities in 14 countries and have taken approximately 15 flights around the earth.
Share a favorite quote or piece of advice that has inspired you.
I'd like to share a quote that has inspired me: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs
We can't wait to experience the incredible contributions Piyush will make during his time on the Drupal Association Board. Thank you, Piyush, for dedicating yourself to serving the Drupal community through your board work! Connect with Piyush on LinkedIn.
The Drupal Association Board of Directors comprises 12 members, with nine nominated for staggered 3-year terms, two elected by the Drupal Association members, and one reserved for the Drupal Project Founder, Dries Buyteart. The Board meets twice in person and four times virtually annually, overseeing policy establishment, executive director management, budget approval, financial reports, and participation in fundraising efforts.
Drupal Association blog: Turning Takers into Makers: The enhanced Drupal Certified Partner Program
In a recent working paper published by the Harvard Business School entitled “The Value of Open Source Software,” the authors, Manual Hoffmann, Frank Nagle, and Yanuo Zhou, use a new methodology to determine that the value of open source software is in excess of $8.8 trillion. They further admit that this is likely an underestimate.
Clearly, open source software plays a foundational and often underappreciated role in the digital lives of people across the world. This fact will not be news to those immersed in the open source communities that were the subject of the study (though I think the economic impact is illuminating).
Among the contributions of the Working Paper to open source literature, the authors assert that:
...users of OSS should not just free ride but also contribute to the creation and maintenance of OSS(...). Such contributions are a fraction of the costs that firms would incur if OSS did not exist and the active participation of OSS users in helping maintain the OSS they use is critical to the health and future well-being of the OSS ecosystem”
They further add:
Our results further show that the majority of the value created by OSS is created by a small number of contributors.”
While Drupal was not specifically included in the Harvard study (though PHP was), these conclusions are not news to the Drupal Community. Dries Buytaert introduced these concepts to the Community in his 2019 blog post Balancing Makers and Takers to scale and sustain Open Source. In it, he cites the “free rider” problem long studied in traditional economics and applies it to Drupal. His message in short: if Drupal is to thrive, we need to convert Takers to Makers.
In 2023, Drupal was recognized as a Digital Public Good. The recognition highlighted both Drupal’s importance in advancing an open and inclusive web as well as its susceptibility to the Free Rider problem.
The Role of the Drupal AssociationThe Drupal Association plays a unique role in the Drupal ecosystem. As the nonprofit formed to support the global, decentralized open source project, our mission is to drive innovation and adoption of Drupal as a high-impact digital public good, hand-in-hand with our open source community.
Our fundamental task, day in and day out, is to ensure that Drupal is secure and available to anyone, anywhere in the world to download and use for free. This takes resources beyond the contributions to code that the community makes. Thus, we leverage financial contributions to maintain and improve the infrastructure that keeps Drupal available.
We are in an environment in which, without an intentional focus on innovation and a commitment to getting the word out about the benefits of Drupal (i.e. marketing), open source projects risk withering, and organizations with far larger budgets and profit incentives will oversell proprietary solutions that unnecessarily trap users data and raise the cost basis of accessing the internet. Both are contrary to an open and inclusive web.
Enhancements to the Drupal Certified Partner ProgramTo fulfill our mission and to better support the availability of Drupal, the Drupal Association is re-orienting the Drupal Certified Partner program to recognize and highlight those firms who represent the “small number of contributors” that “are critical to the health and future well-being” of Drupal. In other words, we’re focusing the Drupal Certified Partner program on “Makers.”
We launched the Drupal Certified Partner program in 2021. It was a good start and we have learned much over the past 3 years. We learned that we have room for improvement to amplify and highlight Makers.
The current Marketplace lists 2,283 companies, many of whom provide Drupal services. Of these companies, 591 made a contribution to Drupal in 2023. Of these 591 contributors, the top 14% made 88% of total contributions in 2023. Some of these are relatively small organizations, who aren't necessarily getting the recognition they deserve. In fact, five of the top ten contributors in 2023 were companies with fewer than 50 employees.
It would be fair to say that, in Drupal, the majority of the value is created by a small number of contributors. We hope to better recognize those organizations and grow their number.
Starting on April 1, 2024, the Drupal Certified Partner program will support those companies who are committed to supporting the Drupal Project and the Drupal Community with the following improvements:
- The Drupal Marketplace on Drupal.org will be reserved solely for Makers, known as Drupal Certified Partners. The Marketplace will be branded as the global list of “Makers” and recommended by the Drupal Association and will only list Drupal Certified Partners in active status.
- Becoming and maintaining certification as a Drupal Certified Partner will require at least 150 annual credits and complete a short annual business survey.
- Companies will be awarded a tier badge (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Top Tier), based solely on their credits (see below).
- Position on the Marketplace will be largely determined by credits (this is “largely” and not “solely” because we plan on providing Marketplace advantages to those companies that sponsor local camps).
- An annual financial contribution will be required of all Drupal Certified Partners based on company size and measured by number of employees and full time contractors (see below). The intent is that this contribution be nominal to the size of the organization. These funds are used to maintain the Drupal infrastructure, a core responsibility of the Drupal Association, as well as supporting the Drupal Community.
- Many benefits conferred by the Drupal Association will be limited to Drupal Certified Partners. These benefits are being updated and will be published before the end of the first quarter of 2024.
- The Supporting Partner program will be re-oriented to recognize those companies who are not in the business of selling Drupal services, but want to contribute to the project and the community.
In developing the new tiers, we started with our highest performing contributor and then looked for natural cut points in the data to create subsequent tiers. With these changes, the annual contribution credit minimums for each Tier have increased.
Since 2021, when this program launched, code contribution within organizations has increased. What this tells us is the program is working. Organizations are motivated to increase contribution which, in turn, will increase innovation. It also proves we can incrementally increase the weighted contribution credit eligibility to continue to grow code contributions.
Weighted contributions over the previous twelve months will determine the Tier at an organization’s annual renewal date.
New Financial Sponsorship LevelsMaintaining Drupal and making it available worldwide free of charge to anyone to download and use takes resources beyond contributions by the community. The nonprofit Drupal Association, in conjunction with the Drupal Project, does the bulk of this work. Undertaking this work on a continual basis and with great quality requires a consistent source of funding. The Association’s historic reliance on DrupalCon revenue is insufficient to undertake the goals of innovating Drupal faster and expanding its impact.
Drupal’s market impact is conservatively valued at $3 to $5 billion. If only 1% of the value was invested back into Drupal, this would result in tens of millions of dollars annually. This would more than address Drupal’s maintenance, innovation, and marketing needs.
In this vein, the enhanced Drupal Certified Partner program will require an annual financial sponsorship amount. The amount will vary commensurate with the size of the organization. The idea is that makers who use Drupal should contribute a nominal financial amount to help the Association maintain Drupal. It is a cost of doing business, similar to any software tool an organization may use to build and maintain their digital presence. The amount will generate far less than “tens of millions” of dollars, but will provide a sustainable source of revenue that will be invested in innovating and marketing Drupal. Many companies already contribute at this level, we want to formalize the commitment for all Drupal Certified Partners.
The number of employees and full-time employees will be used as a proxy for company size.
The new Drupal Certified Partner requirements will go into effect starting 1 April 2024. All companies currently on the marketplace who are not yet Certified are invited to enroll. New organizations joining the Drupal Certified Partner program will enroll in this new program starting 1 April. Current Drupal Certified Partners will be invited to enroll on their annual renewal date after 1 April 2024. Current Drupal Certified Partners will not see a change in their financial contribution requirements until their next renewal date.
If your organization does not contribute code or your organization is an end-user, you will still be able to support Drupal the community. The current “Supporting Partner” program will now be called the “Supporting Member” program. The current financial levels will be available and some of the same benefits will be part of the program, such as 10% off DrupalCon registrations. For some, the Supporting Members program will be a starting point towards becoming a Drupal Certified Partner with the Drupal Association hosting webinars and training on how to get started contributing.
A webinar is planned for March to review the new Drupal Certified Partner program.
If you would like to learn more, please register for our upcoming webinar on 5 March 2024 hosted by myself and Kelly Delaney, our Director of Development.
Register for the webinar here. If you can’t make the live webinar, we’ll send the recording to everyone who registered after the event.
Tim Doyle
Chief Executive Officer
Drupal Association
Drupal.org blog: Bounty program extension (for innovative modules and ideas)
A few weeks ago we announced the Bounty Program. This was a pilot program with the idea to solve a few common problems. For a start, and after meeting with different companies and individuals, it is apparent that we need a clear path and guidance to where contributions would be most helpful. A constant question from pretty much all companies I have met was “how can we make our contributions more impactful”.
Fortunately - there are many areas and projects where contributions are VERY important, and where the Drupal Association, core maintainers and other leaders in the project are waiting for a helping hand.
The goal of this credit bounty program is to explore introducing some of that guidance, increasing contribution in those areas where it really matters and, creating more impact to push Drupal innovation further.
The good news is the idea has been working pretty well. For a start we have got some long-standing, tricky issues unblocked, and with new momentum we already have one of those issues fixed. This is a great initial result for the program, because that issue in particular was 5 years old.
Community feedback has also been positive, from the core maintainer team, to companies and people willing to participate in the program or simply excited to see this happening.
The only drawback I saw with this approach is that the issues that we have published are highly specialized and potentially complex. And that’s ok, because contributing to Core is actually a complex, time consuming task, and here your contributions are going to make a big difference. But at the same time this is limiting how many people have the required knowledge and can contribute to this initiative.
That’s why I’m opening a consultation period. Do you think you have an innovative module or project that can benefit drupal? Do you know of one you would like to nominate as an innovative module that could benefit from some momentum and contributors? Is there a core feature request or idea queue issue that you think could use focused attention?
We especially want your nominations if you are a module maintainer and you are willing to spend a little bit of time to support contributors who could help innovate items on your roadmap. , To provide your nominations, please contact me: alex.moreno@association.drupal.org.
What will you get in exchange? Public promotion for your module, being a candidate for extra credit bounties, but most importantly, seeing how your module gets the attention, promotion and the extra push that it deserves as an innovative idea.
This does not stop here, because we have opened another round of consultations with the Core team as well for their own nominations of new issues that will be included in the next round of the credit bounty program.
We will likely select anywhere between 4 and 12 new issues for the second round, so if you you know an innovative module or project that could benefit from this, please send me your proposals: alex.moreno@association.drupal.org
Nonprofit Drupal posts: February Drupal for Nonprofits Chat
Join us THURSDAY, February 15 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)
This month we'll be giving an update on our plans for DrupalCon Portland, including the Nonprofit Summit and the recently announced discount for nonprofit attendees!
And we'll of course also have time to discuss anything else that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits -- including our plans for NTC in next month. Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!
All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.
This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.
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Join the call: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81817469653
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Meeting ID: 818 1746 9653
Passcode: 551681 -
One tap mobile:
+16699006833,,81817469653# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,81817469653# US (Houston) -
Dial by your location:
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
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+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) -
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpV1o65N
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- Follow along on Google Docs: https://nten.org/drupal/notes
TechStage | Streetbooster Sirius: Der beste E-Scooter mit Wechselakku und Blinker im Test
Der Streetbooster Sirius überrascht uns im Test mit einem guten Gesamtpaket. Der E-Scooter ist gut verarbeitet, bietet Blinker und sogar einen Wechselakku.