CivicActions

Nearly four years ago (and 12 weeks - according to my Drupal.org account) I first came to know Drupal and the brilliant community that maintains it. Soon after, I attended my first DrupalCon "conference" in Amsterdam (October 2005) which I fondly recall though a somewhat smokey haze... At that time, DrupalCon participants didn't number more than 30 or so people in a dark room, hacking away at emerging Drupal 4.6 in all its glory!

Since those early days, the depth and breadth of the Drupal community has blossomed beyond my wildest notions. Now it's commonplace to expect at least 800 attendees to fly around the world to the bi-yearly DrupalCon conference - and even see 200 at a local meetup such as San Francisco DrupalCamp last weekend!

This September the Drupal community returns to Europe and descends on Paris! I personally haven't attended the last couple DrupalCon events in Brussels or Washington DC and I'm finding myself re-inspired to connect with the community.

In my appreciation of the magic we build together, I just proposed a fun session/panel called How to Eat 15 Drupal Sites in 90 Minutes. This panel will be a presentation of some of the best Drupal sites the entire community has ever produced - in one wickedly fast session using a speed-geeking presentation format.

I'm looking forward to seeing you in Paris - and I hope you'll take a minute to vote for the session and/or consider nominating your own site for the deck!

See (and vote for) the rest of the Drupal Sessions too!

"Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich."

I'm feeling 100 times more inspired tonight after reading the Commencement Address by Paul Hawken's (Blessed Unrest) from Sunday, May 3rd. The text is below and speaks for itself!

PAUL HAWKEN'S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.

But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation - but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

While the country remains in a fury over absurd corporate bonuses and looking for economy scapegoats, it was a refreshing change to be at the Green:Net conference yesterday, surrounded by distinguished entrepreneurs, technologists and investors committed to solving the world’s biggest issue: climate change.

In the spirit of "we’re running out of time," San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom kicked off the one-day event after a long-delay, setting in motion the urgent pace and tone among the 200 participants. Newsom did a great job of rallying the troops, inspiring action and sharing some recent successes both in his City and within California.

Every so often a new technology emerges that "changes everything". Ubiquity, the new project of Mozilla Labs is the latest in that trend.

Ubiquity enables "on-demand, user-generated mash-ups with existing open Web APIs." Or, in other words, it allows users to remix the Web to fit their needs, no matter the Web site or whatever the user is doing.

Seeing is believing:

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Obama takes the lead with another emerging technology: temporarily embedding advertising inside video games.

The technology is only 18 months old, and Obama is the first presidential candidate to buy space for the Xbox Live system.

"The ads — appearing on billboards and other signage — remind players that early voting has begun and plug a campaign Web site that encourages people to register for early voting."

The video game ads are targeting 10 battleground states that allow early voting, including Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada and Florida among others.

CivicActions' own Ian Rhett will be performing this Thursday night in San Francisco at the talent-filled Bank on Barack event!

Ian recently released his latest video, What Kind of Amazing Grace which is remarkably beautiful and powerful.

Bank on Barack is a fundraiser and 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Barack Obama campaign!

The show will be filled with singer/songwriters, comedy, performing arts and great DJs to shake you all night.

If you are in San Francisco this week, grab your friends, open your wallet to give it up for change!

Tickets are $20 presale, $25 at the door.

credit: Monster Much

"If you have ever wondered what a perfect online marketing campaign looks like, just look at the Barack Obama campaign."

That is the message at webprofits.com which has put together a detailed outline of the Presidential candidate's online strategy, including social networking, SEO, email marketing, mobile marketing and a number of other strategies.

Also of note, the Obama campaign has engaged a "Rapid Response Team" which has has launched a new website for the single purpose of rapidly responding to and repudiating negative comments about the candidate.

Quickly responding in the same 24/7 news-cycle in which he is attacked is perhaps the greatest achievement of this unprecedented online campaign to date.

Chris Brogan posted a fantastic list of 20 free eBooks about Social Media on his blog.

Learn everything from the New Rules of Viral Marketing, Podcasting, Google Adwords, Marketing Plans, SEO, Analytics, Twitter, and more...

Recently, NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) released their 2008 Content Management Systems Satisfaction Report evaluating the most commonly used systems at small and medium sized organizations.

The CMS systems were evaluated in five categories: Quality, Support, Delivers on Promises, Usability and Value. Drupal and Joomla! both scored the highest marks, yet Drupal had nearly twice the number of responses than the latter.

Open source systems scored generally higher than commercial systems and custom systems were rated near the bottom of the pack.

Kieran posted a nice summary of the report results at Drupal.org.

The report is available to members of NTEN for free and to non-members at a discount rate. (CivicActions is a proud member of NTEN!)