A peek at past DrupalCons

I uncovered a stash of screenshots taken a while back, when previous DrupalCon (Drupal Conference) websites were still live/accessible. They have since had access restricted due to security concerns by the hosting/server maintenance crew. So, while this is more fun reminiscing down memory lane, the implicit story is worth narrating:

The product, and project's, core principle of empowering all to contribute towards and mould the direction of Drupal has resulted in tremendous groundswell growth from 2001 to today:

• Almost 1,300,000 registered users on http://drupal.org
• These members are one or more of the following:
  • end-users whose feedback provides quality assurance,
  • module contributors who extend functionality and feature-sets,
  • core developers who craft Drupal's core engine,
  • documentation authors and editors and
  • security experts ensuring modules and core are collectively rock solid.
• A diverse and competitive ecosystem of professional Drupal service providers
• And a grassroots approach to outreach and self-improvement, of which the Drupal Conferences are a key tool

Let's juxtapose this with comparable CMS products currently on the market:

• Do they have a workforce or a contributor base of over 1million?
• Do they have frequent user group meetings, regular events (e.g. DrupalCamp) and annual globale conferences (e.g. DrupalCon)
• Do they have an install base of over 40,000 active websites? (source)

I could go on, but clearly the take-away is this is long-lived project that gained tremendous momentum and should be seriously considered for any content managed web project.

On to the fun stuff! While current DrupalCons are available at http://drupalcon.org, unfortunately older conference websites are no longer accessible. Here's a showcase demonstrating the CMS's versatility and passionate support provided by volunteer organisers:

View DrupalCons in a larger map