Introduction to Drupal

Created for the Higher Education Web Symposium

@ UPenn on 07/16/08

Presented by Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg

&Jody Hamilton

ZivTech – http://zivtech.com

Harvard University

C:\Documents and Settings\Walt\Desktop\WebSiteImages\HarvardScience2.png

Yale University

UC Berkeley

Stanford University

Washington University St. LouisWashington University in St. Louis

Washington University St. Louis

Ohio State University

Ohio State University

Bradley University

Bradley University

Brigham Young University

Georgia Tech University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Oregon State University

Queen’s University

Oregon State University

Oregon State University

Portland State University

Portland State University

San Jose University

Hamline University

Indiana University

University of Prince Edward Island

University of British Columbia

Cal Institute of the Arts

Ohio Northern University

Rice University

What is Drupal?

• Open Source Content Management System and Framework

• Created and maintained by thousands of Developers, many of them working for Drupal shops, orgs, or companies.

• Internet enabled community

Drupal's Community

• Drupal.Org – Projects (Modules and Themes)

• Issue Queue

– Forums– Drupal Planet

• Feeds from Drupal Developers and Shops

– Drupal Services

Drupal's Community

• Groups.Drupal.org– http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-education– http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-for-good– http://groups.drupal.org/curriculum

• Drupal Dojo– http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-dojo– http://drupaldojo.com/

Drupal's Community

• IRC Channels on Freenode– #drupal– #drupal-support– #drupal-dev– #drupal-themes– #drupal-consultants– #drupal-dojo

Drupal's Community

• Mailing Lists– Developers– Security– Newsletter

• In Person– Meetups– DrupalCamps (like BarCamps)– DrupalCon (bi-annual)

Who uses Drupal?

• Universities– Yale, Harvard, Penn State, Rice, MIT,

Stanford, and many more.

• Organizations• unicef, The United Nations, PBS, Belgian

Government, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, NASA, NATO, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Who uses Drupal?

• Companies– Reuters, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, Sony

BMG, Adobe, IBM, Universal Music Group, The BBC, The Onion, FedEx, Nike, MTV, Forbes, AOL, Fast Company.

• You?

Why use Drupal?

• cheaper - other systems cost tens- to hundreds-of-thousands of dollars just for a site license

• flexibility

• extensibility

• strong community support - many come from the online organizing and non-profit world

Why use Drupal?• Corporate/enterprise level support

– Acquia (The “Red Hat” of Drupal)

• Modules built and supported by large companies such as Adobe and Sony

• Development cycle - new full release every 12-18 months, each release has seen the “core” improve greatly, – Drupal 7 promises to be the "killer" release

• Many support options & no developer/company "lock in" – You can  always find a new developer if yours isn't

working out, many support options, Aquia.