There is an old Dutch saying that roughly translates to "Weddings lead to weddings". And though attending a DrupalCon is not the same as getting married, it does share some characteristics. It's about sharing, passion, learning and helping without xpecting anything back. DrupalCon's are great places that reach farther then just the Drupal code, the Drupal site, CMS-es or even Open Source. Drupalcons are about people, about technology, the future of the combination of these and how we -as the community- can build this future in our products. Without DrupalCons, Drupal would not have been what it is today. And without future DrupalCon's, Drupal will not be where it should be.

So there are many reasons to make sure we will continue to have DrupalCon's. I do not know what holds the future for DrupalCon (bigger, smaller? separate business con's? one per continent?) but I do hope that the sharing, passion, learning and helping will continue in some form in the future. Maybe you would like to make this possible. By attending DrupalCon's and maybe even by organising a DrupalCon. If this is the case, do not feel intimated by the extreme quality of the DrupalCon DC09 but do tender for organising a DrupalCon. The next stop of DrupalCon will be in europe, Paris. After that we are looking for people that want to organise the Con in N-America. All you need is time, passion, a location, some fellow Drupalaars and .. a bit of time... If you are interested, do contact the Drupal Association. Let's make sure "DrupalCon's lead to DrupalCon's".

Mind you, I'm living together with my better half for over a decade and have two of the sweetest kids on earth I am not married myself. So I atually do not know if attending a DrupalCon is the same as geting married. But I know I will tender for organising a new DrupalCon in the EU anytime.. again ..

Johan Janssens -the Most Valuable Person in the Joomla community- has an article on his corporate blog about a presentation he held more then 3 years ago on the second DrupalCon in Amsterdam.

When I met him a a month ago, he challenged me to recall what his message was. And I was sad to say I didn't knew anymore. Looking back at his slides a couple of thing are clear:

(RSS readers and aggregaters not seeing the embedded slide-show, please visit slideshare)

The first thing to notice is Johan was very optimistic in his roadmap. Clearly not all his goals -numbering issues apart- have not been met by the Joomla! community. By the end of 2006, Joomla! wasn't a full blown WAF like Symfony for example is. However, things Johan did not anticipate did happen; Joomla! is clearly one of the best well known CMS-es with a very very big audience! Please note that his presentation was only month after Joomla! was founded ("forked"?) so it is only logical that his goals were optimistic.

The second thing to note is that Drupal and Joomla! still think of each other -mostly and by most- as rivals. And while I did do some sessions on building bridges between both systems, I am very guilty on placing Drupal on top of Joomla!

This while we have the same problems and could (re)use each others solutions. To name a few problems that are generic for both of us and where we can learn from each other.

Now lets try to differentiate while learning from each other. Learn from each other how to deal with GPL violations, learn setting up local "associations", leanr and share patching exploits and learn to love.

Note: During a recent session I had with Johan, the question was asked what I think Drupal could learn from Joomla. I answered "marketing". And Johan was amazed since he wanted to give the same answer on what Joomla! could learn from Drupal. One year ago, Joomla! was clearly in the lead when it came down to market the product. However, since one year, I think Drupal has better press then Joomla!, so we were both right.

If you are a member of the Drupal Association (and thereby helping the community and showing off you care about the community) you might want to check if you should renew your yearly membershipssfee! If it has been more then a year since you have paid, you should remove the cool "member" badges from your site! Or.... you could renew your membership at the association site!

Please do check to see if your membership is up for renewal and wear your badge with pride! Your financial support is important for the community.

As anyone who visits Drupal.org more then one a year will know, Dries owns the trademark of "Drupal". Dries want this mark to be protected from The Bad People and to be used by The Good People. Since law doesn't really "see" good or bad people but good or bad actions, he had to write a policy on how and when you can use the word Drupal in a service.

For example, you are not allowed to say that you provide "Drupal Certification" programs, but if your company is called ACME, you are allowed to use "ACME Drupal Certification". This makes sense, we are not a MySQL AB or RedHat Inc; we are a passionate Open Source community. So you are encouraged to build your own brand "ACME" and lean on the shoulder of the Open Source giant Drupal, fair enough I think. Mind you: if you spot a "Official Drupal Certification program", you are encouraged to contact the Drupal Association and file a trademark issue. Also note that as an engineer you are probably better of a taring center that does not claim to have "Drupal Certifications".

Some might ask why it took so long to create this policy For those Dries / Kieran created an timeline explaining all steps. My own answer to questions with "when" in it, would have been "done is a four letter word". So if you want to make this policy better by asking question, hinting, dropping suggestions, please point your browser towards http://groups.drupal.org/node/15023 and read the post, the comments, the answers and step if if you think you can add anything to the discussion.

If you missed the Drupal Association session during last DrupalCon Szeged, see the video of Dries, Larry and me at archive.org. The presentation handles some of the basics of the Association and Larry answers many questions regarding the GPL and Drupal. Be sure to check this out and provide feedback on what you would like to know more about the association (for example in this posting).