Presented by Todd Tomlinson for InnoTech Oregon 2011.

1. + InnoTech 2011
What the White
House Knows…
Todd Tomlinson
Author, Drupal Evangelist &
Vice President, Drupal Solutions
toddtomlinson@serverlogic.com

2. +
Todd Tomlinson
 #1 best selling author – Pro Drupal 7 Development was the best
selling book about Software Development on
Amazon.com. It was also the in the
top 5 books about the
Internet
 Beginning Drupal 7
book is doing very
well
 In the market with my
team delivering high
impact websites on
Drupal
 Check us out
serverlogic.com

3. +
The History of Civilization….
 Mark Smith, Chief Sociologist at Microsoft, defines the history
of civilization using these
7 words
“More people,
pooling resources,
in new ways”

4. +
The History of Civilization….
 Major transformational milestones in civilization are tied to
people getting together and doing things together.
 In 1992 the web comes along and provides the means for large
groups of people to instantly assemble in new ways to impact
the world in which we live (Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iran).
 For the first time in history (post 1992) – people from the four
corners of the globe can assemble around a cause, share
resources, and impact civilization – all in the matter of minutes or
hours.
 As organizations we need to harness the power of what is
happening in the World and apply it within our own
environments

5. +
But…
 To create transformational opportunities we as organizations
have to change…
 The old ways just won’t cut it… or if they do, they will only
succeed for a very short period of time…
 We need new tools, new techniques, new processes, new
ideas, new people, new forms of information…
 We need to create those capabilities within our organizations
quickly…
 Drupal provides the foundation…

6. +
A Brief History Lesson….
 We began using the web as a mechanism for reaching out to
the markets in the early to mid-90’s
 It was the first attempt
at people getting
together to pool
resources… in new
ways
The first webpage
on the Internet
Tim Berners-Lee
Circa 1992

7. +
But for Most of the 90’s and early 00’s
We Followed Patterns of the Past…
John Fitch’s First Attempt at a Steamship, late 18th century
We took the pieces of paper we had in our hand and put those pieces of
paper on the web as marketing websites.

8. +
And then we rethought things a bit…
John Fitch’s Fourth Attempt at a Steamship, late 18th century
We now understand that the most important thing connected to a computer
is not the keyboard or the hard drive, it’s the user
We have finally hit full steam ahead on the web and Drupal is a major
influence on how we have changed the way that we interact with visitors.

9. +
The Buzz Acronym for 2011 – 2012 is…
 UGC – User Generated Content
“If a million people who have never met
can create an encyclopedia that rivals
the quality and dept of information
found in the Encyclopedia Britannica
… what else can we do to change the
face of civilization?”

10. +
The web today is about participation
 Key buzz acronym for 2011-2012 is UGC
 The White House (Obama Administration) is using it to
collectively gain the insight of its constituents on key matters that
affect the country – look for “Stay Connected”
 It wasn’t just replatforming whitehouse.gov on Drupal, it was
replatforming how government interacts with its constituents
 We now have the ability for everyone to participate in
government, whereas in the past it was impossible for big
government to deal with anything less than large special interest
groups
 They needed Drupal’s capabilities to enable that ability

11. +
The web today is about participation
 Key buzz acronym for 2011-2012 is UGC
 Companies are using UGC as a means to build pools of
information about their products and services
 Non-profit organizations are using UGC as a mechanism for
building online communities around the causes that they support
 Whole new sites have appeared overnight and have become
smash hits, all focused on UGC– think

12. +
So…
 To take advantage of the socialization of the web
 To take advantage of UGC
 To take advantage of the new opportunities as they arise in
the market
 To change the fundamental way we think, act, and behave on
the web…. We need a platform that enables us to do new
things, quickly…effectively…efficiently…and collectively,
and that is where Drupal comes in

13. +
What is Drupal?
 Drupal is an open source (free) web content management system (CMS)
 What is a content management
system?
 CMS stores all of the content in a
database – no more site with 1,000’s
of HTML files
 Thousands of off-the-shelf plug in
modules that extend the functional
footprint of your website without
having to write a single line of code
 Security, search, taxonomy, blogging, web forms, e-commerce, WYSIWYG editors,
social networking, reporting, themeing, … are all built in or available as a plug in
 But calling Drupal just a CMS is like calling the Space Shuttle a truck

14. +
Drupal’s History
 Built in 2000 by Belgians : Beer, Waffles &
Websites
 Released as open source in 2001
 Used by the Howard Dean Presidential
Campaign in 2004
 Now used on trillions of websites
 Actually somewhere between 3.5 and 7
million websites – depending on who you
talk to…
 For a current list of high profile sites Google
“Dries Drupal Sites” or visit
http://buytaert.net/tag/drupal-sites

15. +
What Can Drupal Do? University Website
Enterprise Class Applications State Agency Website
Training Website
Wikis E-Commerce Storefront
Corporate Website Library Website RSS Feeds
E-Portfolio System
Slideshows
Social Networking Blog Web Forms
Picture Galleries Discussion Forums
Polls Tagging RDF
Podcasting Newspaper Site
Video Aficionado Website Feed Aggregation NGO Website
Non-profit Website School Website
Custom Content Types
Integrate with Salesforce.com Reporting Artist Website
Intranet
Document Repository
Community Website
Personal Website Video Galleries
City Website
Self Directed Groups Websites
Integrate with Amazon

16. +
Drupal’s “Lego-like” Architecture
The green base represents
“Drupal Core”
Off the shelf modules (7,800+)
Custom modules
Drupal Core + Contribute
Modules are all Open Source
Foundation
Linux or Windows
Apache or IIS
MySQL, SQLite or PostgreSQL
PHP

17. +
7,800+ Off-the-Shelf Modules
Off-the-shelf Modules
Powerful Solution
File Management
Custom Modules
Content Display
Drupal Core
User Management
Social Networking
eCommerce
Integration w/3rd Party Systems Video & Audio
Advertising
Maps integration Email
Themeing WYSIWYG Editor
RDF
Evaluation & Rating
Multilingual
Forms Reporting
Business Rules
Administration Mobile Device Support
Event Management
Often without writing a single line of code

18. +
There are also vertical solutions
 Open Scholar – Drupal distribution for higher education
 Open Atrium – Drupal distribution for intranets – Basecamp
like feature set
 Drupal Commons – a Drupal distribution for building online
communities
 Open Publish – a Drupal distribution for online news
 Open Public – a Drupal distribution for government
 Managing News – a Drupal distribution for integrating news
a data

19. +
Drupal as an Enterprise Application Framework
 Drupal provides a
majority of the
capabilities
found in other MVC
frameworks
 Plus you have access
to a full feature CMS
 And thousands of
off-the-shelf modules

20. +
How Easy is Drupal to Use?
 From personal experience, users who have experience with
MS Word can make the transition to Drupal with minimal
training

21. +
But Who Maintains Drupal?
 2,000+ active developers who
contribute to core and add-on
modules
 Strict standards that all developers
must follow and its checked before
code is committed to the repository
 If you post a question to the Drupal
forums you’re likely to get an answer
in minutes
 650,000+ registered members of
Drupal.org
 Hundreds of professional services
firms

22. +
Who’s Using Drupal?
US Government
British Government
French Government
Belgium Government
Australian Government
Dutch Government
Villages, Cities, Counties,
States, and Countries
…

23. +
Who is using Drupal?
Media
Magazines
Newspapers
Television
Movies Studios
Sony Music
Lucas Arts
Eric Clapton
Monty Python
…

24. +
Who is using Drupal?
NASA

25. +
Who is using Drupal?
GM
Proctor & Gamble
Intel
Nike
Nokia
Google
Sony
Mattel
AT&T
Scholastic Books

26. +
Who is using Drupal?
Non-Profits & NGOs
Mercy Corps
United Nations

27. +
Who is using Drupal?
University of Oregon
Oregon State University
Portland State
University of Washington
Harvard
MIT
Stanford
Strayer
Rutgers

28. +
What the White House Knows…
 Drupal provides the services necessary to easily construct
feature rich websites
 Open source is more secure than vendor products –
thousands of developers are focused on making the platform
secure
 Drupal’s Open Atrium distribution provides a rich and robust
intranet solution
 Contributing back to the community leverages the White
House’s investment across thousands of government and
private sector organizations.

29. +
How can you learn Drupal?
 There are two excellent
books that you might
consider 
 http://www.drupal.org
 Portland Drupal Users Group
http://groups.drupal.org
 Portland Community
College
 ServerLogic’s free ½ day build your site
on Drupal Workshop