LITA Drupal Interest Group Chairs: Nina McHale & Christopher Evjy

1. LITA Drupal Interest GroupChairs: Nina McHale & Christopher Evjy ALA Midwinter Meeting  January 21 2012

2. Drupal IG Renewal/Charge • IG formed in 2009; renews in 2012 • “Explore and promote the use of Drupal among libraries and librarians, facilitating communication and establishing best practices.”

3. Survey Says… • 12 question survey ran from 12/27/11 – 1/6/12 • Sent to drupal4lib, web4lib, lita-l, code4lib • Posted to Twitter, Facebook, and the Libraries group on Drupal.org • 79 responses!

4. Survey Says… • Content of the survey was based on Dale Askey’s “We Love Open Source Software. No, You Can’t Have Our Code” column • http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/527 • Questions asked respondents what barriers might keep them from contributing code back to the Drupal community

5. Respondent Data: Type of Employment • I have a permanent, full-time position working in a library environment: 82% • I am a web development consultant with one or more clients: 10% • Other: 8% • Library vendor, combination permanent/consultant, part-time library employment

6. Respondent Data:Library Type • Public: 44% • Academic: 54% • School: 4% • Special: 10% • Other: 10% • vendor, government, nonprofit, consortium

7. Respondent Data:Have You Contributed Code Back to the Drupal Community? • Yes, I have: 15% • No, but I’d like to: 68% • No, but I can’t: 13% • No, and I don’t want to: 4%

8. Askey’s Reasons for Not Participating • Perfectionism • Dependency • Quirkiness • Redundancy • Competitiveness • Misunderstanding

9. “Unless the code is perfect, we don’t want anyone to see it.” • Very likely: 14% • Likely: 37% • Neither likely/unlikely: 17% • Unlikely: 28% • Completely unlikely: 4%

10. “If we share this with you, you will never leave us alone.” • Very likely: 12% • Likely: 24% • Neither likely/unlikely: 15% • Unlikely: 24% • Completely unlikely: 11%

11. “We’ll gladly share, but we can’t since we’re so weird.” • Very likely: 12% • Likely: 19% • Neither likely/unlikely: 15% • Unlikely: 40% • Completely unlikely: 14%

12. “We think your project is neat, but we can do better.” • Very likely: 3% • Likely: 12% • Neither likely/unlikely: 23% • Unlikely: 55% • Completely unlikely: 8%

13. “We want to be the acknowledged leader.” • Very likely: 0% • Likely: 10% • Neither likely/unlikely: 21% • Unlikely: 21% • Completely unlikely: 49%

14. “A fundamental [misunderstanding] of how an open source community works.” • Very likely: 0% • Likely: 14% • Neither likely/unlikely: 21% • Unlikely: 40% • Completely unlikely: 25%

15. What could the IG do to support code contribution back to Drupal.org? • Education/training: ALL levels • Programming (PHP) • Process of submission (contrib standards) • Showcasing colleagues’ work • Communication: • With vendors • Meet-ups • Foster collaboration among developers

16. Select Responses • “Perhaps eliminate any FUD surrounding issues of oss.” • “Maybe focus on getting library-specific vendors to support product integration…” • “it would be great to have a “match making” service to find co-maintainers…” • “Provide space to share ideas and develop a developer group for a module of interest.”

17. Select Responses, contd • “We [are] all out there, we’re just not connecting.” • “I’ve developed a couple of very small modules. I don’t both to contribute via official Drupal channels because it would require learning the contrib standards…” • “More library-specific meetups and events to showcase others’ work and possibly foster better collaboration.”

18. Proposal for IG Direction • Increase communication venues/opportunities • Develop a “wish list” of modules • Establish a formal/official relationship with the Drupal.org libraries group • Drupal.org is THE venue for Drupal community • Removes possibility of redundancy