I'm a little late posting about last week's goings-on. During the beginning of the week, I spent a lot of time in Drupal configuring views and user permissions for the sample template. I presented this to Cliff in a meeting on Thursday and got feedback about what changes could be made. Overall I felt like I had made a lot of progress with that part of the project. I also started documenting what I'm learning about Drupal and how I've used it to create the template.
Following that meeting, we had another one with Tom Burns and Mark Hale from ITS. We talked about getting a Drupal training organized and agreed on next steps for accomplishing this. Tom was going to contact Matt Westgate from Lullabot to follow up on a potential training over Thanksgiving break. He also volunteered to send out a survey on the U of I developer's website he runs, to gauge interest. Mark offered to investigate room reservations and funding possibilities.
I felt like we really got the ball rolling on making the Drupal workshop a reality, and it was satisfying that our plans were starting to take shape. The meeting also led to a couple of breakthroughs. First, we stumbled upon a website for the Chicago Technology Cooperative, which conducts Drupal trainings for non-profits. I sent them an email afterward to inquire about the possibility of consulting with them on the project. Second, the meeting gave me the idea that SLIS could be involved with the training. I emailed Jim and Padmini proposing that SLIS students might want to attend, and received enthusiastic responses, including offers of funding to support the event.
The collaborations I've been working to foster for the last month or so are starting to come together, and I think we're gaining momentum. The important thing now will be to keep people interested/excited in the training.
