Deeson Online and GovCamp 2014: review

January 25 saw over 200 people interested in the public sector gather at City Hall, London, to discuss, debate and explore ideas focsued on how to improve IT and digital in the public sector.

By opting for the uconference approach, #UKGovCamp empowered attendees to shape the agenda: anyone could submit sessions, with the hope that they were relevant for fellow attendees to participate in.

A total of 41 sessions were proposed, with topics ranging from 'How councils can be more open and transparent' to 'Futurology: what will public services look like in 2020/2030' - so there were plenty of diverse and relevant sessions to choose from.

This year Deeson Online not only attended, we were also one of the event sponsors, and along with our friends over at Wunderroot curated sessions on issues that matter to the Drupal community. Steve Parks (from Wunderroot) ran a very-well attended session entitled: 'share experiences/ideas to explain and train Agile without sounding like a cult'.

Our Drupal experiences: learning from each other

For Deeson Online's session, we wanted to open up a discussion between people using Drupal, and those interested in learning about their experiences. Those who attended shared frank views: some positive, some negative, but most could be condensed into the following:

• Drupal isn't rocket science: once implemented, it's easy to use
• That said, the learning curve is sometimes too steep for those on the 'outside' - i.e. non Drupalers
• The community is amazing - and that needs to be conveyed to prospective users: Drupal doesn't have a strong 'public' profile
• Sometimes it's difficult to identify what Drupal can be used for: the potential benefits aren't clearly articulated
• When changes are made on a Drupal site by a developer, they need to be communicated to the client simply: without this frustration builds, damaging the overall Drupal 'experience' and reinforcing the view that it comes with a steep learning curve
• Easily consumable resources to learn about Drupal as an 'outsider (.i.e potential user) are sometimes difficult to locate
• The Drupal community is passionate - but we need to learn how to better 'sell' it.

While many of the above views shouldn't come as a surprise, they show that we still need to emphasise the benefits of Drupal to new audiences beyond our great community.

And this should be celebrated: open source is now seen as a viable solution, and those not associated with the central community are clearly looking towards Drupal to provide a viable CMS. But we need to help them.

Share your Drupal experiences with us

We're interested to learn more from others. What are your Drupal experiences? Share your comments - good, the bad, the ugly - below or let us know @deeson_labs.