Group 42

The addition of preprocessor functions to Drupal 6 makes customizing template variables straightforward and clean (bravo to everyone who made this happen!). Have you ever wondered where the variables come from? It's actually helpful knowing, even if you're a themer with basic PHP knowledge.

Some reasons why:

Crowdsourcing: A term commonly used to describe mass collaboration via social media tools.

The unwashed masses coming together to solve a business problem? Interesting theory but could it work in practice? The answer seems to be yes.

Last November Vancouver's social media star Rebecca Bollwitt spoke on Building Your Personal Brand to a very full house at the November 2008 meeting of Third Tuesday Vancouver. I was pleased that Third Tuesday Vancouver's host Tanya and Rebecca gave me permission to tape it. Although the video is very dark, the sound is good and Rebecca did a great presentation.

Views 2 provides a well structured theming environment allowing presentation control for each element of your view. And in my humble opinion, it rocks!

Those with no past experience with Views 1 will find Views 2 uses standard PHPTemplate theming techniques. All of your experience theming Drupal can be used with Views.

Thanks to the organizing skills of Ariane on this coming Sunday December 14th the Vancouver League of Drupaliers, Vancouver's Drupal user group, is holding a code sprint for Fearless City. Fearless City is non-profit community arts project designed to give a voice to the disadvantages in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES).

If you'd like to help out we'd love to have you!

Check here for details: http://groups.drupal.org/node/17237

Also check out Dave's post, Fearlesss City and Vancouver Drupal Geeks Code Sprint for Festive Good!, and the Drupal Camp Vancouver post, Code Sprint Does Good!.

Next to Drupal, my favourite content management system is WordPress. The local WordPress gang is holding a WordCamp up in Whistler on Saturday, January 24, 2009.

Registion for Podcasters Across Borders 2009 is off to an early start: PAB2009 early registration now open! It's being held June 19-21 in Kingston, Ontario.

PAB is an east coast podcaster's conference with an emphasis on community. It's organized by the personalities behind the Canadian Podcast Buffet, Bob Goyetche and Mark Blevis.

Back in September I blogged about Podcasters Across Borders (PAB) 2008. I wanted to go but let the opportunity pass. After listening to the 2008 sessions I vowed I would go in 2009. With all the economic uncertainty I'm back to thinking very hard about it, though still more for than against.

Anyone else from the Vancouver area thinking of going?

Simon Vreeswijk of North Studio presents Drupal SEO and Internet Marketing at Drupal Camp Victoria 2008. In this session Simon discusses optimizing and tailoring your Drupal site to rock the search engines, including things to avoid, things to do, and general SEO tips.

DCVic08: Drupal SEO

Nedjo Rogers presents Introduction to Module Development at Drupal Camp Victoria 2008. In this session Nedjo gives the basics of writing a module and some techniques to jump-start development.

DCVic08: Introduction to Module Development

The video can also be viewed directly: DCVic08 Introduction to Module Development at blip.tv

For a summary of Drupal Camp Victoria check out: Drupal Camp Victoria 2008.

Drupal Camp Victoria seems long past but it was only six week ago we descended on North Studio for some Drupal geekery and general fun. Ever the video nut, I caught a handful of sessions on camera. In this session, Indispensable Modules, Rene Hache of North Studio gives an excellent run down of the Drupal modules North Studio finds, well, indispensable. He also provided presentation notes: Modules We Can't Live Without.

DCVic08: Indispensable Modules

The video can also be viewed directly: DCVic08: Indispensable Modules at blip.tv