I was in DrupalCamp Manila 2012

I'm an accidental website builder. My work with a non-profit firm a couple of years ago gave me the chance to learn it. It was a time when company websites were becoming a fad. For a non-profit, every cent counts. Getting an institutional website up and running at that time was still uncertain and seemed outside our non-profit's mission and vision. To save on funds, we tried to build our own website through volunteer contributions. My boss had a friend who was a computer professional, whom he invited to help us put one up. He then assigned me to follow up with his friend regarding his contribution. It turned out his friend was very busy and couldn't give ample attention to it. His friend decided to give me a crash course on open-source software, web servers, web programming, and content management systems. He pointed me towards online resources for further reading and self-study.

To cut a long story short, I ended up building our firm's website using the open-source Joomla! content management system (CMS). Slowly and little by little, I developed the website and learned along the way. I enjoyed adding features by downloading and uploading packages of code from Joomla's repositories. Most of them were free.

As I gained facility in tweaking the CMS, I tried to make it behave the way my boss wanted. I found that certain features were fairly fixed and inflexible, so I started looking for other options. That was when I discovered Drupal! I was impressed by its flexibility and granularity. With the proper skills and knowledge, one can configure a website precisely as desired and make it appear very different out of the box.

User support and updates come through volunteer contributions from more advanced users. Joomla! and Drupal were two of the leading open-source CMSs with large user communities. I started spending time on their respective forums and bulletin boards. I discovered that users held face-to-face meetings from time to time. I thought to myself, "It would be great to meet these people!"

In the final quarter of 2009, I got wind of a meeting of Drupal users in Manila. They called it DrupalCamp Manila. They had a website, www.drupalcampmanila.com. I was happy it was a free event, so I signed up! I also encouraged a long-lost friend—who I recently discovered was also into website building and design—to sign up too. It was a great bargain for me and killed two birds with one stone: 1) I would meet other open-source web app users and see what they were like, and 2) I would meet my long-lost friend after so many years and catch up on each other's lives!

Fast-forward to the year 2012. After two DrupalCamps (December 2009 and February 2011) and several meetups, Drupal users in the Philippines held the third DrupalCamp Manila on the 25th of February at the UP Marine Science Institute in Quezon City.

I was invited to volunteer, and I enlisted. Perhaps it was the volunteering "bug" I caught way back in 1995 during World Youth Day in Manila that urged me to lend a hand. Or maybe it was the desire to give back to the open-source community, whose many expert members generously shared their talents with the world. I volunteered knowing I was not yet a PHP programmer, just a hobbyist end-user site-builder. During the pre-event planning, I spent some time sharing my thoughts on the various options being considered. I was impressed by the paid features of Basecamp as a project management communication system.

I also volunteered to arrive early to help with the setup. The memorable and exciting days of World Youth Day 1995 came back to me. I was inspired and grateful for a number of generous volunteers who also came early, especially Gian, Czek, Jayson, Nathan, Karen, and Rachel from Promet, along with some members and staff of the Computer Professionals Union (CPU). Chamé, who volunteered to bring her laser printer for the event, arrived a little later, which was understandable: she had driven across the metropolis from the other side of town. Some of the advanced Drupal users—Danreb, Daniel, and Johan—who volunteered to be the first presenters, also arrived early. It was encouraging to see them.

The venue, UP Marine Science Institute, was both challenging and appropriate as a site for tech meetups like DrupalCamp. It was challenging because the Wi-Fi internet connection was unpredictable and unreliable, the session rooms were located in unexpected places, access to the rooms was maze-like, and impromptu signage had to be set up. Yet, it was appropriate in the sense that DrupalCamps are youthful, friendly, relaxed, easygoing, ad hoc, informal, and volunteer-run events.

I also volunteered to assist with the Install Fest, an introductory clinic for first-time Drupal users to get their hands dirty with the system. I felt confident, thinking I was one or two steps ahead of new Drupal users in terms of navigating Drupal's scattered configuration interfaces. Before the event, I reassured myself that I would just be tutoring a small group of beginners. When Install Fest time arrived, I was surprised to find a large number of new attendees! We had to rearrange the session room to accommodate everyone.

I attended two sessions: "Let's Discuss Git!" and "Responsive Design: Start to Finish". The first was informative for a beginner. It offered something to look forward to as a Drupal user gains expertise and begins contributing code back to the project. The second was an introduction to setting up a Drupal-powered site to look appealing and navigable regardless of screen size (smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and laptops).

At the end of the final sessions, everyone was invited to gather in one of the larger rooms for the closing talks. Rachel, the driving force behind Promet who led the event, thanked the volunteers, groups, and attendees for coming. A few freebies were raffled off. Sponsors' representatives (Promet, Solid Hosting, KiteSystems, New Amsterdam Ideas, Computer Professionals Union (CPU), PHP User Group Philippines (phpugph), Turfsite Computing, ITProAsia, and Mozilla Firefox) came forward to give short presentations.

It was a weekend well spent. I was awed by how people with a shared appreciation of open-source software can become friends instantly! I came to realise the aptness of the slogan on the official Drupal website: "Come for the software, stay for the community." It was brilliant!

I would gladly attend other open-source user meetings (such as Joomla!, WordPress, Linux, etc.) if more are held in Manila or nearby. Events like these help one learn and network with like-minded people. I am confident more Drupal-related events will be organised in the near future, and as long as my schedule permits, I will definitely be there again.