The Drop Times: Transparency, Participation, and Collective Ownership
Dear Readers,
The Drupal community has long understood the web as shared infrastructure. It is not only a tool for publishing or development, but a space where people collaborate, contribute, and take collective responsibility for digital progress. Transparency, open participation, and shared ownership are central to how Drupal has evolved and how its community continues to grow.
The recent endorsement of the United Nations Open Source Principles by the Drupal Association reflects a broader shift in how global institutions approach digital governance. The UN’s focus on openness by default, secure and inclusive design, and sustainability aligns closely with the Drupal community’s long-standing practices. This moment highlights the increasing visibility of open source values at an international level and validates the work that communities like Drupal have been doing for decades.
For Drupal contributors, this is not a change in direction but a reinforcement of what has already proven to work. It affirms that building digital infrastructure in the public interest requires more than code. It requires a commitment to open processes, active engagement, and a shared sense of ownership over the tools and spaces we create together.
INTERVIEWS- Helping New Drupal Developers Cross the Gap Between Learning and Real-World Contribution
- Sowing Opportunity, Reaping Innovation: George DeMet on the Power of Inclusive Drupal Development
- Drupal Association 2025 Board Election: Nominations Open 19 May
- Drupal Association Opens Survey on Site Templates Marketplace Governance
- New Drupal Pretty Printer Streamlines Automated Code Formatting
- MidCamp 2025 in Focus: Inside the Drupal Event Built by and for the Community
- DrupalCamp Ruhr 2025 Set for 12–13 September in Essen, Germany
- European Drupal Working Group to Be Introduced at Drupaljam 2025
- DrupalCon Vienna 2025 Opens Volunteer Registration for On-Site Roles
- Call for Session Proposals Opens for LocalGov Drupal Camp 2025
- DrupalCon Nara 2025 Opens Call for Session Proposals Ahead of November Event
- How Kanopi Rebuilt the Hamilton Education Site for Better Access and Engagement
- Fabien Potencier Named CTO of Platform.sh, Succeeding Co-Founder Damien Tournoud
- OSU Open Source Lab Secures One-Year Lifeline, Shifts Focus to Long-Term Sustainability
We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now.
To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.
Thank you,
Sincerely
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.
Jacob Rockowitz: Drupal, Schema.org, and AI for Government
Last week, I had the honor of conducting a webinar for Drupal4Gov about "Drupal, Schema.org, and AI for Government." I recently connected with the organizers of Drupal4Gov at DrupalCon Atlanta. Although unsure if I could attend and possibly present at Drupal GovCon, they invited me to do a webinar, and I said yes.
For the past two years, I have been working on and discussing the Schema.org Blueprints module. I have several decks and slides presenting different aspects and approaches to using the module, so conducting a webinar would not be difficult for me. Meanwhile, my experience at DrupalCon Atlanta changed my opinion about the importance of embracing AI.
Hence, I committed to mixing a little AI into my webinar…. Okay, I mixed a lot of AI into this presentation. I would go as far as to say that ChatGPT was my co-presenter, being more knowledgeable about the Schema.org specification than me, while I had more expertise with blending Schema.org into Drupal.
I had no slides for the webinar, just prompts and two demos. I was optimistic that I could have a conversation with ChatGPT that showed the value and potential of embracing AI.
I encourage you to watch the recording below to see why I’m excited about playing with AI. You can also jump to the end to catch my favorite moment from the Q&A, which reveals the inspiration for this blog post's main image.
Read MoreThe Drop Times: From Chennai to San Francisco, With Drupal in Between
Salsa Digital: Richard's DrupalSouth talk on feature recipes
Salsa Digital: DrupalSouth 2025 — session review
Salsa Digital: Kristen Pol at DrupalCon Atlanta 2025: A summary
Drupal Association blog: The Drupal Association Endorses the United Nations Open Source Principles
The United Nations Digital Technology Network has recently adopted a new set of Open Source Principles to promote collaboration and drive open source adoption within the UN and around the world. These principles position open source as the default approach for digital projects, encourage contributions back to the ecosystem, foster inclusion and community building, and much more.
The Drupal Association is proud to endorse these principles. As the non-profit organization that supports the Drupal project, already the standard technology platform for the United Nations’ web presence, we wholeheartedly believe that these principles will advance both digital sovereignty and the long-term sustainability of the open source ecosystem.
The UN Open Source Principles
- Open by default: Making Open Source the standard approach for projects
- Contribute back: Encouraging active participation in the Open Source ecosystem
- Secure by design: Making security a priority in all software projects
- Foster inclusive participation and community building: Enabling and facilitating diverse and inclusive contributions
- Design for reusability: Designing projects to be interoperable across various platforms and ecosystems
- Provide documentation: Providing thorough documentation for end-users, integrators and developers
- RISE (recognize, incentivize, support and empower): Empowering individuals and communities to actively participate
- Sustain and scale: Supporting the development of solutions that meet the evolving needs of the UN system and beyond.
In June 2023, the Drupal Association adopted its own Open Web Manifesto, which guides both our non-profit operations and the Drupal open source project. The manifesto is grounded in five core principles and three essential requirements.
The principles are that the open web:
- is built on freedom: No permission is required to learn, build, or innovate. Anyone, anywhere, can contribute to its growth.
- is defined by decentralization: No single person or entity controls the open web.
- thrives on inclusion: Everyone, regardless of background, identity, ability, wealth, or status has a place on the open web as a user, creator, architect, or innovator.
- requires participation: It is a shared resource and a shared responsibility, sustained through collective effort.
- exists for empowerment: It is driven by humanity’s pursuit of knowledge, connection, and progress, and is strengthened by each individual’s right to choice, privacy, and security.
The requirements are that the open web must:
- protect — not exploit — personal data and public discourse
- enable the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to compete
- be resilient to a changing world and not controlled by a select few.
We believe the alignment between the Drupal Association’s Open Web Manifesto and the United Nations’s Open Source Principles is both strong and significant. As open source continues to power digital transformation globally, we look forward to a future where individuals, organizations, and governments invest in our digital public spaces with the same care and commitment as our physical ones.
amazee.io: Webinar: AI for Drupal - Private-by-Design
MidCamp - Midwest Drupal Camp: There’s something for everyone at MidCamp 2025 - Book your training
MidCamp is just around the corner! Join us May 20–22 for three days of connection, collaboration, and innovation.
In addition to our full program, we have lots of awesome add on training options available for just $10. All training sessions will take place Tuesday 2-5pm with two continuing on the Wednesday afternoon, it’s not to late to add to your ticket.Check out our extensive training opportunities
Using the Drupal AI ModuleTraining Lead by: Chris Weber Software Engineer, Nerdery & Justin Keiser, Drupal Web Programmer, Academy of Model Aeronautics
AI is everywhere... including Drupal! The advances for site builders using AI are pretty amazing! This course will provide a solid overview of what's available right now in both Drupal 11 and DrupalCMS and where the AI module is going.
This will be a hands-on course (if you want to try for yourself) for both Drupal 11 and Drupal CMS. No AI experience necessary, however you will need a paid account with OpenAI (or another API provider) - we're starting from scratch!
Introduction to Agile and Git Workflows for Web DevelopersTraining Lead by: April Sides, Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat
Note this training will be 2 parts continuing on Wednesday at 1pm
Developing websites within a team is a very different experience than building a site alone or with one or two other developers.
This hands-on training aims to build surface-level understanding of Agile and Gitflow, two common web development workflows for teams, from a developer’s perspective. You’ll learn about tips and tools to get you started, as well as resources for deeper exploration.
Drupal CMS PreviewTraining Lead by: Michael Anello, Drupal Trainer & Developer, DrupalEasy
Note this training will be 2 parts continuing on Wednesday at 1pm
Drupal CMS has the potential to reset the perception of Drupal and is arguably one of the most important projects undertaken by the Drupal community. Helping folks get a better understanding of Drupal CMS will help participants have a positive first impression, lead to informed word-of-mouth and help perceptions, and in turn increase adoption. The course will provide a hearty introduction to some of Drupal CMS' main functionality with highly hands-on demonstrations and exercises.
Franken Theme - Reverse engineering contributed themesTraining Lead by: Bernardo Martinez, Front-End Developer, Vaultes
Drupal has a large ecosystem of contributed and core themes. A lot of pieces can be reused and repurposed on custom themes. However, awareness about said themes and their quality of life improvements can at times be missed. Learning from different projects, this training will walk you through some scenarios and why those snippets, hooks, and modules, could come in handy.
Drupal DecoupledTraining Lead by: Jesus Manuel Olivas CEO & Co-Founder, Octahedroid
Discover how the Drupal Decoupled project leverages modern frontend frameworks and GraphQL APIs to transform traditional Drupal setups into Decouple implementations.
This session will show you how you can use Drupal as an API-driven CMS to build digital experiences, offering practical insights into decoupled architectures.
Secure your place on a training
Stay in the LoopJoin the MidCamp Slack and some hang out with the community online. We will be making announcements there from time to time. Join us on our socials too (linked in the footer), we’re also on Bluesky and Mastodon.
Keep an eye on this space; we will be releasing more blog posts with hotel and travel options, fun social events, speaker announcements, and more!
The Drop Times: Helping New Drupal Developers Cross the Gap Between Learning and Real-World Contribution
eiriksm.dev: Drupal deployment confidence part 1: Composer install
You might find it strange that the first part is about composer install. Or maybe you find it weird to mention at all, since all steps will inherently need to do this at some point. Well in that case I will point out that the goal here is to make sure no one has an excuse to not have a CI pipeline. And guess what? Having a pipeline that runs composer install is infinitely better than having no CI pipeline. You can imagine the feeling going from no checks to this for the first time?
We will get back to having composer install as parts of running tests and linting, but for now let's dwell a bit about what we have here and why. You see, composer as a dependency manager is a tool, and the tool will gladly do what you tell it to do. So if you (or a developer on your team) told it to upgrade all dependencies it would. In many cases that could be totally fine. But this could in fact also bump other requirements like PHP versions or PHP extensions. Awkwardly, a worst case outcome could in fact be that a deployment to the production environment went wrong, for example with a message like:
Composer detected issues in your platform: Your Composer dependencies require a PHP version “>= 8.3.0”.There are several variations of that, plus other things that could go wrong.
So if you ever experienced that error, there is in fact a very simple solution: Add a pipeline to your project that mirrors your production PHP version, and simply have a test for composer install! Just like this article suggests.
Direct link to pipeline for Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/eirikmorland/drupal-confidence/src/part-1/bitbucket-pipelines.yml
Direct link to pipeline for GitLab: https://gitlab.com/eiriksm/drupal-confidence/-/blob/part-1/.gitlab-ci.yml?ref_type=heads
Direct link to pipeline for GitHub: https://github.com/eiriksm/drupal-confidence/blob/part-1/.github/workflows/test.yml
If this article means you went from no pipelines or tests to exactly one: Congratulations! Let's celebrate this with a gif from the times long before the times of composer.
eiriksm.dev: Drupal Deployment Confidence: I always Quadringentoheptapentacontuple-check my code before deploying
I wanted to make a little word play on the process I have observed many people have around updating their Drupal sites. People tend to say they don't have time or budget to have CI pipelines or tests, and instead what they do is they "double check" that everything looks ok in a staging environment. I never do that. Instead I have tests and a CI pipeline. For example. I just checked the builds of https://violinist.io, and it has 457 tests. So I went ahead and asked Chat GPT to help me a bit:
If I checked something twice I double checked. If I checked it 3 times I triple checked. 4 times quadruple checked. What would 457 times be then?
Chat GPT told me no one uses it like that, and that it's “grammatically tortured”. I was repeatedly advised against using it:
If you really wanted a made-up but linguistically inspired version:
"Quadringentoheptapentacontuple-checked" (457-checked)
quadringento = 400
hepta =7
pentaconta = 50 But again this is deep into nerdy satire territory, like something you'd read in a Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett book.
OK, my trusty AI friend. I accept the warning, but being in nerdy satire territory does not sound too bad. So with that introductory explanation of the title out of the way. Let me proceed with helping people increase their Drupal deployment confidence.
My last post about documenting the amount of commits and numbers around automatically updating Drupal projects received a bit of feedback. Most were in the category of surprise or being impressed with the large number. Then I randomly stumbled upon someone discussing the article on LinkedIn.
Emmons Michael Patzer says:
I enjoy his points. would enjoy even more seeing all the project work flow updates he indicates he runs. Lift the hood off some of that magic for the rest of us…
There is an underlying complement there I guess I will take. But the workflows are anything but magic.
Well let's walk through it shall we. First I can list up the checks:
- composer install
- composer validate
- phpcs
- phpstan
- phpunit
- behat
- site install
- site schema
- clean repo check
In a couple short blog posts I will attempt to recreate this setup in the three major version control providers (GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket) and let's see how magic it feels then?
The repository will be a simple Drupal site with a couple of contrib modules, and one custom module. The repos can be found here:
https://github.com/eiriksm/drupal-confidence
https://bitbucket.org/eirikmorland/drupal-confidence
https://gitlab.com/eiriksm/drupal-confidence
I'm going to finish this blog with an animated gif, supposedly being a result for the search term "Quadringentoheptapentacontuple"
Nonprofit Drupal posts: May Drupal for Nonprofits Chat
Join us THURSDAY, May 15 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)
We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits. Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!
All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.
This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.
-
Join the call: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81817469653
-
Meeting ID: 818 1746 9653
Passcode: 551681 -
One tap mobile:
+16699006833,,81817469653# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,81817469653# US (Houston) -
Dial by your location:
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) -
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpV1o65N
-
- Follow along on Google Docs: https://nten.org/drupal/notes
The Drop Times: How Kanopi Rebuilt the Hamilton Education Site for Better Access and Engagement
Specbee: Exposing your API in Drupal - A brief tutorial
Golems GABB: AI framework in Drupal
Today, Drupal is truly one of the top and most powerful CMS. The introduction of AI and the new features to Drupal reveal its capabilities and incredible prospects for business owners. All these advancements also significantly change the approach to web development and website optimization on the already popular Drupal platform. That is why today, we will discuss the topic of the AI framework in Drupal together.
Drupal Starshot blog: Marketplace Share Out #4: Building Trust, Governance, and Real-World Value
In our previous share out, we focused on why contributors might engage in a Marketplace and the kinds of value they’re looking for. Since then, we’ve turned our attention to something even more foundational—trust.
If we want the Marketplace to succeed, contributors, agencies, and end users must believe:
- Templates are high-quality and secure
- Contributors are treated fairly and transparently
- There are clear, enforceable standards for what gets listed
That’s the work we’re deep in now.
What Builds Trust?Across our first two surveys, last week’s Slack prompt, and the Hopes & Fears Jam conducted at the Quarterly Drupal Certified Partner Webinar, three critical trust signals have emerged:
1. Clear Quality Standards—Published and EnforcedTemplates must meet defined standards for code quality, security, accessibility, and UX. Contributors want to know what “good” looks like before they invest time; end users want confidence before they adopt.
If the Marketplace becomes a dumping ground for mediocre or insecure templates, it will actually hurt Drupal.”
"Templates should be clearly rated on accessibility, code quality, and what modules they’re pre-styled for.”
The Week #5 prompt in #drupal-cms-marketplace dives directly into this question:
“What accessibility, security, or coding standards should be required for free and/or paid site template listings—and how should they be verified?”
We’d love to hear your thoughts!
2. Trustworthy Governance and AccountabilityPolicy alone doesn’t build trust—clear enforcement and transparency do. People want to know someone is actively ensuring fairness and protecting the ecosystem.
Governance modeled after the Security Team would give me confidence someone’s watching the store.”
"What’s the dispute process if I think something’s plagiarized or violates guidelines?”
The Marketplace Working Group met last week to begin shaping a draft governance model grounded in your feedback. While still early, this work is focusing on:
- Who might set and enforce Marketplace rules
- How listings might be reviewed and approved
- How disputes and appeals may be handled
-
What may be required to maintain a listing over time
The Marketplace must offer both recognition and a fair value exchange. Contributors want clear attribution, visibility for upstream maintainers, and thoughtful revenue models that strengthen—rather than undermine—Drupal’s open-source values.
I don’t mind people making money—but I want to know how it flows back to the people maintaining the ecosystem.”
Progress on Governance: Turning Feedback into StructureThe Marketplace Working Group’s emergent governance framework is designed to create a Marketplace that is socially, technically, and financially responsible—and deeply aligned with Drupal’s open-source mission.
The scope of the framework includes:
- Submission and Review Guidelines: Clear public standards for what qualifies as a free, certified, and/or paid template—including accessibility, security, and code quality.
- Monetization and Revenue Sharing Models: Exploring how paid listings can fairly compensate contributors while also supporting module maintainers, the DA, and the ecosystem as a whole.
- Security and Quality Assurance: Establishing review processes to certify templates and flag those that are outdated or poorly maintained—ensuring users can clearly see the trust signals they need.
- Dispute Resolution and Appeals: Drafting a lightweight, transparent approach to handling conflicts fairly and consistently.
- Transparency and Community Feedback: Creating a clear process for proposing and reviewing policy changes with full community input.
This work is just beginning, and ongoing feedback will help shape what comes next.
How You Can Get InvolvedYour input is critical to shaping a Marketplace that reflects Drupal’s values and strengthens our ecosystem. Here’s how to get involved this week:
- Take Survey #3: Marketplace Governance and Community Values.
Help us understand your expectations for fairness, openness, and revenue models. - Join the Slack Discussion – Share your views on Slack in #drupal-cms-marketplace:
“What accessibility, security, or coding standards should be required for free and/or paid site template listings—and how should they be verified?” - Participate in the Ecosystem Roundtable – Participate in the Drupal Certified Partner and Agency Roundtable to share your perspective directly: 15 May 2025 | 15:30 UTC Register now.
Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #502 - TD Cafe #001 Martin and Jake
Welcome to the first episode of Talking Drupal Cafe.
Join Martin and Jake as they delve into an insightful conversation exploring the challenges and responsibilities associated with being a module maintainer. Discussing project types, the significance of sandbox modules, the impact of Drupal CMS, and the role of AI tools, they highlight issues around burnout, sustainability, and community support. Discover how the Drupal community can better support maintainers and the importance of continued contributions. This episode also touches on upcoming conferences and the significance of face-to-face interactions in the Drupal community.
Martin Anderson-ClutzMartin is a highly respected figure in the Drupal community, known for his extensive contributions as a developer, speaker, and advocate for open-source innovation. Based in London, Ontario, Canada, Martin began his career as a graphic designer before transitioning into web development. His journey with Drupal started in late 2005 when he was seeking a robust multilingual CMS solution, leading him to embrace Drupal's capabilities. (mandclu.com)
Martin holds the distinction of being the world's first Triple Drupal Grand Master, certified across Drupal 7, 8, and 9 as a Developer, Front-End Specialist, and Back-End Specialist. (TheDropTimes) He also possesses certifications in various Acquia products and is UX certified by the Nielsen Norman Group. (mandclu.com)
Currently serving as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Acquia, Martin has been instrumental in advancing Drupal's ecosystem. He has developed and maintains several contributed modules, including Smart Date and Search Overrides, and has been actively involved in the Drupal Recipes initiative, particularly focusing on event management solutions. (mandclu.com) His current work on the Event Platform aims to streamline the creation and management of event-based websites within Drupal. (TheDropTimes)
Beyond development, Martin is a prominent speaker and educator, having presented at numerous Drupal events such as DrupalCon Barcelona and EvolveDrupal. He is also a co-host of the "Talking Drupal" podcast, where he leads the "Module of the Week" segment, sharing insights on various Drupal modules. (mandclu.com) Martin's dedication to the Drupal community is evident through his continuous efforts to mentor, innovate, and promote best practices within the open-source landscape.(TheDropTimes)
Jacob RockowitzJacob is a prominent figure in the Drupal community, best known for developing and maintaining the Webform module—one of the most widely used and feature-rich form-building tools in the Drupal ecosystem. His work has significantly enhanced Drupal's capabilities in form creation, data collection, and user interaction.
Rockowitz began his Drupal journey while working as a consultant for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), where he spent over 18 years. Facing the need for robust form functionality during MSK's early adoption of Drupal 8, he created YAML Form, which later evolved into the Webform module for Drupal 8 . This module has since become integral to many Drupal sites, offering extensive features for form management.(design4drupal.org)
Beyond Webform, Jacob has contributed to other projects like the Schema.org Blueprints module, aiming to improve structured content modeling in Drupal. He is also an advocate for open-source sustainability, often discussing the importance of community involvement and the challenges of maintaining large-scale open-source projects .(talkingdrupal.com, jrockowitz.com)
As an active member of the Drupal community, Rockowitz frequently speaks at events such as DrupalCon and New England Drupal Camp, sharing his insights on module development and community engagement . He maintains a personal blog at jrockowitz.com, where he writes about his experiences and thoughts on Drupal development.(Drupal)
For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/502
Topics- Introduction to Project Maintenance
- Types of Projects and Their Significance
- Sandbox Modules and Work Projects
- Passion Projects and Inherited Projects
- Challenges in Managing Multiple Modules
- The Role of Recipes in Project Management
- AI and Automation in Project Maintenance
- The Future of Project Maintenance and Contributions
- Evolving Drupal and Community Contributions
- Enterprise Features and the Trash Module
- Marketplace and Site Templates
- AI and the Future of Web Development
- Contribution Credits and Bounties
- Guiding Users and Module Selection
- Drupal Adjacent Solutions
- Sustainability of Contribution
- The Importance of Community Engagement
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com jrockowitz
mandclu: Smart Menu Links: Drupal navigation with the power of Views
In my recent work on the Drupal Event Platform, one of the most ambitious changes has been changing the architecture to support multiple events. That means that an annual Drupal camp can retain the content of previous years while collecting session submissions for an upcoming event. It also means that the platform can support multiple events per year if needed, similar to events.drupal.org.
mandclu May 12, 2025 - 11:32am Tags