Rahul Dewan sent us this story, documenting how the Drupal India Association was formed, and we wanted to reproduce it here to help it reach the greatest audience. As you will read, the Drupal India Association has significantly helped the Drupal community in India work together to grow the community and joins 28 other local associations around the world. The Drupal India Association is a great example of this, and we’re thrilled to see the momentum behind the community there.
The formation of a formal ‘Drupal India Association’
For several years, a conversation about the need to form an India-centric Drupal Association has been doing rounds among Drupal business owners. However, this idea finally found conviction and the necessary determination to push it through, when Shyamala Rajaram signed-off from her position on the Board of the Drupal Association after completing her two-year term.
Shyamala’s voice and tone over the phone call one morning, was so full of enthusiasm and energy that inspite of all my skepticism and reservations of ‘why do we need a legal entity to do all the good work we want to do?’, melted away. “We Indians can make so much more impact in the world of Drupal!”, she said. Almost immediately, under Shyamala’s leadership, was laid the foundation of the ‘Drupal India Association’ (DIA) just before the Drupal Camp Delhi in June 2019.
In my experience, it’s the inertia and if i may, a bit of analysis-paralysis, which holds us back from making a determined push to make things happen. Then started the process of forming a board, enrolling all the business owners and key community members to form a formal board.
The following companies came forward to contribute seed money of Rs.21,00,000 (approx $30,000) to form a kitty:
- Ameex Technologies
- Axelerant Technologies
- Innoraft Technologies
- Open Sense Labs
- QED42
- Srijan Technologies
- Unimity Solutions
The ambition of contribution and influence
By the time Drupal Camp Pune happened in September 2019, what we finally had in place was a functional yet loose governing body — with pretty much every leader from across six cities in India. Inspite of the informality of the board we starting collaborating exceptionally well. On the sidelines of the Pune Camp we stated our ambition of creating a sphere of influence in the entire Indian Ocean Rim, and agreed to not only limit our influence to India.
Board meeting in Pune.
All of the members present were patting ourselves about the high number of contributions that India makes to Drupal. Dipen Chaudhary, the pioneer of the Drupal community in India and our board member, busted our little bubble by reminding the group that it was a classic of ‘quantity of quality’ and that contributions coming from India were much lower in the rung while all the heavy lifting such as contributions to the Drupal Core were made by the west, Americans in particular.
Meanwhile, with Prasad’s help we were able to get initiatives like offering discounted Acquia Certifications at every camp.
Our ‘Big-Hairy-Audacious-Goal’ (BHAG)
After the Chennai Board Meeting
On the sidelines of the Drupal Camp Chennai in December 2019 Shyamala invited—Shri Ramraj the founder of Sify and an advisor and board member of some of the largest Indian IT service companies. We took turns in sharing what we think was inspiring us to come together. Not impressed, Ramaraj prodded us to think of some big goals. He said that coming together is easy, but staying together requires a North Star, and nudged us to think of some big ambitious goals.
Dipen’s reality check of the Indian contributions had been bothering me since our meeting in Pune. Drupal 9 was on the cards. For us, it wasn’t hard to put two-and-two together and suggest an audacious goal of becoming the largest contributor to Drupal 9 by June 2020 when D9 releases. A lot of anxious looks and pin-drop silence later, a consensus was reached— that we are going to go after this goal.
Personally, true to the Indian tradition, i felt like touching Ramraj’s feet, truly living by the Indian tradition of showing respect to Gurus or teachers.
Enter ‘COVID-19’
Under Mukesh’s leadership Drupal Camp Kolkata planned for March 2020 was in full swing. All the funds being raised were for the first time were being raised under the aegis of Drupal India Association. Excitement levels were high.
And then came the Covid crash. Drupal Camp Kolkata was cancelled. All the money from the various sponsors of the camp returned. Down but not out!
Not letting the ball drop
Fortnightly recurring calls and Shyamala showing up on them each & every time, ensured that the group did not fall back into inertia. Our event calendar for Drupal Camps, Meetups, Contribution days agreed to in Chennai, ensured that our activities and also North Star goal remained in sight.
A social promo prepared for excitement of release of Drupal 9
Meanwhile, Piyush Poddar led our social media charge and designed systems to ensure Drupal agencies get into a healthy competition of contributing content to be promoted under DIA.
Drupal Cares
We joined hands as a group to run campaigns for the ‘Drupal Cares’ initiative asking Drupalers in our respective companies to sign up as members and also donate.
Drupal 9 Porting Weekend
Surabhi Gokte worked with Gábor Hojtsy to help organise the Drupal 9 porting weekend on May 22–23. Led by 10 mentors, 45 Indian Drupalers worked on 165+ modules for porting over to D9.
Under Dipen and Rachit’s leadership, Surabhi is now pushing forward to put together a plan for an all-India online event — our next BHAG (phew!). Do look for news on Drupal Groups for this.
Well, what about our North Star?
When we setup our North Star goal we had decided that our developers would ofcourse continue to tag their respective companies but additionally would add DIA as the client.
As i write this post, Drupal India Association, has risen from zilch to being at position #7 on the Drupal Marketplace in terms of contributions.
Drupal contributions listing for DIA
While we will not end up meeting our BHAG ‘by June 2020 when D9 releases’, we will continue to strive as a group to become ‘the largest contributor to Drupal 9’.
All credit to the contributing developers and community members
None of our North Star BHAG could ever be possible without all the unnamed Indian developers working in several member companies who’ve been spending time doing Drupal contributions, including on weekends and after-office hours. Contributors like Prof. Sunthar, Prafful, Vidhatananda, Hussain, Rakhi, Vijay, Surabhi, Sharmila cannot go without mention.
At the Drupal Association, we look forward to hearing more from Rahul and their BHAG.