Last week the local tech community had the chance to shine during Vancouver Digital Week. The week kicked off with the Convergence 09 conference and perhaps the theme stuck with me, but I couldn't help but reflect on Vancouver's position as a city of convergence.

With its film and television industries, the city has long had a reputation as "Hollywood North." It's also home to large gaming industry with many big companies like EA setting up shop in town, a vibrant arts scene and an exciting local music scene that was recently on display as the city hosted the Juno Awards. However, as it was made clear by Ethan Kaplan at nextMedia's Bands, Brands and Audiences, these creative industries can no longer remain isolated.  During Vancouver Digital Week we had the chance to see what's possible when these different industries begin to converge.

I was inspired to see so many grassroots initiatives on display. The folks from W2 and Fearless City were out all week providing awesome coverage of the events and showing off the power of community media (including Raincity's SIFT tool).  Companies like Pixton, who won a popvox award for best user generated content site, are seeing amazing things happen by putting creative tools in the hands of amateurs while others like The Substream, who won the "best digital learning initiative (technology)" award, are building a community independent filmakers and actively helping to foster visual literacy and critical engagement with cinema.These are the kind of initiatives I get really excited about - initiatives that empower individuals and a help build an informed and culturally engaged public. It was great to see companies like Switch being recognized for their cutting edge work and  Invoke Media being recognized for the success of Hootsuite alongside students like Vancouver Film School's Aaron Chiesa being recognized for the thought prevoking film, Iran: A Nation of Bloggers. It's encouraging and a sign of a healthy creative community to see innovation coming from so many different sources.

Congratulations are also in order to all the popvox awards individual standout winners: Danny Robinson for his work at Bootup Labs, Gerri Sinclair from the Centre for Digital Media, Michael Tippet of Now Public and, of course, our good friend and former Raincity President Kris Krug who took home the award for Individual Stand Out in Social Media. Great ideas always take great people who are willing to make the come to life and it seems like Vancouver has no shortage of great people.  Check out the full list of winners here

As technologies continue converge, Vancouver appears to be in an excellent position to be a leader both in Canada and around the world. We've got a lot to be excited about, but now that the celebration is done, it's time to get back to work!

Yesterday, Chapter 3 shared their proposal to hold the next drupalcon in San Francisco. I've had the chance to go through it and it's already got me excited at the possibility.

Frankly, I think it's a great idea. I might be biased; I do love San Francisco and I'll find any excuse I can to get down there. It's a beautiful city with lots to see, so many great places to eat and what seems to be an overabundance of good people. Every time I've visited I've been taken aback by how everyone is so friendly and welcoming. It's definitely a city with a lot going for it. 

I'm also sure that holding DrupalCon in such close proximity to one of the world's best tech communities will be beneficial to the conference itself. The proximity to so many great resources and smart people is bound to make for a great experience for everyone attending. And besides, the last two DrupalCons have been on the East Coast...isn't it time for a move out West?

I'm confident that with the folks from Chapter 3 at the helm, we'll be in good hands. They do great work and have always been committed to building and maintaining a healthy community for the Drupal project. Check out the proposal and give the Chapter 3 folks some love and support if you think it's a good idea.

Last night nextMedia hosted their Vancouver event, Bands, Brands and Audiences, at the new Vancouver Convention and Exhibition centre. Anyone who had been attendeding the Convergence09 conference during they day and chose to skip the evening event to catch the Canucks game definitely missed out. The event featured keynote presentations from Ethan Kaplan, Vice President of Technology for Warner Bros. Records, and Robert H. Reynolds, Lawyer and Manager for the multi-platinum band The Killers. The evening offered a lot of great insight and like many of these events, likely left attendees with more questions than answers - but at least they're good questions to be asking.

Kaplan's presentation on "What the industry can teach us about technological change" addressed many of the changes the music industry has gone through from the prespective of the record label. Gone are the days of payola and likewise the losing battle with file sharing. Kaplan, as VP of technology, has overseen the implementation of a network of over 120 community sites (all built on drupal!) where artists have a space to interact directly with their fans. According to Kaplan, any social media strategy requires four key factors: Deliberation, Adaptability, a Measured Approach and Determination. Social media, unlike other distribution channels, doesn't seem to work well with an out-of-the-box solution. Bands, like their fans, are unique and produce unique relationships. Kaplan did a great job of illustrating how bands are no longer in a position to prescribe their image to their fans, but their image is now negotiated through the relationship they have with their fans.

Reynold's presentation on "promotion, marketing and selling out in the 21st century" spoke to the decisions a band or manager has to make to protect the relationship they have with their audience. In his words, "fans treat their artists like they treat their lovers," so you can't just go around cheating on them. Even with an audience as large The Killers have, Reynolds told of the importance of regular communication with fans as a way of remaining authentic. Selling out, in Reynold's opinion, happens when a band moves away from what kept them authentic. Bands will inevitably change over the course of their career, experimenting with new styles and musical genres, but keeping their audience in the loop can help a band remain authentic. After all, a band isn't much without an audience.

And while the keynote presentations were great, probably one of the most interesting parts of the night was the panel discussion that took place at the end of the evening. The discussion, led by former Raincity Studios president Kris Krug, featured both Kaplan and Reynolds alongside vancouver-based indie artist Adaline, The Beat Music Director JaXon Hawks, and David Gratton, VP Products and Business Director of Work[at]Play. The panelists themselves illustrated the diversity of the music industry, from the independent artist using free online tools to distribute her work to the lawyer who pens multi-million dollar recording contracts for his band that's touring the globe. Likewise the distribution channels, it was great to see the conversation including both new media initiatives alongside traditional radio stations. In this sense, the panel seemed very representative of the music industry itself with everybody trying to figure out how to operate in an industry in flux.

If anything, the only shortcoming of the evening was there just wasn't enough time to really dig into what was being discussed. But the event definitely left people with some great questions, started some great conversations and I'm pretty sure most people left excited about opportunities social media has to offer, not just bands, but anyone with an audience online.

It's been our pleasure to work with two amazing mothers, Pixie and Gail of Thirty Years Multimedia. The pair have been friends for over thirty years and since meeting for the first time in an 8th grade art class, have seen each other through the highs and lows of motherhood. After witnessing how often their friendship had saved them and realizing how fortunate they were to have that support, the pair set about creating a place where mothers from around the world could connect and find that same support from each other. After a lot of hard work, we were very happy to see the pair recently announce the launch of their new community site, MyNameIsMom.com.

As Pixie explains, "The site was really born out of our friendship! We truly believe that Moms don't get enough support and the most media makes things a lot hard harder than they have to be." While Martha Stewart can create unrealistic expectations and the depictions of Mothers in film and on television don't seem to reflect the real experiences of the Moms watching them, Pixie and Gail wanted to create a space where real Mothers themselves could be known, supported and have the chance to really share what motherhood is really all about.

They came to us looking for the tools and expertise to bring this vision to reality and we're very happy with the outcome of our working together. The site features a range of community features allowing mothers to connect, share their experiences, discuss issues important to them and most importantly ask questions and get answers from other real mothers. And while the site gives moms the opportunity to be known and supported by each other, it also gives them the chance to blow off some steam, either publicly in the Rant Room or anonymously in the Secret Confessions section. It's an exciting place where mother's really are in control of the conversation.

According to Pixie, "We just wanted to create a place where all Moms could feel good about themselves, be supported not bombarded, and most of all know that they are not alone on this journey called Motherhood...There's a saying that it takes a village to raise a child and we believe it takes a community to support a Mom!"

The site just launched and we really want to wish them the best and wish them a Happy Mother's Day.  And of course, even though it's only comes once a year, we know how hard every mother works and that every day should be Mother's Day.

Here at Raincity Studios, it's no secret that we love music.  We've enjoyed working with publishers, labels and artists like Spin Magazine, Warner Bros, Sony BMG, The Grateful Dead and Ozzy Osbourne.  And when we're not working with musicians, there's a good chance we're out enjoying their music.   It's a fun and exciting industry and one that has been at the centre of both innovation and controversy in online media.  

That's why we're excited about NextMedia's upcoming event, Brands, Bands & Audiences.   Taking place as part of Vancouver Digital Week, the event is must for anyone interested in the music industry, advertising and broadcasting.   It's a great chance to meet key influencers in the industry and find out about how social technologies can help you to connect with your audience in a meaningful way. As the internet is changing the way artists connect with their fans, it's important to understand what it takes to successfully promote and market brands and artists in the 21st century.

The event features some interesting keynote presentations.  Robert Reynolds, manager of The Killers, will be discussing "Promotion, Marketing and Selling Out in the 21st Century" and Ethan Kaplan, Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros, will be presenting "What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Technological Change".   There's also a great panel discussion planned with Jaxon Hawks, Music Director at The Beat, David Gratton, VP Products and Business Development at Workatplay, Vancouver Singer/Songwriter Adaline, a rising star on Canada's indie music scene, and our good friend Kris Krug, former Raincity Studios president, rock and roll photographer and all-round social media hero.   It's bound to both informative and entertaining.  

The event takes place next Monday, May 11th between 4:00pm and 9:00pm at the new Vancouver Convention and Exhibition centre.  There's a special entry rate available for only $25 so be sure to register before it fills up.  

WebVisions 2009 is just around the corner! The forward-thinking conference exploring design, user experience and the business of working on the web is taking place May 20th-22nd in Portland, Oregon. Raincity Studios has been attending the conference since 2005 and each year it continues one of the best sources of inspiration and innovative thinking for people working in the industry.  

As in the past, this year's lineup features great sessions by some of the leading thinkers and practitioners on the web. I'm excited about a bunch of the sessions.  Peat Bakke's session on Serving the Next Billion will examine the uptake of networked technologies in the developing world. Chris Messina's session on New Assumptions for Designers of the Social Web will examine the changing online landscape and the way social media is shaping the desires, expectations and motivations users. And Jason Grigsby, who spoke at last year's conference, will be presenting on The Future of Mobile and looks like he'll be able to weigh in on the ongoing Applications vs Mobile Browser debate. Of course, I'm just scratching the surface here. There's a little bit of something for everyone - check out the sessions page for more info.

There's also going to be some great workshops taking place on Wednesday May 20th. These sessions allow the presenters to get a little more in-depth and you can register for them separate from the conference itself. There's also some other fun events such as The Webvisionary Awards and some great keynote speakers.  And if free code is a particular vision of the web that gets you excited, you might want to check out the Open Source Bridge conference taking just days before in Portland and the "two conferences for the price of one" special organizers have arranged.   

Our friends at Hot Pepper Studios are helping organize the event again this year.   Raincity Studios is planning to be there to provide some social media coverage and spend some quality time with all of the interesting folks in attendance. We'll keep you posted as our plans and hijinks unfold. If you're in the Vancouver area, why don't you join us? Registration is still open and passes are still available.

Magical things happen when you put a bunch of intelligent and talented people under one roof. Don't miss out on this amazing event.

(photo credit: robert scales and kk+)

In November of 2007, just over a year and half ago, the team at Raincity Studios moved into our beautiful office at 1 Alexander Street in Vancouver's Gastown. It's been a great working environment and everyone has really enjoyed the comfortable open office space, the big bright windows and the beautiful mountain views from our rooftop patio. And while it's been a wonderful home, every season must come to an end and now it's time for us to move on.

Thankfully we're not going that far; our new home is just down the street from our current location. Edit your address book and update your rolodex, as of May 1st, 2009, you can find us at our new address:

Raincity Studios
401 - 68 Water Street
Vancouver, BC, V6B 1A4

Our new offices are smaller and much more quaint. This is sure to be a better fit for the current size of our team and the move is exactly what we need to keep our operations efficient. In the words of our fearless leader, Robert Scales, we're making this move to "keep costs lean" in the midst of an economic downturn. While it's a little sad to be leaving, we know this move is the best thing we can do to keep ourselves agile and innovative. And while our quarters might be a little tighter, it might just mean that the good ideas will be able to spread through the office faster.

We want to say a big thank you to our neighbors and the management team at 1 Alexander Street, especially Ty who has taken particularly good care of us during our tenure here. It's been nice to be above the good folks at Chill Winston and their beautiful patio has made for a great place to spend a sunny afternoon. Now it's time to get to know our new neighbors downstairs at the Lamplighter Pub. So long as pints are still being poured just steps from our offices, I think everyone on the team will be happy.

(photo credit, robert scales, urban mixer, borris man)

Last night, Vancouver beat St. Louis in overtime to win the first round of the NHL playoffs. Canucks pride seems to be soaring here in Vancouver. It's been a long time since we've seen the Stanley Cup in Vancouver but things seem to be looking good this year and after last night's performance, it's clear we've got goalie who's ready for the playoffs. There's no shortage of people on the streets proudly sporting their Canucks paraphernalia and the flags that have been hung in every bar, restaurant and coffee shop seem to suggest that playoff fever has taken hold of the city. Yes, this is the time of year where anyone, even if you weren't paying attention throughout the regular season, you can jump on the bandwagon become a fan.

However, someone who nobody could accuse of being a bandwaggon jumper is Canucks superfan is Dave Olson, former Raincity Studios staffer and the social media hero behind the Canucks Outsider podcast. Olson and his band of merry superfans have been providing analysis and commentary since the 2005-2006 season and offer a refreshing perspective on the Canucks. This isn't your typical post-game wrap up; these are fans talking talking to fans about the team they love. And they also happen to really know they're talking about.

Okay, full disclosure: I'm not really a Canucks fan. I've got nothing against the Canucks and being around the office here has started to make me warm up to the idea, but I happen to be cheering for a team who I'd rather not mention here (for fear being ostracized by my colleagues in the office) and let's just say old allegiances die hard. But even as someone who's not really a canucks fan, I still love the canucks outsider podcast. Having just moved to town, I've been digging through past episodes as a way getting up to speed with what's going on. And Olson's love for the Canucks is a little bit infectious. He's at the games and talking to fans who love their team. It's an exciting application for social media and traditional media outlets have been noticing with Dave recently having a couple of guest appearances on the radio to share his passion and expertise.

And as as a special exercise in playoff fandom, the Canucks Outsider is Broadcasting Live throughout the playoffs. Olson and his guests will be gathering in Dave's North Vancouver superfan headquarters for weekend games throughout the playoffs and anyone can tune in online. After the playoff sweep, it looks like there won't be a broadcast this weekend, but stay tuned for round two. I tuned in to watch the crew during last friday's game and it was a riot. These guys blow away Bill Swerski and it's far more than just a bunch of guys drinking beer and watching hockey. While there's a lot of laughs and everyone seems to be having a great time, Olson and his guests share serious analysis and insight that make watching the game a great experience. And Dave's going to have a bunch of different guests dropping by throughout the playoffs to keep things interesting. Be sure to check it out.

Find the live video stream at uStream, chat with other fans at #canucks-outsider on irc.freenode.net or hook up on Skype at northvandave. Just because you're watching the game at home, it doesn't mean have you have to be alone. Tune in at http://www.hockeynw.com/canucksoutsiderlive

Hi, I'm Jeff. I'm the most recent addition to the Raincity Studios team, taking on the role of Marketing Director, and have just relocated to Vancouver from Montreal. It's only been a couple of weeks and I'm just starting to get acclimated to the city, but my experience thus far has been great. I thought I'd share a few things I've learned about the city so far:

It may not be the best gauge of place, but you can learn a lot about a city by what people tell you when they find out you're moving there. Sure, this kind of assessment is bound to be full of stereotypes; I received several comments about organic food, lulu lemon and general fondness towards the caliber of homegrown decriminalized products. But more than anything, Vancouver seems to be a city that is admired by people everywhere. It falls into the category of "Canadian cities people outside of Canada have heard of" and I often received the same response: "oh, I've always wanted to go there - I've heard it's soooo beautiful!" Well, it's true. Vancouver is beautiful. Even on an gloomy overcast morning, knowing the mountains are just beyond the clouds and ocean's a stone's throw away makes up for it all.

Arriving at the vancouver airport, it's overwhelmingly apparent to any visitor that the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games are coming to Vancouver. From the ubiquitous Inukshuk to the giant sized LED olympic rings that greet you as you're leaving, the airport, like the city, seems painted in olympic colours. And all of this excitement has indeed stirred up a bit of controversy as anticipated costs are beginning to soar and locals residents are voicing their concerns over how the city will be impacted during and after the games.

While the opinions about the games are mixed, everyone I meet at least seems to have one. Some people are very enthusiastic and excited about the attention the games will bring Vancouver while others are more critical of the effect the games will have on the city and local culture. While both sides may never be completely happy with how the games turn out, it's encouraging to at least see so many people engaged and aware of what's happening. Coming off of the last summer olympics in Beijing where media coverage was problematic, I'm excited to see how Vancouver is going to pull this off and hopeful about opportunities for social media creators to record and share their olympic experience. The more people who have an opinion, the more people will be engaged and the more people will participate and help to shape the character of these games and influence how they will be remembered.

And hopefully, many of those olympic experiences will be shared online. My introduction to Raincity Studios and the city of Vancouver was during the 2009 Northern Voice personal blogging and social media conference held this past February at UBC. While conference attendees came from all over, there were plenty of locals and it was a great opportunity to meet all sorts of interesting folks from the ever-active Vancouver blogging community. Everyone was incredibly friendly and it made for a lot of great conversations. Since then I've been trying to get a feel for the city by reading local blogs like Miss604, Vancouver is Awesome and Vancity Buzz. I love seeing the this kind of local media flourish and I've been encouraged by many of the cultural initiatives around networked technologies I've seen taking place in town. The Fearless City project is the kind of stuff that really gets me excited and there are going to be some great opportunities for local innovation coming out of the forthcoming W2 Community Media Arts Centre. I like a city where this kind of social media creation is helping shape the local culture and lived experiences of its residents.

I've really enjoyed my introduction to Raincity Studios and I've learned quickly that the good people in the office like to work hard and play harder. I've enjoyed the active cycling culture and observing the pride people taking in making their way around city using pedal power. I also had the chance to make it up to Whistler and catch some good snow before it was all gone. I've quickly come to appreciate the benifet of living so close to nature. I'm inspired by hearing the outdoor adventure stories of my colleagues and very impressed with all the activity in the streets.

Okay, I feel like it's a bit cliché to mention the rain in Vancouver again, but I think it says something about the people here. I obviously arrived during the very rainy spring season, but I can't tell you how many people have told me not to judge the city by what I'm experiencing now - "just wait until the summer," they say. And like everyone else here, I have no problem waiting. I know a rainy day in Vancouver is still much nicer than a -35 snowstorm in Montreal or a windchill in Alberta that will freeze your eyelids shut. Perhaps that's one of the nice things about Vancouver: even on its worst day, there's always somewhere else in the country that has got it worse. And the mantra, "just wait until summer", is always said with such assurance and optimism. In tough economic times, it feels good to be around people who are still expecting a bright future. A good attitude can go a long way.

Vancouver has a lot to look forward to in the next year and I'm really excited to be here and experience as much of it as I can. I can't think of better place to be and I feel privileged to have joined this great team at Raincity Studios. Everyone has been very welcoming and has made me feel right at home here at the office. And perhaps my experience of Vancouver has been greatly influenced by this interesting bunch of people, but I'm thankful for the insight they've offered and excited about the future here in Vancouver.

In November of 2007, Raincity Studios struck a deal to acquire, Bryght, the pioneering Drupal hosting solutions company. By combining the Raincity Studios development and design team with the hosting expertise of the folks at Bryght, we hoped to provide comprehensive online solutions to a range of clients. The last year and half has been a great learning experience, however it is with regret that today we must announce that effective April 30th, 2009 Bryght hosted services will be phased out with a plan to be closed completely by May 29, 2009.

Over the past five years, Bryght and Raincity Studios have forged many wonderful and productive relationships with partners and clients around the world. We pride ourselves in being able to create mutually beneficial partnerships.  As two companies that emerged at the same time and grew up together in Vancouver, we have had no relationship more meaningful than that with Bryght. The shared vision and complementary personalities of the two companies made for a excellent fit and we believe the cooperative efforts produced great results. 

Bryght was an early player in helping to build the Web 2.0 industry and one of the first group of people to put Drupal publishing tools in the hands of the untrained public (a scary prospect at the time).  As the first commercial venture in the Drupal world, Bryght paved the way for all sorts of individuals who earn a living today using Drupal.  As early innovators and active contributors to the Drupal community, the team at Bryght worked tirelessly to develop the Hostmaster module and Aegir hosting system giving site administrators tools to help manage multiple sites and rapidly deploy new site installations.  Their services, Bryght VPS and Bryght Light, released in 2005 were the first hosted Drupal offerings and made signing up for a turn-key Drupal website simple and effortless for the end user.

Over the past year as we worked to improve our offering by relaunching Bryght.com, and adding new languages (French and Chinese), and upgrading our servers and technology, it became apparent to us that in order to offer competitive pricing and the best possible service to our clients, hosting must be carried out on a scale that is beyond our current capacity and in turn we could not provide you with the level of service that we would expect from anyone else.  

In the midst of an economic downturn we recognize the importance of keeping our company agile and innovative.  At the moment, we want to focus on doing what we're best at: developing and delivering innovative applications and software solutions to power online communities. 

Adrian Rossouw, the architect and father of Aegir, is now part of the great team at developmentseed.org. Together they are committed to continue the effort that he and Bryght put forth over the years. Combined with their internal projects, Context and Spaces, we feel this is a great use of Adrian's talents and opens new options to the technology we helped develop.

We also want to wish the best to our "coopetitors" in the hosting market, especially those offering turn-key hosted Drupal solutions, such as Acquia Gardens and Fields, Lullabot (with their forthcoming and still unnamed entry into the market) and Work Habit’s Elastic2. We recognize that the continued success of these companies is good for everyone in the community and industry.

For our existing Bryght Light and Bryght VPS customers, we thank-you for your business and want you to know that we are committed to making sure your transition to a new hosting provider will be as smooth and painless as possible.  We've partnered with hosting providers Rackspace and Slicehost and will be able to offer you competitive affiliate pricing as well as facilitate the migration of your site to its new home.  Depending on the traffic your site is receiving, we can find the best solution for your needs.  As a Bryght customer, you will receive more information by email today. 

If you have any questions at all, please contact us at transition@bryght.com

This past month, the CRTC, Canada’s telecommunications regulating body, launched an online consultation on internet traffic management practices and invited Canadians to share their opinions on the matter. These traffic management practices, also known as traffic shaping, describe the mechanisms put in place by certain internet service providers (eg, Bell, Rogers, and Telus) to control internet traffic across their network. Though rarely making newspaper headlines, this is a hotly debated issue that is central to the ongoing battle over Net Neutrality.

Proponents of traffic shaping claim that such intervention is necessary for the proper maintenance of networks and to ensure that certain online activities (eg, voip telephony and peer-to-peer file sharing), aren’t using up network resources. Meanwhile, critics claim that these practices violate the principals of network neutrality - principals that that have made the internet into the site of innovation that it is today.

Network Neutrality is based on the premise that Internet Service Providers are not allowed to exert control over the information that flows across its network. This means an ISP can't arbitrarily block access to website, as Telus did in July of 2005, and they cannot slow down traffic to a particular website or online service, such as Bell's throttling of peer-to-peer bandwidth which slows down access to services like Skype and BitTorrent. Simply put, anyone who logs on the internet should be given equal access to any website or service, regardless of how the ISP's feels about it.

Working at Raincity Studios, I’m keenly aware of the fact that my job and this industry might have not existed if not for the principals of network neutrality. Drupal, the open source cms developed by a community of individuals around the world who are committed to openness, is excellent example of the innovation that is made possible by the internet. While ISPs want to influence how the internet is used, it’s been the fact that our use is unrestricted that has given people the freedom to dream up new ideas and put them into action. There’s no way Tim Berners-Lee could have predicted the astounding range of applications that use the internet today, but in designing the network to be open, he allowed anyone to be a potential source of innovation. It for this reason that I’m personally a proponent for net neutrality. Without these protections, we wouldn’t have, as Lawrence Lessig has described, the “innovation commons” that we do today.

But there’s no guarantee that that this commons will remain unless we’re willing to protect it. Please don't just take my opinion for it, do your research and come to your own decision. There's lots of information out there so you can start by just googling “net neutrality” - you can even find 5 ways to Test if you ISP Throttles your bandwidth. Here are some links to bring you started:

CBC's Net Neutrality Frequently Asked Questions
A informative post by Michael Geist - his whole website is good
Netutrality.ca - A Pro Net Neutrality resource
What is Net Neutrality - A research project by CRACIN
Save our Net - A coalition of citizens, businesses and public interest groups
Canadians for Net Neutrality Facebook Group

And you can do more! Figure out how to get in touch with your local MP (here) and write them a letter, send them an email, or give them a call - anything you can do to let you know your concerned about what's going on.

And of course, participate in the public forum. The CRTC’s online consultation will be open until April 30th, 2009. After the forum closes, a full transcript of the discussion threads will be placed on the public record of the hearing that starts on July 6th 2009. While it’s hard to determine how the CRTC will actually use feedback collected in the forum, at a minimum your participation will encourage future engagement with the public in this manner.

Civic Actions recently posted their Estimating Worksheet, a tool to help generate project proposals from Request For Proposal documents (RFPs). It's awesome that they are sharing this tool with the community (under CC Attribution Share Alike 3.0 license) and I would like to thank them for doing so.

The tool is a fairly complex spreadsheet which is quite well done. The worksheet approaches proposal generation in a similar fashion to the process we follow here at Raincity Studios (RCS). It's not hard to imagine that a similar method would be used at other Drupal and non-Drupal software development shops.

The worksheet provides a structure for the breakdown of the information contained in an RFP into digestible tasks. Consequently, it becomes easier to attribute values to each of the site components such as work areas (like theming or engineering) and to estimate the time required to complete the tasks. The end goal is to generate an information set that helps define the scope of the project, attribute a monetary value to it, and generate documentation to be submitted to your potential client.

The rest of this article assumes that you have a basic familiarity with proposal generation, project scoping, and production management. Furthermore, some of the terms used may sound cryptic if you haven't yet had a peek at Civic Actions' Estimating Worksheet.

Two aspects of this worksheet that I feel are refreshing and that have the potential to bring a clearer perspective to the process are:

1. building two concurrent proposals - one based solely on the RFP and the other that accounts for your recommendations; and,
2. the Certainty Factor.

Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail...

The Recommendation Estimate sheet allows for the generation of a totally separate proposal based on the RFP requirements and what you, as a Drupal expert, estimate would be an appropriate solution to meet the client's requirements. This contrasts from traditional RFP-bound proposal generation, as it allows for matching features with out-of-the-box Drupal functionality in order to simplify development/maintenance and potentially lower project costs.

For example: The project requires feature X that, if implemented as expressed in the RFP, would take Y hours to complete. However, you may suggest an existing contributed module which can meet most of the requirements, in a slightly different fashion, for a fraction of Y.

In RCS proposals, there is often a set of requirements that contain more than one associated cost estimate. As a result, it is difficult to come up with a “final number” that takes into consideration the potential variations in how features might be implemented.

Civic Actions' tool provides a very interesting way of viewing different sets of information (i.e. two separate proposals). This can facilitate discussion with clients about the different ways a project could be built. (Check out how the “RPB” column makes this process painless!)

Now let's have a look at the Certainty Factor...

It's always a challenge to assign a satisfying completion time estimate to a feature with a lot of unknowns (e.g. one that is poorly-defined or requires the use of cutting-edge technology). This is especially true in the context of projects with a tight budget or timeline. The spreadsheet includes the concept of Certainty Factor, which rates the level of uncertainty you might have for any given feature. A Certainty Factor for the entire project is also generated.

Having high/low estimates can provide a useful launching point for discussing with your client the features that are to be kept or dropped from the project; those that can be simplified or enhanced; and those which can be moved to subsequent phases of the project.

I can think of another potentially interesting use of the Certainty Factor. It could also be used as a good indicator of the types of projects your company wants to take on. Depending on your team's resources (availability, skills, experience, etc.) and the type of clients and constraints you would be working with (budget, timeline, client attitude, etc.), you may conclude that a project with a Certainty Factor greater than value X presents a risk factor too high for your organization. You can then pass the lead on to other Drupal agencies who would be better suited for this type of project.

Similarly, if you're interested in being on the bleeding edge and like to take risks, or if your developers need something new and exciting to work on, you may want to look at projects with a greater uncertainty factor.

One of the weaker aspects of this tool relates to project duration. Unless I missed something, the project duration is not a calculated value. I am sure it's possible to guess a time span based on the size of the project, available resources, and experience. However, I think that if intuition is combined with a more rational approach, a more precise estimation is to be expected.

In the spirit of releasing early and often, I am pleased to contribute to this tool by adding a system that can help you determine the project duration with better accuracy. Three sheets have been added to the Estimating Worksheet to create version 1.2 (?) of the document .

Here is an overview of the added functionality:

• The Resources sheet is where you enter the name of your team members. You will also be able to associate each of your resources with a weekly “production time”.
• The Assignments sheet is where you couple a Resource with an Area of Work.
• Areas are high level task groupings. Areas were available in the 1.1 version of the document. However this new Areas sheet abstracts them a step further. Areas can be defined on a project basis but they will most likely always be the same across projects. This sheet also gives you an overview of how much time each Area will take to be completed, based on available resources.

Other features are:

• Ability to determine the level of “involvement” a resource would have in a project.
• Ability to assign a resource to multiple Areas.
• Areas dependencies (single) (i.e. Area C can depend on Area B, but not on Areas A & B).
• Areas durations inheritance (i.e. Area C start date depends on Area B , which depends on Area C).
• Generation of low, high and average project duration.
• Anticipated start date and Estimated end date.

Of course, there are shortcomings - this is, after all, a spreadsheet... Here are a few I can think of: multiple dependencies, exceptions to schedules (e.g. for vacations, sick days, etc.) and ability to view resource allocation across multiple projects. Regardless, I feel this constitutes an overall improvement on the 1.1 version. I would be happy to continue to collaborate in making this tool better.

Please read the notes embedded in the document. Thanks for reading!

The "featured content rotator" seems to have become a standard feature in our client sites - a front page device for promoting content, using nice "flashy" effects during auto-rotation between promoted items. For Drupal 5 sites I ended up always working off the same custom module I had built for the first one and having to tweak it according to different client requirements: Did they want tabs? Did they want pause and play buttons? Should navigation be triggered on tab click or on tab hover? And so on. I had been thinking to myself I should really get around to writing a one-module-fits-all solution, where these options would just be different configuration settings. Well, I am now certain I will never write such a module. Recently, we needed to implement a rotator feature for a D6 client site. I had heard vaguely that there were D6 modules available but until I came across this post in the Duplicated Modules Hall of Shame on groups.drupal.org I had no idea that so many developers had contributed their own version of this feature.

So I set about evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the various alternatives and figured while I was at it I should draw up a full comparison to help others choose between them. The comparison document is under the "Comparisons of contributed modules" section in the Drupal Handbook and you can find it here. As I went through the different modules I really was incredulous at the amount of duplicated effort, and many of the developers still seem to have plans to enhance their modules' functionality in directions that would only bring them closer to others that are already there. However, I was happy to discover that the developers of two of the most impressive (and most similar!) options - Views Cycle and Views Rotator - are already discussing consolidation. Awesome rotator module developers unite - yay! :-)