Day 3 at DrupalCon DC 2009

My first impression of DrupalCon was amazement at the sophistication of the market. Drupal is hardly a household word, yet 1400 people showed up (sold out at $400 per person). In a spirit reminiscent of the dot com boom, Drupal is attracting resources, support and an infrastructure rivaling the proprietary world.

Lots of technical information exchanged but I suspect the real reason people come is the face to face interaction you can't get from a book or the web. Among the many sponsors and exhibitors, two stood out for me. One was Sun Microsystems which is undergoing a full fledged business revolution. A firm commitment to reducing environmental impact, hardware discounts and venture capital connections for startups, free and open source software (such as MySQL and NetBeans) and representatives that can hold their own in a discussion on opera and Mexican coffee.

The second was hotdrupal.com and Steve Brown. Steve offers web hosting and dedicated servers with the focus, attention and mindfulness of a Zen master. It is hard to imagine a better person to partner with in the web business.

Today, I will hit the business track. Staying alilve while engaging free software is always a bit of a trick; maybe this old dog can learn a few new ones.