Hi everyone, I joined the ixda mailing list 3 years ago and it has contributed immensely to my personal growth as an ixd practitioner. The in-depth design discussions in this community are a true treasure trove.
However, even with 10'000 members, I consider it still somewhat one of the internet's "best kept secrets". IMHO, the current website doesn't succeed well in representing the power of this community. I've been glad to learn about the plans to revamp the ixda site. Even better, I'm thrilled about the recent decision to use Drupal as a technological base. I joined the Drupal community 3 years ago and it has been instrumental in helping me to stay up to date with the latest web trends / developments. In my opinion, the best kept secret about Drupal is that its power is not so much the technology - a web content management framework. The power lies in the up-to-date technology discussions in the community. As an added bonus, Drupal developers build some of technology in discussion and release it to the world, as usable software, free to use and modify by anyone (it's open source). There has been some talk here recently about 'open source user experience' and collaborating with open source movement and learning from each other. Well, here is the chance staring right at you! According to the plan of the IxDA Board, the new Drupal-based platform (code-named "Conan") will likely comprise local groups, an events calendar, member profiles and improved discussion tools. Well, all of that is available on groups.drupal.org today, free to use. Therefore, any IxDA members who would like to get first hand experience of what functionality currently exists in Drupal Groups, feel free to have a look for yourself: http://groups.drupal.org/interaction-designers-network Feel free to join the group and start experimenting, providing feedback, constructive criticism, etc. Collaborating on the ready-to-use infrastructure there will achieve two things: A.) You can help to shape the future networking platform of your very own community. B.) You can start to engage an amazing community of clued-in technologists. Dave Malouf has pointed out that the culture of open source software is one where "code contribution is king". True. However, you might find yourself surprised. I feel that the Drupal community is insofar special, as it is - at large - very aware of what design brings to the table. The spirit of OSS is grounded in open collaboration. To me, it is the future - come and engage with it! -- :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::. Philipp Schroeder DIN15 / Information Architecture & Interaction Design www.din15.org, phil...@din15.org ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
