My blog

In Lynda.com's Drupal Essential Training video series, I said:

"...you shouldn't use Drupal if it's going to be an extremely high-traffic or mission-critical site. If it's necessary to have this site online to save lives, you should probably use something else or at least have something else as a backup. If you're going to run something that's going to have millions and millions and millions of page views, probably Drupal is not the right solution -- although I should mention, Drupal does run very popular sites." --"Choosing Drupal" video, timecode approx. 5:00

This assertion was questioned by Stephanie Pakrul (stephthegeek) of TopNotchThemes in her review this past September. Now it's being discussed again in this thread on Drupal.org -- although I have to say that that particular thread is throwing off more heat than light. :-/

I originally made that statement based on past criticisms of PHP and MySQL... but now am coming to think that my understanding of these bottlenecks might be obsolete. Alexa says that theonion.com -- probably the highest-traffic Drupal site at the moment -- hovers around the 3,000 mark in terms of most trafficked sites. Pretty impressive! Sears.com, which is solidly in the top 1,000, has only about three times as much traffic. That's not much of a difference.

So let's open the discussion here: How scalable is Drupal?

(Error in penultimate paragraph corrected -- see comments.)

It's been a busy few months for me, so I didn't get around to submitting my DrupalCon session proposals until today. I'll be repeating my two beginners' sessions from BADCamp '08: "First Drupal Steps: From Download to Launch" and "Second Drupal Steps: Improving Your New Site". If you want to grow the Drupal community by supporting beginner's sessions at DrupalCon, please vote for them!

Secondly, I've been doing a lot of writing for TopNotchThemes. Working so closely with Steph, Chris, Jay and Jeremy has been a real joy, and I've learned a tremendous amount under their leadership. I've also come to understand just how great the differences are between well-crafted and run-of-the-mill themes. I hope my work with TNT helps everyone take full advantage of them!

Finally, Roshan Shah of Gloscon says that the company's just launched its Drupal-based Web site creation and hosting service, "Galaminds". Since there was a vigorous discussion about such solutions on this blog a few months ago, I'd love to hear what you think about their newly available services -- particularly if you're a customer or potential customer.

Finallyfinally, I'm looking forward to DC'09 already! Aren't you?

...here's the cover of the upcoming O'Reilly book "Using Drupal", with the dormouse chewing on a Druplicon instead of a nut.

(Here's the Photoshop file for anyone who wants to play with it.)

Congrats to the Lullabots and all involved!

It's finally here! BADCamp 2008 will happen this weekend in Berkeley, California, with 27 informative sessions, BOFs, a job fair, networking and good times. I'm really looking forward to it.

As mentioned earlier, I'm presenting two sessions, and have posted the slides in PDF documents. They are:

• First Drupal Steps: From Download to Launch (description, slides)
• Second Drupal Steps: Improving Your New Site (description, slides)

See you there!

A few hours ago, Acquia announced public release of its first two products: Acquia Drupal (the software) and Acquia Network (the services). I plan to migrate tomgeller.com to Acquia Drupal, and will (probably) post my impressions of the products themselves then.

But for now, let's consider the business side of Acquia. A few numbers:

• $7,000,000: Initial private investment the company received in December, 2007. (Merry Christmas!)
• 27: Its current number of employees.
• $260,000: The amount of initial investment per current employee -- a useful figure (together with burn rate) to understand how soon Acquia needs to either become profitable or receive further funding.
• $3,750: The median price quoted for Acquia services per site/year. Note that this doesn't include Acquia's top-level "Elite" services, which are priced by individual quote and are likely to go into six figures. (Guessing the true average and median sales ticket would be a fun exercise, but one whose answer we outside the company would have no way of checking.)

So: Can Acquia make it?

Well, the numbers ain't bad. Assuming the company delivers on its promises, I have to say I'm optimistic for it. The site clearly defines its products, proposes realistic prices, and offers packages that encourage engagement -- including a free "Community" level for a single-server site with "forum-based" support. At first glance, it all comprises a strong value proposition.

Just as importantly, Acquia offers a migration path to rope in people like me who want to "upgrade" an existing "Drupal.org Drupal" site to Acquia Drupal. Smart! (Put simply, the migration is done by merging your existing sites directory, .htaccess file, and robots.txt file to a special Acquia Drupal package that leaves out these pieces.)

At the moment, Acquia stands alone. If Drupal continues to grow -- and particularly if it experiences breakthrough success -- it will attract other commercial suitors in areas where Acquia is now treading. But from what I can see, Acquia has gained first-mover advantage with its confident and solid entry into the market.

No, Acquia's greatest challenges won't come from competitors, but rather from two other places. First, the company could have misjudged market need -- an easy thing to do when you're defining a new market. Second, it's in that tender stage when relatively small mistakes can affect them in big ways. To act boldly under such circumstances takes courage, making the strength of its first steps all the more impressive.

So congratulations to the Acquia team! I can't wait to see what's next.

At the risk of saying "I told you so", I predicted FNMA/FHMLC problems in 2004 and suggested solutions. Here's the relevant text: The second part is the most valid.

Here are two possibilities:

• The government re-absorbs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I rather like this idea, believing they should never have been privatized in the first place. A secondary mortgage market is a "public good" that requires extensive regulation -- exactly the sort of thing governments do well, and private companies do poorly. The down side is that re-absorption would probably go with a huge financial "prop" to finance the transition. That money would come from the general fund, forcing the poor (renters) to pay once more for follies of the rich.
• New secondary mortgage markets emerge. Other financial markets (such as stocks) have become commoditized through electronic markets and small players. Why not mortgage-backed securities? The two big players really serve two roles: First, they set packaging rules to make loans more consistent and saleable. That needs a single, big player to set the standards -- a role suited for government. Second, they act as matchmakers between buyers and sellers. This latter role is better suited to the electronic marketplace's light touch than to a sasquatch like Fannie Mae.

Having said that, it's essential that this market remain heavily regulated. The credit-card field -- wildly underregulated -- is a cesspool of scams and fraud, as is the phone-card field. The last thing we need is people losing their homes to oily salespeople with offshore mailing addresses and no accountability. I believe that anyone facilitating a secondary mortgage market should be licensed and bonded, with background checks, audits, unannounced site visits, and compulsory education. The cost for failure is too great.

I recently posted about my new store for Drupal-related items, which gives 10% of the price of all purchases to Drupal Assocation. Here's why I think it's important to support DA:

• To continue -- and improve -- Drupal's infrastructure. The Drupal.org site gets millions of hits per year, and that number is growing. Drupalcon likewise gets bigger every year, as do demands on volunteers like you and me. By supporting Drupal Association, you help the project grow to accommodate these pressures.
• To enable new initiatives. Would you like to help talented Drupal developers attend Drupalcon? Accelerate funding of a much-needed (but commercially uninteresting) module? Have Drupal representatives acting as media and industry liaisons full-time? While Drupal Association doesn't currently do these things, it could -- with your support.
• To fulfill functions best served by a non-profit authority. While I find commercial interest in Drupal exciting and encouraging, some functions -- such as certification and trademark protection -- are best served by a neutral party with interests beyond the purely financial. Drupal Association is that authority.
• To provide continuity to the Drupal project. Drupal's growing popularity means that long-time contributors will be an ever-shrinking percentage of the community. Drupal Association serves as an institutional memory to help us stay true to Drupal's design and avoid repeating past mistakes.
• Because it's time to give back. Many of us -- me included -- have Drupal to thank not only for the software, but also for the opportunity to learn career-enriching skills in CSS, HTML, PHP, design, social media, and many other areas. As with other free and open-source software, Drupal democratizes such education. All you need is time, interest, and a way to download the code.

Regardless of whether you visit the store, I encourage you to learn more about Drupal Association and become a member today to help further these goals.

-- Tom Geller, Drupal Association member #898

I'm pleased to announce the opening of store.tomgeller.com, which donates 10% of the purchase price on all Drupal-related products to Drupal Association.

It opens with three Lynda.com videos:

• Drupal Essential Training: 7 hours on 1 DVD-ROM for $49.95
• PHP with MySQL Essential Training: 11 hours on 2 CD-ROMs for $149.95
• CSS Web Site Design: 6 hours on 2 CD-ROMs for $149.95

All three for $299.85 -- a $50 savings, available only from store.tomgeller.com.

This is a test run: If it goes well, I intend to offer other Drupal-related products through the store, also with 10% going straight to Drupal Association.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Yesterday, Indian firm Gloscon announced its intent to offer Drupal certification. It joins Acquia, which first discussed its forthcoming "Yellow Jersey" program last March. To the best of my knowledge, only U.K.-based NobleProg currently "certifies" Drupal developers, although other training companies (Lullabot large among them) provide course-completion certificates; as far as I can tell, these other course certificates hold at least as much weight as NobleProg's documents.

Which brings us to the point: Certification has only the value the market gives it. "Market" here refers not to the certified, but to their prospective employers and clients. That the market recognizes one certification over another isn't necessarily a reflection of quality: an MBA from Harvard will open more doors than one from Florida Tech, even if the latter has better teachers. So it goes.

Recognition comes from two sources: word of mouth and active promotion. I'd say that Lullabot is the leader in the former, but believe that Acquia, with its US$7,000,000 in initial funding, has tremendous potential to blow away all competition in the latter.

I don't know much about Gloscon or NobleProg, except that I hadn't heard of them until yesterday. That's my own ignorance... but it's also a data point. Both are outside the U.S., which gives them an extra barrier for gaining recognition. (My country has many faults, it does host the world's leading advertising and promotion machinery.)

One oft-raised issue with all these certifications is that they're led by commercial firms -- which some stakeholders fear will cause conflicts of interest. The obvious solution would be for a neutral, third-party nonprofit company to manage certification. Advantages:

• Undivided focus. Such an organization could concentrate solely on certification and associated tasks (such as market promotion).
• Ability to form "clean" partnerships (with, for example, Drupal Association)
• Flexible structure. For example, it could certify the courses of Lullabot, NobleProg, etc. as being part of a bigger certification.
• Market perception of neutrality.
• Additional venues for distributed fundraising through corporate sponsorships, grants, etc.

The big disadvantage? It's still not evident that the market need for Drupal certification is big enough to support such an organization. Plus it has no obvious source of seed money, which I believe should be at least $200,000 for the first year to make a serious impact. (Remember, advertising and public relations are a major part of what would give such a program value. Those things cost money.)

On the other hand, it could quickly become self-supporting -- if the market is big enough. And just as a side effect, the boost it would give to Drupal's visibility in the business community would be incomparable.

Now, I founded and ran a high-tech nonprofit organization for about a year and a half -- here's its old Web site at its peak on archive.org, if you're curious. It was founded without money, gained (comparatively) huge public recognition, got its 501(c)(3) recognition from the U.S. government, and fell apart immediately after I handed off the reins. It was, frankly, a deeply traumatic experience.

But among the many things it taught me, one lesson stands out: Don't go it alone. Delegate; work with partners; follow the market. The emerging leader in Drupal certification will need to know this, regardless of whether it's a nonprofit or commercial organization.

There's a saying that goes something like: "Smart leaders don't try to get a crowd to follow them. They find a crowd and run to its front." The question: Is the need for Drupal certification a big enough "crowd" to coalesce a leader?

A comment in response to Jim Butz' blog post ("Drupal and Startups: Is there a Connection?") mentions Google Sites, an online system that allows people to easily build Web sites with such "Web 2.0" features as discussion boards and event calendars. Then a comment in Acquia VP Jeff Whatcott's blog said that "Google Labs [is] cooking up their own CMS support division".

Such online "build-your-own-site" systems have always been severely limited when compared to Drupal; on the other hand, Drupal’s installation procedure is still WAY beyond the abilities of 98% of the market. So we have simplicity and complexity, both reaching for the middle of the market.

Which will get there "firstest with the mostest"? Google’s a good bet — they’re smart folks, and the company has an amazing inventory of existing products they can leverage well. (Calendar, Groups, Maps, and Documents for site building; AdSense for revenue; Adwords for marketing.) The addition of e-commerce features (via PayPal/Google Checkout?) would make such a solution appeal to a lot of small business owners.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about whether a consumer-level Drupal hosting service could be successful. Some ISPs offer one-click Drupal setup, but a lot more could be done to make hosted Drupal more user-friendly, such as one-click themes and modules, automated backups, integrated marketing services, etc.. The diversity of available Drupal modules could make such a solution more powerful than anything Google could offer... but simplifying and bulletproofing it for a consumer audience is not a trivial matter.

So here are two questions to consider:

• How is the market segmented? That is, which users would benefit more from a Google Site, and which should go with hosted Drupal?
• To the appropriate audience, what advantages would a hosted Drupal site have over a Google Site?

These are questions all Drupal consultants will have to answer soon. I hope the discussion we start here helps us all in our business. :)