drupalconboston2008

Shai Gluskin has posted pics of me (sometimes doing funny poses) and the audio to my presentation through his podcast page. Many thanks to Shai for getting this up there.

I'll post my presentation slides here as soon as I can get to a Mac, though the bulk of what I showed were demonstration pages from the Livetest. If you want to check out admin stuff without doing a self-install, you can head to http://demo.ubercart.org.

(You can check out the attached PDF for an early version of my slides.)

Well, I'm sitting back at home in Louisville, KY trying to gather my thoughts and recover from a crazy, awesome week in Boston. Here in Louisville we have a foot of snow, but my plane landed fine and I'm happily inside staying warm with my wife. I must admit, coming home to Mrs. Ubercart was the real joy of the week! However, I do love meeting people from around the world that are using and contributing to Drupal, so I certainly wasn't in agony while I was away. This conference was a particular joy to me in that I got to meet face to face with dozens of users, developers, and shops that are using and contributing to Ubercart. I'll expose my naivety and say that I simply had no clue all you folks were out there!

As I chat with the people who stayed behind, I find it hard to describe what the event was like. There are so many things to be said, but I keep coming back to describing the excitement and energy that exists in the Drupal community. Again, I particularly benefited from the energy surrounding Ubercart itself, hence the title of this blog post. This conference helped me to grasp the bigger vision for what Ubercart is and can become and how we can harness all the energy (particularly in volunteer development, design, and documentation hours) to continue to improve the project and expand its reach. Many thanks to the countless folks who introduced themselves and chatted about the project in the halls, over dinners (how about that Ethiopian Uberdinner?), and in a productive BoF session. (I won't name the folks who followed me to the bathroom to chat, too. ) Together, you have all helped me form the vision for Ubercart's future, and I couldn't have done it without you.

My recurring illustration is that I feel a bit like Pecos Bill as he stares down a tornado but somehow manages to lasso it and ride it like a bronco... quite a bumpy ride, I'm sure, but he was able to harness and direct a tremendous amount of energy. While you'll probably never find me in cowboy boots, I am excited about the opportunity to lasso and direct the energy building around Ubercart. Drupalcon has shown me the tornado, and I'm getting ready for the ride.

Many thanks again to the sponsors, organizers, and volunteers who made our week in Boston not only possible but an incredibly fun and productive time.