Webmonkey: "Webmonkey sat down with Dries and Jay to talk about the history of Drupal, where development is headed and the role their new company will play in the project’s future."

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TroubleshootingWiki.org is a new website designed to provide users with comprehensive, free guides on software troubleshooting. This site intends to help users eliminate the potential problems that might arise while working with various applications.

It is often difficult finding a resource that is focused on providing quality, relevant, and free information on software troubleshooting at one central location. Launched initially with over 20 tutorials covering different Content Management Systems and other software, TroubleshootingWiki.org is expected to grow into an exhaustive troubleshooting resource where users are able to add their own tips and tricks.

TroubleshootingWiki.org is part of an ongoing initiative at Packt to develop unique methods of contributing to the Open Source community. Notable other initiatives include the Wiki on Web Themes and Templates, www.ThemesWiki.org and the annual Open Source CMS Award that has a total prize package of $20,000, divided amongst winning projects. Packt also operates a unique Open Source Project Royalty Scheme, which sees them donate a percentage of their Open Source book sales directly to the projects they were written on. To date, they have donated over $100,000 to Open Source projects.

Kathleen Reidy: "I attended a star-studded open source panel this morning, with Bob Bickel of Ringside Networks, Jeff Whatcott of Acquia and John Newton of Alfresco. The panel and audience members discussed adoption of open source specifically for social applications.

There was a bit of discussion on market readiness for open source in this sector."

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Seth Gottlieb, Content Here, recently turned me on to Sacha Chua and her blog.  Sacha is an Enterprise 2.0 consultant and application developer for IBM and she also happens to be a very good blogger.  What makes her blog interesting, besides being well written, is her posts on corporate use of social technologies given from the perspective of her generation, the Millennials (latest hip word for Generation Y).

While some organizations are still debating about introducing Web 2.0 technologies to their employees, this newest generation now entering the workforce is likely to expect that such technologies are already available to them for use in their daily work tasks.  While the use of information technology is often viewed by companies in terms of staying competitive and a requirement for implementing strategic plans, the technologies are also increasingly becoming an essential tool for the human resources department.  If you're expecting to attract and keep bright educated Millennials such as Sacha within your organization, you then need to better understand how people in her work cohort are likely to process the work given.

Here's an execise for the reader.  What CMS does this site use? You can find the answer and more here.

The release of Ubercart 1.0 was announced earlier today.  Ubercart is an open source e-commerce package (shopping cart) that fully integrates your online store with the open source CMS, Drupal.  We've been watching Ubercart for some time and like some of the look-and-feel it borrows from osCommerce.

Some of the features in Ubercart 1.0 as reported by their shopping cart's Website include:

• Configurable product catalog includes catalog pages and a block to display product categories.
• Flexible product creation system. Create normal products by default. Add fields to store additional product information using Drupal's CCK system.
• Flexible product attributes system. Create user selectable attributes for your products that modify the price, SKU/model, and/or weight of items as the customer adds them to his or her cart. Set default attribute/option sets for each product class to easily create many similar products.

I know I'm a week behind about this, but I just came across the link via Gadgetopia:  Open-source PHP applications that changed the world.  The CMS related applications that were determined world changers are listed below.

• PHP-Nuke - 1999
• eZ Publish - 2000
• osCommerce - 2000
• phpBB - 2000
• Gallery - 2001
• Drupal - 2001
• MediaWiki - 2002
• WordPress - 2003
• Joomla! - 2005
• Magento eCommerce - 2007

When you split the list into three sections, you get the feeling that PHP-Nuke, ezPublish, and osCommerce have been around for a very long time.  More importantly, you begin to think that it is time for Gallery, Drupal, and MediaWiki to either be seen as mature applications or for those applications to finally grow up.

Learning Drupal 6 Module Development is a new book from Packt, which acts as a practical tutorial for creating Drupal 6 modules with PHP. Written by Matt Butcher, this book will help users to walk through the development of complete Drupal 6 Modules.

Drupal is a free and open-source modular web application framework and content management system (CMS) written in PHP. It can run in many environments, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. It's a modular system, with an elegant hook-based architecture, and great code. These are a few of the perks that make Drupal a choice platform for developers who want the power of an established CMS, but the freedom to make it work for them. From social networking to AJAX to e-commerce, the hundreds of existing modules attest to Drupal's flexibility.

Jeff Robbins from Lullabot recently interviewed Drupal developer Earl "MerlinofChaos" Miles for an audio podcast. Earl Miles is the lead developer for some of the more popular contributed modules found at Drupal.org. The podcast focuses on his Drupal module work which includes Views, Panels, and Node Queue. Jeff Robbins also managed to ask some non-Drupal questions in the 88 minute recording that I found just as fascinating. Personally, I always enjoy opportunities to get to know more about the developers behind the software I'm using.

For the record, I'm not much of a podcast listener but I found myself listening to the entire recording this afternoon. Both Jeff and Earl have a good sense of humor that keeps you wanting for more. It also helps that both speakers have a genuine interest in Drupal and software development. So while you're reading some very fine articles here at CMS Report, I'd encourage you to also encourage you to start up the Lullabot podcast.

We will hold the first-ever DrupalCamp in Thailand on Saturday, May 24th, at the conference facilities of Inet, on the 13th floor of the Thai Summit Tower, Petchaburi Road, just east of the Ratchadaphisek / Asoke intersection.

We will also be running a full-day "Intro to Drupal" track that will cover everything from setting up a basic install to intermediate skills of customizing with modules, CCK and Views. More details on the time and place (with map): http://www.barcampbangkok.org/where-when... The event will be barcamp-style, which means that it's open to everybody, but everybody should come ready to participate. Be prepared to talk on a topic of your own choice as well as listening to, sharing with and learning from other people interested in Drupal. Topics are not set before hand--so we set teh agenda on the day of the event so everybody can propose topics and vote for the topics that interest them.

If you are a web developer with even the slightest interest in Drupal we encourage you come come. If you are already using Drupal, you are not going to want to miss this event. This event is free and open to all. We do ask that you register in advance so we have an reasonably accurate estimate of how many people will be attending.

Register Now Register for DrupalCamp It's free and open to everyone.