[28/Oct/09 The first event will take place on Friday the 6th, November 2009!]
[8/Oct/09 - We have received 10 applications so although we keep accepting applications, we cannot support new applicants immediately. But your application will be in queue so please submit your application using the form below!]
[1/Oct/09 - added new roles. also changed the visibility setting so this post is visible in all groups. Some people based outside of London are interested in attending so why not!]
I have been fascinated by the idea and underlying ethos of Drupal for NGOs initiated by Rob Purdie. The group has had a number of meetups but it seems to me it hasn't yielded much collaborations or exciting projects yet, which doesn't keep my heart dancing. I like things that are practical. I want to see things actually happening and rapidly. I'm not a noble thinker as Rob or don't I have brilliant communication and coordination skills like him to facilitate collaborations of large international NGOs. But I have hands-on experience and knowledge to build Drupal websites quickly, which would come handy when helping small NGOs. From a plain website to forums, intranets / extranets or SNS, we know we can do it with Drupal quickly. So my plan is to start regular meetups dedicated to help small NGOs build and maintain their websites. This includes:

• consultation
• information architecture
• design (probably just the banner and not the whole theme)
• site building
• maintenance
• directing them to resources e.g. Drupal forums and IRC channels

I would like to make it clear that I don't want to make this event into something like Social Innovation Camp in which geeks get together and build websites over one weekend. Don't get me wrong though - I absolutely love the idea of SI Camp and think it's an amazing project that I admire all the people involved in realising their events. However, when it comes to sustainability it seems to be rather poor and I think applying the same model simply would not work for this. I've taken part in SI Camp twice as a Drupaller (of course) and it was an amazing experience. But I was sad to see the participants' enthusiasm withering away rather quickly after the event. When it comes to building organisational websites, maintenance (including iterative improvements and security updates) is more important than building a website that impresses first-time visitors for 2 minutes. Therefore I wouldn't like to make this event into a competition or an intense 2-day event with no maintenance support. But if you want to do it that way, nothing will stop you. Please go ahead and organise a separate event yourself :) What we need In order to make the event happen, we need:

People who are capable of helping any aspect of web development, includeing:
• web consultants
• content developers
• designers
• Drupal developers
• instructors
• documentation writers
(If no one is up for it, I can still provide everything except for content development and graphic design) Any resource that would help the event happen / make the event better
• Venue: We can use the Royal Festival Hall, which is a nice venue and free. But if anyone can offer a venue with a decent internet connection and nice atomsphere, that will be brilliant!
• Sponsors to provide some drinks and nibbles. But this is more of a nice-to-have and I would probably bring some drinks and nibbles anyway.
A server or two to get the organisations' sites up and running.
• I also find it reasonable to ask the NGOs to pay a small but reasonable fee for this. I can provide my slice for this as well.

What I expect from organisations If you are planning to get help from us, I would expect the organisations to:

• be willing to learn Drupal and maintain the site themselves (get your hands dirty too. Don't expect others to do everything for you!)
• support Drupal in whatever the way they can (sharing knowledge by helping with documentation at drupal.org, helping others in forums, promoting Drupal)
• utilise this opportunity as much as possible. If you are an organisation that train young people to help them find jobs, why don't you use this event as an opportunity for youths to learn how to build websites? You can get them trained and get your site built/maintained at the same time :)

What now? I'm planning to start this meetup from November somewhere in Central London. If you are interested in helping, please let me know how you would like to help by leaving a comment. If you are an NGO and would like to get help from us, please use the form below to let me know who you are, what you do and what kind of website you need. Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Email: *

Name of organisation: *

Registration number:

What do you need?: * Hiya :) Thanks for your interest. We've already received 10 applications and your application will be in queue.We will contact you as soon as we have a vacancy!

Let us know what kind of website you are after e.g. brochure website, intranet, forum etc. Don't provide too much details e.g. a site map, as your visions and plans usually change as you move on.