David Crow

Connector of dots. Maker of lines. Rider of slopes.

drupal

Jet Cooper – Drupal Developer

by

Toronto, ON

Jet Cooper is a digital experience agency that specializes in
building smart end-user experiences for the web. Based in Toronto,
our growing team has a user-centric philosophy with a sworn duty
to inject some realness into the staled traditional approach.

Description

Jet Cooper is looking for an experienced Drupal developer in
Toronto for immediate hire. Candidates must be comfortable with
developing social network functions with the platform. By default,
this role requires proficiencies with PHP/MySQL.
The following skillset will also be an asset:

  • Fluency with other platforms and frameworks (WordPress,
    Expression Engine, Joomla, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, etc)
  • Experience with FBML and developing Facebook
    applications
  • Comfort with working with APIs (Twitter, Flickr, etc)

Candidates are being considered for a 2-3 month project contract.
Pending fit, there are opportunities to extend the contract and
scope of work.

To Apply

Email us at [email protected] with “Toronto Drupal Developer (WDW)” as the subject line. Please include the following information: (1) Resume; and (2) At least 3 examples that demonstrate skills described above. Serious inquiries only. Candidates will not be considered if these items are missing. Toronto applicants only.

Community Platforms

by

Apparently I’m not alone in thinking about community platforms. Chris Prillo is talking about the tools available for community owners, operators, moderators and members. Adam Kalsey talks about the work on IMified, SacStarts and ActivityStream. Both are building on top of Drupal, which has generated support from Boris Mann of Raincity Studios. I haven’t done a lot of work on Drupal in recent years, I last evaluated it for a project in 2005. But the superb work of the Raincity Studios and Lullabot continues to blow me away.

But I started to wonder what other software platforms were available for building communities. Here is the list that I was able to come up with:

There are other tools like the Community Platform that powers http://expression.microsoft.com/ and TechNet and MSDN, that are not commercially available.

I’m starting to think about the tools that we’re missing to enable the Toronto community. The discussion has focused around the technical details of the platform:

  • OpenSocial
  • OpenID
  • OAuth

But it’s when Chris talks about the functionality and participation and discovery that I start to think about the potential and needs.

I don’t want a social network, I want a socially *RELEVANT* network (both on-site and beyond). I don’t want a community platform, I want a participation platform where members are rewarded and ranked appropriately. I don’t want a place where people can just blog, because I’m going well beyond the blog. It’s not just about hosting videos, audio files, or any piece of random media – it’s the discovery mechanisms between them that make them more relevant.

It’s discovery – no matter the community, no matter the type of content. Imagine coming to a site and not just reading about what other people are interested in, but what interests they SHARE with you! Imagine coming to a site and seeing how someone ranks in answers pertaining to your own questions! Oh, I’m confident you may have seen these features elsewhere – but what about for your own site, what about for your own community, what about for your own ideas?

It’s about the connections, the participation, and the discovery of relevant details. Time to think about this a little more.