Contributing with a weekly upD8

Recently, I decided to take my transition from end user to Drupal professional even further by heading into the lion’s mouth and becoming a contributor. I first began working with Drupal as an end user, I was e-commerce manager for a brand whose website ran on Drupal 6. At the time, I didn’t know much about Drupal, only how to use it in my day to day tasks. I also didn’t know much about open source solutions and the communities that contribute to them. Fast forward a few years, and I find myself immersed in Drupal. I have learned a great deal about this extremely versatile tool in my role as Transition Manager and occasional project manager for Bluespark. I am not a developer, and so at first I wasn’t sure how, and even if, I could make any sort of meaningful contribution. But, I was determined to stay professionally sharp while on maternity leave and thought I could find a way to put the extra free time I had to use for the community. A good friend of mine and fellow Drupaler suggested I help with D8 project management and put me in contact with Larry Garfield, aka Crell. Crell is lead of the Web Services and Context Core Initiative for Drupal 8. This initiative, also known as WSCCI, aims to transform Drupal from a first-class CMS to a first-class REST server with a first-class CMS on top of it. To do that, we must give Drupal a unified, powerful context system that will support smarter, context- sensitive, easily cacheable block-centric layouts and non-page responses using a robust unified plugin mechanism. You can read more about the WSCCI initiative here. Crell needed a hand corralling the numerous contributors to the WSCCI initiative and organizing the priority issues. We spoke over Skype and he explained the project to me and what its current status was. I then dove right in, contacting initiative contributors for updates and attending weekly scrums. And so, that is how I came to be project manager for the WSCCI initiative of D8. My contribution may not be as immediately visible as the developers who toil away on patches and spend hours on end typing code; but, I am still proud to do my part in helping these important team members stay on track and know where the project is and with which issues they can help. My experience as a D8 contributor has given me my first real look at the inner workings of the Drupal community. I am working with the Drupalers who like to get their hands dirty, and dig into the Drupal code so that we all can benefit from a better tool. These aren’t bystanders, simple users, they are active community members who spend their personal time giving back to the community. I have been nothing short of impressed by their drive, expertise and inclusiveness. From the moment I stepped onto the project I was greeted warmly by the initiative contributors. They were all happy to have my help and have been fantastic to work with. It has been a pleasure participating in this friendly, knowledgeable community and working towards a greater cause with my fellow Drupalers. If you are interested in contributing but don’t know where to start, there are plenty of ways to help out! Here are some general areas where help is always needed or you could also help with D8.