Palantir

As some of you may have already noticed, we re-launched our Web site right before Thanksgiving last week. This has been a long-overdue project for us; our existing site design dated back to 2005, and received its most recent major update in early March of 2008, when I took responsibility for porting it to Drupal 6, which had only been released only two weeks earlier.

At that point, very few of the major contributed modules, like Views and CCK, had been ported to Drupal 6, so my only choice at the time was to build the site almost entirely from core modules, like the built-in Blog module. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using those core modules for basic site-building, but as the site grew, and we wanted to do more with it, their limitations soon became apparent. Also, the fact that I had put the site together very quickly in a decidedly non-sustainable manner meant that it was very difficult to extend or add new functionality as time went by.

This time around, we decided to approach our own Web site like we would any other project at Palantir, employing our full iterative development process.

As I write this, I am sitting on a boat in the Stockholm harbor, listening to Johannes Wehner of information.dk discuss how their newspaper transitioned to Drupal. Johannes is presenting as part of the Media Track at DrupalCamp Stockholm. The camp is part of the international Drupal community and its efforts to reach out to new members, to discuss new ideas and to share best practices. (If you couldn't make it to Stockholm, remember that DrupalCamp Chicago is next month.)

As I write this, I am sitting on a boat in the Stockholm harbor, listening to Johannes Wehner of information.dk discuss how their newspaper transitioned to Drupal. Johannes is presenting as part of the Media Track at DrupalCamp Stockholm.

The camp is part of the international Drupal community and its efforts to reach out to new members, to discuss new ideas and to share best practices. (If you couldn't make it to Stockholm, remember that DrupalCamp Chicago is next month.)

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Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 4,000 5,000 modules available for Drupal it's no surprise that many useful ones go unnoticed. As part of its mission to raise awareness of these unsung heroes, Palantir is presenting this series of articles on modules that carry more than their weight in code.

In part 2 of our 5,046 part series, we present: Suggested Terms

Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 4,000 5,000 modules available for Drupal it's no surprise that many useful ones go unnoticed. As part of its mission to raise awareness of these unsung heroes, Palantir is presenting this series of articles on modules that carry more than their weight in code.

In part 2 of our 5,046 part series, we present: Suggested Terms

read more

Drupalcamp is coming to Chicago December 12 and 13! After attracting a sellout crowd last year, this year’s Drupalcamp has been expanded, and will be held at the Hotel Orrington in downtown Evanston, located just steps from Northwestern University and only a couple of blocks from the Davis Street CTA and Metra stations. Two dozen pre-scheduled sessions will be held on Saturday, along with BoFs, hands-on training, and other “unconference” activities on both Saturday and Sunday. The camp is being put on by the Chicago Drupal community and the Chicago Drupal Meetup Group, with generous assistance from the event's sponsors, who include Palantir.

The site for the camp was built by Palantir using the Drupalcamp L.A. 2009 codebase as a starting point. The site's Chitown theme was designed by our own Steve Fisher, and has already been released back to the community (it's just a dev release right now, but as always, patches are welcome!). The theme incorporates the Chicago Druplicon logo designed by David Hwang, one of the Field Museum's Drupal gurus.

Register now, and once your registration has been paid and confirmed, don't forget to submit a session proposal - we'll only be accepting them through November 13, at which point we'll be asking registered attendees to cast votes for their favorites before announcing the full schedule by November 25. And of course, it's not too late to get in on the sponsorship action - we've got a variety of packages at all price points, allowing you to get your name in front of several hundred Drupalers and support the community (any profits from the event will go to benefit the Drupal Association).

We're looking at this as a warm-up event for Drupalcon Chicago 2011; we might not have won the Olympics, but Drupal's the next best thing!

Drupalcamp is coming to Chicago December 12 and 13! After attracting a sellout crowd last year, this year’s Drupalcamp has been expanded, and will be held at the Hotel Orrington in downtown Evanston, located just steps from Northwestern University and only a couple of blocks from the Davis Street CTA and Metra stations. Two dozen pre-scheduled sessions will be held on Saturday, along with BoFs, hands-on training, and other “unconference” activities on both Saturday and Sunday. The camp is being put on by the Chicago Drupal community and the Chicago Drupal Meetup Group, with generous assistance from the event's sponsors, who include Palantir.

The site for the camp was built by Palantir using the Drupalcamp L.A. 2009 codebase as a starting point. The site's Chitown theme was designed by our own Steve Fisher, and has already been released back to the community (it's just a dev release right now, but as always, patches are welcome!). The theme incorporates the Chicago Druplicon logo designed by David Hwang, one of the Field Museum's Drupal gurus.

Register now, and once your registration has been paid and confirmed, don't forget to submit a session proposal - we'll only be accepting them through November 13, at which point we'll be asking registered attendees to cast votes for their favorites before announcing the full schedule by November 25. And of course, it's not too late to get in on the sponsorship action - we've got a variety of packages at all price points, allowing you to get your name in front of several hundred Drupalers and support the community (any profits from the event will go to benefit the Drupal Association).

We're looking at this as a warm-up event for Drupalcon Chicago 2011; we might not have won the Olympics, but Drupal's the next best thing!

read more

I recently finished a full week of Drupal for non-profit events, where I met quite a number of good people, learned about some great projects, and gave out some advice to organizations looking to make the switch to Drupal. Let's start in D.C.

I recently finished a full week of Drupal for non-profit events, where I met quite a number of good people, learned about some great projects, and gave out some advice to organizations looking to make the switch to Drupal. Let's start in D.C.

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It's been a busy fall here in the Pacific Northwest. In the last two months the area has hosted no less than four Drupal events.

Things kicked off in late September with DrupalCamp Victoria. A couple weeks later was the Seattle Drupal Clinic, an event specifically focused at introducing new users to Drupal. Two weeks after that was DrupalCamp Portland, and finally last week a group of Drupal luminaries gathered in Vancouver for the Drupal Contrib Code Sprint, which resulted in usable versions of Views and Coder for Drupal 7! 

Phew, that's a lot of Drupal! The best part is it's not over yet, Seattle will close off the Drupal season with the Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit this coming weekend, October 24-25.

It's been a busy fall here in the Pacific Northwest. In the last two months the area has hosted no less than four Drupal events.

Things kicked off in late September with DrupalCamp Victoria. A couple weeks later was the Seattle Drupal Clinic, an event specifically focused at introducing new users to Drupal. Two weeks after that was DrupalCamp Portland, and finally last week a group of Drupal luminaries gathered in Vancouver for the Drupal Contrib Code Sprint, which resulted in usable versions of Views and Coder for Drupal 7!

Phew, that's a lot of Drupal! The best part is it's not over yet, Seattle will close off the Drupal season with the Pacific Northwest Drupal Summit this coming weekend, October 24-25.

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Thanks to a late invitation from the good people at PBS Engage, I am now set to head up to Washington D.C. for the first PublicMedia Camp event this weekend.

PublicMedia Camp is the brainchild of NPR and PBS, and is designed as "an initiative to strengthen the relationship that public broadcasters have with their communities through the creation of collaborative projects." This mission is an extension of the work I have been doing with PBS Engage, which is an ongoing project to change how PBS and its member stations interact with their audiences.

Thanks to a late invitation from the good people at PBS Engage, I am now set to head up to Washington D.C. for the first PublicMedia Camp event this weekend.

PublicMedia Camp is the brainchild of NPR and PBS, and is designed as "an initiative to strengthen the relationship that public broadcasters have with their communities through the creation of collaborative projects." This mission is an extension of the work I have been doing with PBS Engage, which is an ongoing project to change how PBS and its member stations interact with their audiences.

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Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 4,000 modules available for Drupal it's no surprise that many useful modules go unnoticed. As part of its mission to make the web a better place, Palantir is presenting this series of articles on modules you haven't met that may yet get you a good night's sleep.

In part 1 of our 4,943 part series, we present: Flashy

Everyone knows the top-tier Drupal modules, but with over 4,000 modules available for Drupal it's no surprise that many useful modules go unnoticed. As part of its mission to make the web a better place, Palantir is presenting this series of articles on modules you haven't met that may yet get you a good night's sleep.

In part 1 of our 4,943 part series, we present: Flashy

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It seems like just yesterday that we were up in Wisconsin, but I'll be back there this coming weekend.

Palantir is a sponsor of BarCamp Milwaukee, happening this October 3-4 at the Chase Commerce Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although not a Drupal-specific event, the last several BarCamps there have had a lot of Drupal interest. Where there's demand there's supply, so there will be several Drupal gurus on hand to discuss, present, teach, or just generally geek out about Druplicon.

Look for Wisconsinite Blake Hall and Palantiri Larry "Crell" Garfield at the camp, among others. It's an "unconference" so all sessions will be figured out day-of, but with experts such as these on hand there should be no shortage of topics. I (Larry) will be armed with slides from DrupalCon Paris, as well as other available presentations. Or just ask about PDO in general and he'll talk for an hour before you know it.

Want to know more? It's an unconference. We won't know more until we get there, so you should get there, too!

It seems like just yesterday that we were up in Wisconsin, but I'll be back there this coming weekend.

Palantir is a sponsor of BarCamp Milwaukee, happening this October 3-4 at the Chase Commerce Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although not a Drupal-specific event, the last several BarCamps there have had a lot of Drupal interest. Where there's demand there's supply, so there will be several Drupal gurus on hand to discuss, present, teach, or just generally geek out about Druplicon.

Look for Wisconsinite Blake Hall and Palantiri Larry "Crell" Garfield at the camp, among others. It's an "unconference" so all sessions will be figured out day-of, but with experts such as these on hand there should be no shortage of topics. I (Larry) will be armed with slides from DrupalCon Paris, as well as other available presentations. Or just ask about PDO in general and he'll talk for an hour before you know it.

Want to know more? It's an unconference. We won't know more until we get there, so you should get there, too!

read more

Palantir is proud to unveil the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum's latest masterpiece: their new Web site built in Drupal 6 with a design by Studio Blue. This comes on the heels of the new Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts site, which Palantir launched earlier this year.

Palantir is proud to unveil the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum's latest masterpiece: their new Web site built in Drupal 6 with a design by Studio Blue. This comes on the heels of the new Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts site, which Palantir launched earlier this year.

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It's that time of year again. Time to pack your bags, find your passport, and head off to immerse yourself in Drupal for several days. That's right, DrupalCon Paris is just around the corner!

Seven Palantiri will be attending this year, all staying on the beautiful Ile Saint Louis. It's a small island in the middle of the river where Palantir will be tucked into a spacious apartment for a week. You know where the party room is now. (OK, the coding room. Same thing.) Neighbors welcome!

And of course, as always Palantir will be quite talkative. Here's a rundown of the Palantir track: