[Bradford] Hi + Brain Pick

[Paul C]

Thanks Alice. I'd certainly come along (one of my day jobs forces me to go to Keighley, against all my natural inclinations) - even though I probably wouldn't understand a fair amount of what got discussed :-0

I'm being forced to make big leaps these days having only ever been an accidental tech - but organisations I care about are getting stuck and I don't see anyone else stepping forward. It just so happens that a couple of them are blessed/lumbered with Drupal. For me, the biggest disadvantage in using Drupal (and not just Drupal) is that it builds in expert-dependency and small organisations without that level of IT proficiency within their membership struggle to budget adequately to develop their sites.

Appreciate you chipping in - yours is a name I've come across on lists I tend to lurk on!

As for being serious about looking for someone to take on a support contract - I am. Have been in communication with someone who *might* take it on but worry about a mismatch between budget and cost.

As I have pointed out to the organisation in question, £2k only buys you the equivalent of 1.5 hours a week at £25/hr (what they were paying the last guy who just never has the time to do anything for them now he's getting 2-3 times that on commercial projects) if spread over the year. What might work for them would be to split a (slightly increased) budget like this:

60 hours @ £25/hour = £1500 (advisory role)
100 hours @ £10/hour = £1000 (technical 'donkey' work)

Which would provide a 100% increase in time spent on the site for a 25% increase in budget. Then what we'd be looking for would be someone who would:

* Answer questions no-one else knows the answer to
* Do some hands-on work that could not (economically) be delegated
* Show/tell how specific (and more time consuming) pieces of work would need to be done - and leave it to the organisation to find volunteers or IT 'apprentices' (like myself, for example) to crack on, with access to occasional support/advice when needed.

Without a model something like that, I begin to wonder how they will square the (underfunded) circle.

Paul







>________________________________
> From: Alice Kaerast <alice at kaerast.info>
>To: David Carpenter <david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk> 
>Cc: Paul C <pchcolley at yahoo.co.uk>; "bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk" <bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk> 
>Sent: Monday, 6 February 2012, 19:03
>Subject: Re: [Bradford] Hi + Brain Pick
> 
>I'd be up for a get together of local Drupal users if somebody else
>wanted to organise something.  I can offer meeting rooms in Keighley
>if you don't mind venturing out that far.
>
>Most of my Drupal work currently is supporting developers in using it
>- both setting up infrastructure for them and acting as a channel for
>them to share knowledge.  The main tricks I can share are to make good
>use of Drush, keep the modules used down to a minimum, subscribe to
>the security announcements list, and use the Omega theme if you're
>starting something from scratch.
>
>The North West Drupal Users Group have monthly meetings in Manchester,
>and many of them hang out in the Drupal UK IRC channel on Freenode.
>
>I can put you in touch with other Drupal developers off-list if you're
>serious about looking for somebody to take on a support contract.
>
>Alice
>
>
>
>On 6 February 2012 12:44, David Carpenter <david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk> wrote:
>> Hi Paul
>>
>> I'm a bit of a drupler.
>>
>> Happy to help any time. Just mail me.
>>
>> If lots of people are interested in a bit of help, I could look at
>> putting on a day. Alice did host a meeting of the Yorkshire Drupal User
>> Group one time, but I think busy lives got in the way of this going
>> further.
>>
>> Cheers
>> David
>>  On Sun, 2012-02-05 at 19:32 +0000, Paul C wrote:
>>> Evening all. I've just signed up. I work for Bradford CVS in the
>>> Voluntary Services Centre on Sunbridge Road and (amongst other things)
>>> produce the Briefing Bradford newsletter.
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm also a bit of a 'make it up as you go along' volunteer on a number
>>> of web projects, locally/nationally/internationally.
>>>
>>>
>>> I've recently got involved with a couple of sites that both use Drupal
>>> and its proving to be quite a steep learning curve for me and there
>>> are only so many hours in the day. Am curious to know if there are any
>>> drupalers on here and if I might run the occasional brain pick by you
>>> (hope not to make a habit of it)?
>>>
>>>
>>> I realise this might be quite a niche area of interest and perhaps
>>> should be kept offlist - just not sure of the protocol. If you fit the
>>> bill please feel free to get back to me on or offlist.
>>>
>>>
>>> Many thanks - good to be on board.
>>>
>>>
>>> Paul Colley
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Bradford mailing list
>>> Bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk
>>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/bradford
>>
>> --
>> David Carpenter
>>
>> nornir
>>
>> E: david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk
>> Skype: carpenter.david
>>
>> Please save paper and only print this email if you have to.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Bradford mailing list
>> Bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/bradford
>
>
>
>-- 
>Mx Alice Kaerast
>Devops supergirl, agile coach, corporate sysadmin
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/bradford/attachments/20120206/ec2c1ad0/attachment-0001.htm>