Vancouver Drupal evangelists and ringleaders (and my Vancouver Drupal Camp co-horts) are brewing up another get together for the Vancouver League of Drupallers. Ariane and Dale have sent out a call for a Vancouver Drupal geek festive social with a purpose - code sprinting for Fearless City.

I interviewed Irwin to learn more about Fearless City's mission, audience, participants, animators, success stories, so stay tuned for more coverage. In brief, they are helping residents and artists in the disadvantaged downtown Eastside of Vancouver gain access to digital storytelling skills and tools and create ways to easily publish and share their creations.

Since, I will be sequestered on a remote island, I have no right to talk about the event, so instead will defer to Ariane's details from Groups.Drupal.org/Vancouver - Christmas Social and Fearless City Code Sprint!!!

Ok, we're a go! This has all come together very quickly, so hope lots of you can make it out!

When: 2pm, Sunday December 14th.
Where: Raincity Studios, 1 Alexander Street, Suite 400 in Gastown. (Buzz #400)

The plan is to work for a few hours at least and fix up the Fearless City website and get it all running smoothly again. If we have time, we'll add some new features as well, I'll be meeting with Scott Nelson at the end of the week to get the down low on what's wrong with the site currently, and some user feedback on additions they'd like.

If you don't know about Fearless City, check out their site, they're a great non-profit in the DTES.

We'll be doing things like cross-browser troubleshooting, module (and likely core) upgrades, theming tweaks, and some customization, so whatever your skills are come on out and we'll find something to put you to work on! If you're thinking "Oh, I'm too much of a newb to help out," put those thoughts out of your head! We'll need lots of help testing the site and new functionality, keeping things organized, etc. Plus this is also a social, so you're welcome to come and socialize too, as long as you remember the first few hours will be focused on the sprint.

Food is yet to be organized. If any lovely sponsors come out of the woodwork and want to buy us some pizzas or something, that'd be great! Otherwise, we may have to go potluck style and have everyone bring some snacks and drinks. I'm sure at least some people will head out for dinner afterwards too, and if someone wants to organize that more formally, you're more than welcome, just post the details here.

I'll try and get an outline of the work to be done posted up here a little ahead of time in case anyone wants to put dibs on some of the work.

Finally, please rsvp if you know you're coming so I can get an idea of how much wo/man power we're going to have.

Thanks and see you all soon!

Organizers

Ariane torelad (at) drupal (dot) org

In usual Vancouver geek community manner, the Drupalists are stepping up and adding their expertise to the conversation. I talked to Raincity Studios' developer (and frequent Drupal camper) Audrey (aufumy) who mentioned how the volunteers are already preparing for the event.

Iain (iainduncan) set up an SVN and Trac (for non-devs this tool allows simultaneous work by many developers, themers etc., without overwriting files and manages file revisions and issues tickets). Ariane set up a wiki for Vancouver Drupal group members with tasks and plans. http://groups.drupal.org/node/17367

Fearless City web crew Scott Nelson is heading up the tech tasks and Raincoaster Lorraine is on top of real-life testing for their unique requirements of serving a low-income and often transient audience. She speaks to this in her comment:

"Fearless is really looking forward to this. We're doing a users panel this Saturday to gather feedback from participants who use the site all the time. Usability is key to the success of the website, especially with a user base facing so many challenges: public computers on which they can't change settings, visual challenges due to no corrective lenses, etc. Everything needs to be as easy to use as possible.

It's great to see the Drupal community support for our project. You guys are stars!"

Check the site for potluck or other food info ... to start this important conversation Drupalist mcantelon says, "I'll bring cookies and/or some nog variant." To which i reply - Excellent news!

Photos by ArianeK on Flickr.