Well, it's about time.

Dries is finally done with his PhD work, and is kicking off Acquia, his commercial Drupal startup company. Dries' write up is fairly extensive, but there is also a FAQ on the Acquia site.

Dries explains that Acquia will focus on "Drupal distributions". I'd like to think that myself and the team at Bryght pioneered the concept of Drupal distributions: we've been running them as part of our mass hosting system since January 2005. It took a few more years to get "install profiles" into the core of Drupal, with the release of Drupal 5. There is still a ton of work to be done in improving the base infrastructure / code / APIs for install profiles, but it's the right direction.

We've Struck a Deal

With great enthusiasm, we are pleased to announce that Raincity Studios has acquired the (almost-legendary) Drupal pioneer company, Bryght. The companies have enjoyed a longtime collaboration offering complementary services as they've grown professionally together. Our cultures and personalities are a great match and everyone around here is eager to see what we can create together.

Joining up with talented Bryght team allows Raincity Studios to combine support and operations while also offering an increased service roster to our growing client base who can now enjoy one-stop shopping. The expanded company will operate under the Raincity Studios banner and the Bryght name will carry on through the hosting products.

In case you didn't hear about it yet, Raincity has acquired Bryght (my Raincity acquisition story) This is the first time I've participated in a formal press release. As a blogger, I find the language of press releases a bit un-natural and it sure is weird seeing how 'press releases' work e.g. how some more 'traditional' websites basically just re-publish the press release as news without adding any commentary. Hmmm sounds like a lot of bloggers. Or how people respect or don't respect embargoes. Thinking out loud: would be great to have a tool to graphically monitor the flow of news through the web starting with a blog post or press release.

Anyhow just some meta musings before I have my first coffee! I am stoked about joining Raincity Studios! Go Raincity go!

    China Access 08 is meeting at Workspace Gastown on Tuesday November 13 at 6PM. The meeting is going to cover "what's new?" "what's changing?" and "what are the best companies doing about it?". Focused on strategic business opportunities in China, the meeting is planned to be two hours long. Alan Carroll executive chairman, Pacific Rim Forum is going to host a presentation on "The Ten Most Critical Insights about China that will help you Succeed in Business". To finish up, Andrew Gilkes executive director, China Access 2008 is hosting another presentation on "The 10 'Better Question's To Design your Corporate Strategy in China 2008-2010". The night will continue after 8PM for those who are interested and want to continue the conversation.