Who are you? (biography/background)

I started my career in technology in 2005 and since then I have dedicated myself to staying up to date on the latest information technology industry trends. Throughout my career, I have developed a keen interest in open source technologies, particularly Drupal and WordPress.

Throughout the years, I’ve leveraged my expertise in technology, design, and development to lead projects and configure custom solutions that solve challenging problems. I have managed hundreds of successful projects for clients ranging from small businesses.

I believe strongly in the power of collaboration and sharing. This is why I am heavily involved in the open-source community, leading development teams and contributing to projects.

My goal is to use my expertise and knowledge to help organizations become more successful, productive, and secure.

I strongly believe in creating an inclusive and equitable organizational culture where diversity, respect, and collaboration are celebrated. Everyone should have a seat at the table and a voice that is heard regardless of race, gender, age, religion, socioeconomic status, educational background, or any other attribute. In addition, I believe strongly in the importance of taking a stand against discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice. It is absolutely essential that we create a supportive and respectful environment in all facets of corporate and organizational life.

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

I am running for a board seat at the Drupal Association because I am passionate about advocating for diversity, inclusion, and equity in the realm of open source technology. As a member of a traditionally underrepresented group, I recognize the importance of speaking up and representing different demographics, backgrounds, and perspectives in all aspects of open source building. I believe that software should be crafted with a human touch, especially in terms of considering the full range of voices and life experiences users bring to their engagement with Drupal. I am keen to leverage my experience in the industry, working with organizations of various sizes, to foster equal opportunities for all and create a more diverse and equitable community. My presence on the board will be a testament to the value of the input of those who were traditionally overlooked in the past.

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

I am a dedicated professional committed to the success of the Drupal Association and the Drupal project. My experience in technology, software, hardware, telecommunications, public speaking and cloud computing gives me a broad understanding of the complex matters that the Drupal Association faces on a daily basis.

My commitment to the success of the Drupal Association and the Drupal Project is unwavering and my dedication to the work of the board is unparalleled. I understand the rights of all members and will be an active and respected member of the board. In addition, I have excellent communication and leadership skills to assist the board in making decisions and delegate the appropriate tasks and processes.

I am confident I can provide valuable insight and advice to the board, helping to ensure that the Drupal Association is successful in meeting its goals. I believe I would be an excellent choice for the board seat and I encourage all members to consider my candidacy when voting.

Who are you? (biography/background)

Since 2012 I have worked in technical roles including Front-End Developer, Tech Lead, and Dev Manager. I fell into Drupal because the possibilities felt endless, the community so capable and inspired. There was always more to learn and even early on, opportunities to give back. 2022 brought a career change for me and I am now a Scrum Master who focuses heavily on Continuous Process Improvement. The title may be different but ultimately, it's just the next step in a long journey through the world of Drupal.  

When I am not working or volunteering, I love dismantling electronics and tinkering with Arduinos. One of my more interesting projects involved a mind-controlled RGB LED using tech from a children’s toy. My hope is to continue establishing myself in the community, but to also make time to work on personal projects like this on a more regular basis. 

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

After a decade of working with Drupal, it was time for a change. The importance and value I place on community contribution and participation was a major factor in this decision. I wanted to find opportunities that were more aligned with both my personal values and those of the Drupal community.
 
In 2021, I signed up to volunteer for DrupalCon Portland helping with setup and Trivia Night. I spoke to nearly every single booth, went to BOFs, and met with initiative leads. By the time DrupalCon Pittsburgh rolled around this year, I had stepped into a role training as a Drupal Diversity and Inclusion lead, found a job that supports volunteer work and community contribution, worked with the EOWG writing a couple of interview articles about hybrid event organization, and helped organize DDI Camp 2022. For DrupalCon itself, I presented a session on neurodiversity, had the honor of participating in the Session Review Committee, and excitingly, was invited back as a Trivia Night Coordinator. 

I wasn’t intending to take on anything more, but in the weeks leading up to DrupalCon, a painful rift emerged in our community that started with a LinkedIn post. As challenging as this topic has been, in some ways for me it has also provided a valuable gift of experience and knowledge. I did not show up in Pittsburgh feeling prepared to support the community as a DDI Lead, but over the course of the convention I had the opportunity to experience how deeply important and valuable this work is in a way I had not felt before. I decided to step into a more visible leadership role. It was the right decision and I am so glad I did.
 
Since then, I have continued to slowly build momentum in the community by promoting our Slack channel, connecting with other community contributors, and hosting video calls. This is just the beginning, I have so much more I would like to accomplish that feels very much in the realm of achievable. Even a very small change can sometimes have an important impact. I believe that there are times when we need to express our frustration or hurt and to feel seen. There are also times when we need to unify our voices and focus on healthy, achievable, positive change. The latter is where I have been very intentionally directing conversation because I do believe that this is what many parts of the community need right now. There will always be challenges and conflict, but strength and unity is how we endure and move forward. 

I will continue forging strong relationships and building the DDI space no matter what, but my motivation for self-nominating is two-fold. First, to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges that exist in the broader community. To effectively advocate for change, one must understand where the needs of different groups align. Second, to help amplify the voices of marginalized populations that may lack representation so that we can strive to make informed and thoughtful decisions during strategic planning. 

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

I am passionate about my values, which largely center around lifting up the people around me. As I write these words, I talk about people, empathy, and passion as if this comes naturally. The truth is that I am naturally a technical and analytical thinker who has worked very hard over the years to learn about people. This has become one of the greatest assets in my current work and may be my most powerful qualification for this role. Aside from this, some items from my CV include:

Technical achievements
- Tech lead and developer for Nestle for 2+ years
- Front End Dev Management experience, FE practice area leadership
- Agile Scrum & Iterative Process Improvement
- Post secondary: Comp Sci (Drupal-focused) and Graphic Design
- Curriculum development for an accredited training institution (still taught in Vancouver BC)

Community contributions 
- DrupalCon speaking & volunteering 
- Upcoming Oct 2023 JiraCon speaker
- EOWG author/contributor 
- Community-driven initiative leadership (Drupal Diversity & Inclusion)
- DDI Camp visual design and event organization 

Who are you? (biography/background)

smustgrave

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

Been working with Drupal for almost 10 years now but just got involved in the last year with the community and have loved it!  Started in bugsmash, helped start needs-review-queue-initative and would like to see how I can continue to give back!

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

• Been heavily involved over the last year
• Active on slack and trying to answer community threads
• Tapping into community frustrations and helping resolve those.  Think this would be an opportunity to only continue that fantastic work forward!
• Possibly help to start new initiatives to help push Drupal even further.

Who are you? (biography/background)

I have worked with Drupal since 2012, today I work for Acquia as a Technical Account Manager and focus my community efforts in the Houston Drupal User Groups. I have been part of the team organizing DrupalCon Latin America in 2015, a DrupalCamp Colombia in Medellin in 2020, which was stopped due to the CoVid pandemic, and some other events. I have recently rejoined Drupal Colombia to start planning new events in the future and also working with Drupaleros, a Spain lead initiative that is looking to promote Drupal and bring new people to the project and community. I have previously participated in the board elections, and wish to participate again to promote new ideas.

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

In the past, my motivation was to bring better participation of the Latin America Drupal community into the larger Drupal community. While this still remains true, I also want to double down in the efforts of bringing new talent into Drupal.

I have been working with different groups and companies that work on training and preparing new Drupal talent and noticed that we, as a community, do not have a real way to bridge the gap for newcomers to become what we may consider junior and even senior Drupal developers.

We are working on proposals so that the whole community not only works in the growth of Drupal as a software but also brings new blood and talent to the ecosystem to improve the lack of talent that many companies face in today's market.

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

I have been with Drupal for 10 years, I have worked with different Drupal communities in both English and Spanish, being part of the efforts to bridge the gap between the two communities and to promote Drupal.

I have been recognized as a Drupal evangelization person and would love to use this opportunity to further grow the Drupal Community and software to ensure that we have a sustainable model in the future. 

Who are you? (biography/background

markdorison on Drupal.org: 

I am an experienced technical leader and developer, with a portfolio of experience on the web generally, and with Drupal in particular. I have spent the majority of my career working on projects that involve large amounts of content and Drupal has been a natural fit as one of my favorite tools to tackle those issues.

My history with Drupal began in 2008 when I was dropped into supporting sites built on Drupal versions 4.7 and 5; site builds with the brand new Drupal 6 quickly followed. In 2014, I joined Chromatic as a partner, and have spent these past 9 years helping our clients find solutions to their most complicated technical problems. Oftentimes those solutions rely heavily on Drupal! Throughout this time I have written and spoken publicly about topics ranging from the technical to the interpersonal, including at Drupal camps and multiple DrupalCons.

Away from Drupal and Chromatic, I am an avid traveler, cyclist, amateur TV critic, and an enthusiastic, but fledgling Minecraft builder with my daughter Kai.

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

The situation that the Drupal Association found itself in due to COVID during the spring of 2020 left an indelible impression on me; showing how quickly the ground under our feet can change, and how important it is that we remain nimble as an organization. I was very pleased to see the strategic changes that were made including a renewed focus on decreasing ongoing costs by utilizing open-source projects to more fully meet our tooling needs (see: GitLab Acceleration Initiative). As a member of the Drupal Association board, I would push to maintain or increase our momentum in evolving the tools that we select and support, with the vision of keeping pace with the evolution of tooling in the wider open-source community.

Additionally, I believe it is critical to Drupal's success that we continue to reduce the barriers to project contribution, help foster the next generation of Drupal talent, and recognize the efforts of our community, from developers to end-users, and I want to ensure that the Drupal Association is at the forefront of that effort.

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

I have followed the activities of the Drupal Association board as an interested member for many years, including attending the public board meeting annually where I have been a vocal participant. I believe my contributions and past interactions have shown that I am well-versed in the issues the association faces and that I am capable of bringing my experience to bear on those issues. This, coupled with my perspective as a business owner in the Drupal ecosystem, has allowed me to understand how hard it is to turn a ship as big as the Drupal Association and the community at large. Yet I also believe it is essential that we continue to make incremental improvements, moving step by step in the right direction; that will be my mission as a Drupal Association board member.

Who are you? (biography/background)

Hello! My name is Ashraf Abed, and I am, first-and-foremost, an appreciative member of the Drupal community. I am based out of the Greater Washington DC area. I wear many hats at work with responsibilities spanning the roles of CEO, Drupal instructor, and Technical Architect. I owe a lot to Drupal and the Drupal community. My passion for Drupal manifests in 3 primary ways: whenever possible, I aim to Sponsor, Educate, and Contribute. I sponsor via a company I started 10 years ago, Debug Academy. It's a very small shop, and yet we prioritize sponsoring events such as DrupalCon as well as smaller camps. It is in all of our best interests for the Drupal Association to thrive. I educate by teaching newcomers and experienced folks alike how to build with, and get the most out, Drupal the software. I have personally trained hundreds of Drupal developers in live, small-group classes. I contribute in various ways: free training, scholarships, serving as a board member of Drupal4Gov, building websites for nonprofits with students, and leading students to build and maintain https://Drupal.tv , a free community resource showcasing videos from Drupal conferences and camps around the world.

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

I and my organization are eager to contribute to the Drupal Association, but the processes we're interested in partaking in sometimes seem to take place behind closed doors. I want to expand access and communication channels with the Drupal Association to enable the community to play a greater role in its success and growth.

My interest is in, primarily, expanding the reach of Drupal. This refers to both the supply (of Drupal talent) as well as the demand (for software built using Drupal). I want to assist the Drupal Association in sustainably growing itself and expanding the reach of Drupal, as well as speak on behalf of countless newcomers to the Drupal community I interact with on a daily basis.

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

I believe my vantage point is one that can add a lot of value to the board. Specifically, one of my roles is that of a decision-maker of a company who sponsors Drupal events and organizations. This position enables me to understand what is and is not seen as valuable to organizations who build with Drupal. Let's expand opportunities for companies to invest in the Drupal Association in a mutually beneficial manner.

Additionally, in interacting directly with newcomers to the Drupal community on a daily basis I see both technical and social needs that are not being met. As experienced members of the Drupal community, many of us take plenty for granted. Working with newcomers ensures that issues which impact them are regularly top-of-mind.I am also an expert-level 'full-stack' Drupal developer comfortable with Drupal 7 through 10+. I understand which proposals are feasible both from a technical standpoint as well as a community standpoint.

And last but not least, I value creating safe spaces and welcoming, inclusive environments. For example, my company has hosted hybrid live in-person/online events for 7 years to ensure events are accessible. Through that and other efforts, our student body is diverse, welcoming, youthful, and thriving.

I hope for the opportunity to listen to and learn from the community, while playing a role in bringing positive growth to the Drupal Association as a board member. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Who are you? (biography/background)

My name is Vladimir Roudakov. I have called land Down Under (Brisbane, Australia) home for more than 2 decades. I'm an open source contributor, IT college teacher and organiser of various events (local meetups, conferences, training sessions and code sprints). I’m an active member of other open source communities such as Gitlab and WordPress. My Drupal username is VladimirAus. See the list of my contributions on my profile: https://www.drupal.org/u/vladimiraus

Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association? (mission/motivation)

I’m passionate about the following initiatives:

• Building or adopting better tools for Drupal events. Currently the drupal.org events section allows consolidating and promoting code sprints, meetups and camps to the Drupal community. Inspired by GovHack (Australia and New Zealand government code sprint) and WordCamp (WordPress conferences) experiences, I would like to build a prototype that enables the Drupal communities to have tools to run local conferences as well as tools to promote the events on social media.
• Promoting Drupal as technology of choice in academia. I have invested interest in bringing Drupal as a technology of choice to Colleges and Universities in Australia (and hopefully around the globe). Improving Drupal help and learning material will play a crucial part for Drupal to stay relative as a technology.
• Expanding contributors recognition program. As a Gitlab Hero, I have witnessed Gitlab attempts to recognise contributors including special events, announcements of MVPs (Most Valuable Person) of the month and other incentives for active contributors. I would like to use acquired knowledge to propose a few trial recognition campaigns.

Please, consider voting for me if any of the above initiatives resonate with you and you think that they will result in an even better, wider and stronger Drupal community.

Why should members vote for you? (qualifications)

I feel strongly about the initiatives listed before. Below is the list of my qualifications related to each topic.

• Building or adopting better tools for Drupal events. I’ve been a Drupal events co-organiser for more than 7 years. Currently, I’m curating monthly training sessions, local meetups and seasonal code sprints. I'm volunteering for various events to get inspiration and experience. Joined by a few of my colleagues we built a conference prototype for DrupalSouth conference which can work as a base building block to create a better event organising platform. 
• Promoting Drupal as technology of choice in academia. As an active IT teacher, I receive feedback from teachers and students about advantages and disadvantages of using Drupal (and other content management systems). Fun fact, the first thing that new students get confused about is the lack of Drupal 10 and Drupal 9 help and tutorials as they only can find Drupal 8 help! 
• Expanding contributors recognition program. I granted various contributions on Drupal.org over the years. At the same time I've been an active member of the Gitlab heroes program and witnessed different approaches to contribution.

Markdown is a text processing library that takes readable text and converts it into HTML. Started over 20 years ago, it is now a widely-used library that makes it easy for people to write text documents that can be easily and predictably converted into HTML.

Quick example - the Markdown syntax "this is **important**" converts to "this is important" after passing through a Markdown converter.

There are many "flavors" of Markdown today - most include the basic syntax and many include their version of "extended Markdown". Examples include Github-flavored Markdown and CommonMark.

Predictably, there have been Markdown-related Drupal contrib modules for a number of years, with the standard being the predictably named Markdown module. Started in 2008, it is currently used by about 5,000 Drupal sites (down from a high of more than 12,000 sites a few years ago).

Unfortunately, as of the publishing of this blog post, the current iteration of the Markdown module does not yet have a full release compatible with Drupal 10, although there are efforts ongoing to remedy this.

Why a new module?

DrupalEasy.com uses the Markdown syntax for some of its content. During our effort to upgrade DrupalEasy.com, the Markdown module became our last blocker to achieving that goal.

We took the time to review the current state of the Markdown module and its effort to be upgraded for Drupal 10, and in the end, we decided to pursue a simpler (in terms of module configuration,) less-time-consuming (in terms of contribution time,) and sustainable (in terms of ease of future upgrades) solution.

The existing Markdown module is configurable - really configurable. Some might say "too configurable".

One of the main configuration choices one has to make when using the Markdown module is choosing which Markdown library to utilize. The various open-source Markdown-processor libraries implement their own flavor of Markdown (like the Github and CommonMark libraries mentioned above). In fact, the Markdown module allows you to utilize multiple Markdown processor libraries. Once a library is selected, there are a myriad of additional configuration options available for each library and for each text format where the Markdown filter is utilized. Configuring the Markdown module in a secure manner is (in our experience) a bit of a chore.

I have no doubt that there are users of the Markdown module that require that level of control and fine-grained configuration. In those cases, the Markdown module is probably their best choice.

But, what about users who don't need that level of control? Users who just want to process Markdown formatted text into basic HTML with a minimum of fuss using a tried-and-true Markdown library. It is for these users that the Markdown Easy module was created.

What makes Markdown Easy different?

In short:

1. It is opinionated about the Markdown library - it uses CommonMark. Full stop.
2. It is opinionated about its configuration - it is configured to be as secure as possible.
3. It is easy to install and configure (see 1 and 2 above).

It was decided early on that the CommonMark library would be a dependency of Markdown Easy. It has more than 150 million installs on Packagist.org and is considered by many as the "gold standard" of Markdown libraries. In addition, it comes with the "Github-flavored Markdown" option as well. Selecting between these two "flavors" of Markdown is the only configuration option you have in Markdown Easy.

The module is preconfigured to be as secure as possible. Configured incorrectly, a Markdown library will output virtually any HTML tag - some that can be abused by bad actors. For example, the Markdown Easy module (by default) does not allow unsafe links or HTML tags to be processed (both of these options can be overridden with a Markdown Easy hook implementation). Additionally, validation of any text format utilizing the Markdown Easy filter requires that both the "Limit HTML" and "Convert line breaks" Drupal core filters be enabled and set to run in a prescribed order to ensure secure usage and consistent results (again, this can be overridden with a hook).

What features are planned for future versions of Markdown Easy?

Not many.

The goal is to have an easy-to-maintain (between major versions of Drupal core,) easy-to-configure (for site-builders,) and easy-to-customize (via Drupal hooks) module.

The only feature that we are currently interested in adding is the option of a GitLab-flavored Markdown library.

Is this module ready for prime-time?

We think so. In fact, the article that you're reading was written in Markdown and processed into HTML by the Markdown Easy module (with the exception of the logo - standard HTML was used for styling purposes).

Full documentation, including examples for overriding default validation and configuration, is available on drupal.org.

Markdown Easy's code base is primarily validation and automated test code. The filter plugin is 129 lines of code while validation and automated tests include over 700 lines of code.

We are using Drupal.org's Gitlab CI to run the tests in both Drupal 9 and Drupal 10 on every merge request and the module is covered by Drupal's security advisory policy.

We invite you to check it out and let us know what you think!

I recently recorded a video that walks through installing the Schema.org Blueprints module for Drupal. Taking Schema.org-first approach to building a content model and authoring experience in Drupal can be overwhelming. It is relatively straightforward to generate a single content type based on Schema.org. Still, as one starts to build a full content model, it can take time to understand the relationships between Schema.org types and what submodules are required to provide the ideal authoring experience.

Early on, I implemented the concept of mapping sets, which set up multiple Schema.org types in sequence to test and review the module’s out-of-the-box configuration. As I have worked to implement Schema.org for my client, I’ve realized that the generated Schema.org types and properties need additional configuration to create the ideal content authoring experience and website. While learning more about Schema.org’s history and evolution, it has become apparent that schemas for different sectors are led by working groups that research and recommend additional types and properties. For example, information architects and content experts have collaborated to define comprehensive schemas for the automotive, hospitality, medical, and financial industries. These very thorough industry schemas can feel overwhelming and make it difficult for developers to leverage and understand the available schemas and possibilities. To help developers get started and maintain their organization’s schemas, I’ve implemented a Schema.org Blueprints specific starter kit API, which can either provide the beginning or an example of an approach for implementing...Read More