Archive for the 'interview' Category

Interview: Chris Spavin on Global Entrepreneurship Week

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 21, 2008
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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, so I have the inside scoop from Chris Spavin, a member of the Make Your Mark team working with partners to deliver GEW, catalyze events overseas, and assist the campaign’s development abroad.  Chris believes, “there is so much untapped potential in people and sometimes all we need is a simple catalyst.”  Learn more about the work below in Chris’ own words and find out how you can get involved!

What’s Global Entrepreneurship Week all about?

Global Entrepreneurship Week is a campaign to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, and to unleash ideas that will address some of society’s biggest issues.  The point is we need entrepreneurs and we need more of them, now more than ever.  Organizations in over 75 countries are supporting this cause by ‘hosting’ their own national version of the campaign.

How is Make Your Mark contributing?

Make Your Mark is a co-founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week, along with a US-based organization called the Kauffman Foundation.  We are both responsible for coordinating the global campaign, and offering support and guidance to our partners around the world.  The campaign model is based on Make Your Mark’s Enterprise Week in the UK, which will be running for the fifth time this year as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.  We’ve got great experience running this type of campaign—there are over 6,000 events during the week in the UK alone this year—and we’re sharing it.

How can people get involved in GEW?

One of our main aims of this campaign is to mainstream entrepreneurship so there’s something that everyone can do to get involved.  Individuals can register on our website and our forum.  Organizations can run their own events, either for the public or for their staff, to inspire more entrepreneurial, or innovative, behaviour.  Educators can get their students involved in competitions, including the Make Your Mark Challenge if you’re a school in the UK, or something like Stanford’s Global Innovation Tournament if you’re in a university.  You can attend a Speednetwork the Globe event if you want to meet like-minded people in person, or you can meet them via our online community.  If you’re involved in the media, you can write about Global Entrepreneurship Week to help us raise our profile.  All of our competitions and events are available on our website, and there really is stuff happening everywhere.

Is this going to keep going beyond the end of the week?

Absolutely.  This has been the very first Global Entrepreneurship Week and it’s going to run year-on-year.  We’ve been doing it for five years in the UK but the vast majority of other countries are running this campaign for the first time.  They are tremendously excited to build on their initial success this year, and to make an even bigger bang in 2009.  We can’t wait to see how things grow.

What are some of the ideas you’ve heard about this week that inspire you?

There are a few of them that stick out in my mind.  Amy Carter-James is a young British woman who set up her own lodge in Northern Mozambique that is both a high-end hotel and social enterprise that ploughs its profits back into the local community.  I think it’s going to have a massive impact on Mozambique and the idea itself is quite simple.  I also met an entrepreneur called Shed Simove who comes up with new novelty gift ideas - the kind of crude and hilarious things you find at Urban Outfitters.  Although both of these entrepreneurs are on opposite sides of the social benefit spectrum (Shed may disagree with me about that!), they are people who have taken simple, fun ideas from out of their minds and turned them into profitable businesses.  I find that the simplest business ideas are often the most inspirational because they really demonstrate that: “hey, I could do this, too”.

If you could be anywhere in the world for GEW, where would you want to be?

Aaaah, this is a difficult question!  And it’s actually one of the first questions I asked myself and a few colleagues at the beginning of the week.  I have to pick three.  The Brazilian campaign is really impressive: they’ve got lots of amazing things going on and even managed to get a commercial featuring Michael Dell on national TV.  Plus it’s nice and warm there—or at least I imagine it to be!  The campaign in Kenya is also exciting: they had a big football/music event in Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi.  Finally, Malta joined the campaign only very recently but have managed to pull lots of stuff together; the team there is so enthusiastic and pro-active.  I would spend my time between the three places  :-)

What, in your opinion, is the most important reason to get involved in GEW?

I believe that everyone on this planet realizes why entrepreneurship is important, even if it’s not right for them.  Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, or wants to be (it’s not easy!), but I think every young person, no matter where they’re from, should be encouraged to at least consider it for themselves, and have access to the necessary support should they decide to take the plunge.  There is so much untapped potential in people and sometimes all we need is a simple catalyst - could be meeting a person, or an inspirational story on the net - to take the next step and start turning our ideas into reality.  Entrepreneurs - whether self-employed or currently employed by somebody else - are the people who will come up with the new ideas and create the new businesses that will lead us into a more prosperous time.

How you can get involved:

BullyingUK wins Innovation Award

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 20, 2008
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Earlier this month, I posted an interview with John Carnell of BullyingUK.  John mentioned in that interview the current Click, Create and Print area of the BullyingUK website, letting teachers and students, parents and children create their own anti-bullying posters.

What was the order or progression of social media adoption at BullyingUK?
As I said before, social media has been a part of our work since before “social media” was a buzzword.  As the founder and CEO it’s my job to identify technologies and services years in advance of becoming mainstream. I then look at how that technology can be used to further our Anti-bullying work: Click, Create and Print is a perfect example using technology that so far no other charity or business has thought of combing the way we have.

Click, Create and Print is an online poster creater that allows schools to build and print their own posters (saving schools £34,000 so far).  Each poster then has a special barcode that allows a child to snap the code with their mobile phone to download a copy of the poster which they can then share with friends via bluetooth or mms or upload back to the web—creating a perfect circle!

I think this is the first time anyone has created a project that fills in the digital divide in such a unique way—it really is a whole new spin on a very old issue.

John wasn’t the only one to think that BullyingUK was onto something innovative and unique.  The Click, Create and Print project won BullyingUK a TalkTalk Innovation Award!

The website  www.bullying.co.uk/poster   allows any young person to make their own anti-bullying poster. On each poster are two special codes. When snapped with a mobile phone camera they allow the user to access a digital copy of the poster that can then be shared with other young people via MMS or Bluetooth. A second code allows access to the charity’s mobile advice site www.bullying.co.uk .

The project was funded with donations from the family and friends of Ben Vodden, the 11-year-old Sussex schoolboy who killed himself after bullying on the school bus in 2006. So far, more than 10,000 unique posters with a tribute to Ben have been created by schools all over the UK.

John Carnell, founder and CEO  of Harrogate-based Bullying UK said: “We are proud to be recognised by TalkTalk as one of the UK’s most innovative charities. Eighteen months ago we identified QR codes as being key to the uptake of the mobile web and the filling in of another bit of the digital divide. Even if people are in a rush they can snap the code from the poster with their phone and get immediate help from our mobile website.”

Congrats to John and the rest of the team at BullingUK!  Keep up the meaningful and successful work!

Gordon Brown at Chain Reaction 2008

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 18, 2008
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To close off day 1 of the 2-day Chain Reaction event taking place on the Southbank of London, Gordon Brown spoke to participants about the economic situation, entrepreneurship and the opportunities at hand.  With David Wilcox’s camera in hand, I had a front row seat to record the speech.  Watch it below!

Check out other videos from the conference at Qik and YouTube!

Sir Richard Branson presenting to Chain Reacion

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 17, 2008
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Check out the message from Sir Richard Branson presenting to the Chain Reaction conference about entrepreneurship and more:

More from Chain Reaction tomorrow!

Interview with Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on November 17, 2008
in events and interview
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This morning at Chain Reaction 2008, I had the awesome opportunity to interview Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day.  I first came into contact with the organization four years ago when I saw the film Peace One Day chronicling Jeremy’s journey getting an annual day dedicated to peace supported by the world via a UN declaration.  Jeremy has had quite a journey the last ten years and spoke this morning to open the conference, filling the room with stories and pictures about real change.

You can see the video (recorded on a Flip camera) from YouTube:

Check out Peace One Day to commit to celebrating peace every year on Sept 21st!

Stay tuned for more from Chain Reaction 2008!

Train for Humanity: Interview with Mark Hayward

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on November 5, 2008
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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

train for humanity logo

Mark Hayward, co-founder of Train for Humanity, sets out today from his home to participate in the Miami Man Triathlon and raise awareness (and funds) for relief in Darfur. Train for Humanity launched this September with social media as a core aspect of communications, fundraising, and more. I recently connected with Mark to hear more about Train for Humanity and how social media is working for them. Learn more about Train for Humanity in the interview below or at http://trainforhumanity.org

Tell us a little about what Train for Humanity is and the work you do:

Train for Humanity is a new, innovative, non-profit humanitarian awareness and fundraising organization focusing on trying to assist children, refugees, and orphans who have been affected by genocide. The concept is loosely based on the successful campaigns that the Team in Training (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) and Joints in Motion (Arthritis Foundation) have waged to raise funds and awareness for their respective health-based organizations by utilizing every-day athletes and their training efforts. However, Train for Humanity participant athletes will combine their passion for getting in shape or training to help raise awareness and funds for humanitarian crises.

We are vastly different from most humanitarian organizations in that we exist purely as an online entity, which means we have NO overhead costs to consume funds. Also, all of our PR and advertising to date has been done online using blogging and social media as a means of spreading the word. In fact, our mission is simple:

getting fit + social media + blogging = social good

During our pilot phase we have three “blogger/athletes” training for various endurance events to help raise awareness and funds for Darfur Peace & Development Organization.

What got Train for Humanity going?

While I was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the jungles of Papua New Guinea ten years ago I was present the evening that a young woman from my village died from the effects of cerebral malaria simply because the proper medication was not available. Following that incident, I didn’t know how I was going to do it or what I would create, but I knew some day I would start a humanitarian organization.

Of course, life moved on: I went on to get a Master’s degree in International Development, continued to travel and live in various countries, and worked my way through numerous jobs. But, the idea to create “something” that could assist those who are facing humanitarian crises was always in the back of my mind.

About two years ago I was heading out the door to go running when a news clip on CNN wound up stopping me in my tracks for a minute. The story was about the horrific activities that were (and still are) taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

When the piece was over, I continued on my way and headed out the door for my run. However, during the workout the images of what was happening in Darfur stayed with me.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere as I was listening to Lucky Dube on my IPOD, I began to think of the successful campaigns that the Team in Training (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) and Joints in Motion (Arthritis Foundation) have waged to raise funds and awareness for their respective health-based organizations by utilizing every-day athletes and their training efforts.

Then it HIT me: Why hasn’t anybody implemented a similar model of using endurance athletes in training (getting fit) to assist with humanitarian fundraising and awareness?

And thus, the initial idea for Train for Humanity was born.

Why Darfur?

People watch horrific events on the news on a daily basis, however, what’s happening in Darfur is the first genocide of the 21st century. At present, the situation is dire. Over the past five years, more than 200,000 (some estimates have this number at 300,000- 400,000) men, women, and children have died due to violence, malnutrition, and disease associated with genocide and an additional 2.2 million people have been displaced.

I am not quite sure why the global leaders haven’t really done anything to ensure that the violence will stop. Again, for me, it comes back to the children, who by some circumstance happened to be born during this crises. When I think about them losing their parents for no reason I always come back to the same conclusion - I live in the Caribbean, my life is good. How could I not do something?

How have you seen social media help the organization?

Social media and blogging are almost a complete bottom-up approach to marketing and branding. When used properly small business can utilize blogs, fellow bloggers, and social media (like Twitter and Facebook) to help promote their business or particular cause. Train for Humanity is working to leverage the power of blogs and social media to raise awareness. For example, Project co-founder Leo Babauta, has over 70,000 subscribers to his site and I think he gets close to a million page views a week, so anytime he mentions TFH on his site, he has the ability to reach a huge audience. Also, I have been writing guest posts, which highlight Train for Humanity for such popular blogs as Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger and the Successful Blog owned by Liz Strauss.

The latest statistic that I read stated that over 150,000 new blogs are created on a daily basis. The ability for even a small percentage of those blogs to help us make an impact is mind-boggling.

Social media sites such as Twitter and PLURK are primarily “micro-blogging” networking applications but if you are helpful toward the people who “follow” you, then they are always willing to promote your work in return.

We launched Train for Humanity on September 9, 2008 with nothing BUT social media so its intrinsic value (for us as an organization) is huge. In fact, without social media, Train for Humanity, would not necessarily exist. All of the blogger co-founders live in various corners of the world and we were brought together via our shared passion for helping people, social media, and the internet.

As a specific example, on the launch day we did not use traditional media for a press release. Instead we relied on social media tools like Twitter and random blog posts around the web to help spread the word about this new fledgling humanitarian organization. Our very first day the Train for Humanity website went from ZERO pageviews to around 7,000 within a ten hour period.

How are you leveraging social media in your current training campaign?

During phase one of Train for Humanity we aren’t specifically focusing on one particular training campaign. Rather, we are posting weekly training updates on our blog and we also want the TFH site to be a resource for others who might like to launch an online non-profit or business. To that end, I recently posted an article titled, “One Month After the Launch: Ten Lessons Learned.”

Our broader strategy has been to guest post on larger blogs like chrisbrogan.com, problogger.net, successful-blog.com, and the FourHourWorkWeek. We have also used Twitter (and to a lesser extent PLURK and Triiibes) to engage new readers in order to help us keep the buzz going.

What has surprised you about social media use with the organization/campaigns?

I have been truly humbled and inspired by the number of online acquaintances, whom I’ve never met, that have come forward to help with Train for Humanity either by sponsoring one of the athletes, blogging about us, or “retweeting” Twitter messages for me.

Also, I might add that combining social media and social issue awareness seems to be a tricky beast to tame (at least for me). The one thing that has sort of surprised me is that every time, without fail, if I send a Twitter message about something that is going on in Darfur I will lose between 3 and 5 followers. Which is okay because they probably followed for one reason and every now and again they get hit with a message on Darfur, but I am still curious as to “why.”

What have you seen to be the best social media tool for engaging your supporters?

GREAT question! Hands down, from my experience, people respond best to tweets (and countless retweets from friends) directing them to blog posts that are going to teach them something. Seth Godin emailed me some priceless information a while ago and he essentially told me:

Don’t tell people what you are about or try to jam it into them…teach them something about you, your organization, or what you have learned.

In that way you can provide value while still trying to gain Train for Humanity evangelists, sponsors, and participant athletes.

How can people follow you on SUNDAY?

You know I did just get a BlackBerry so I hope to tweet and blog most of my experience. Starting with leaving my little B&B business on Culebra Island by ferry this Wednesday to crossing the finish line on Sunday, November 9th, and everything in between.

Follow Train for Humanity on Twitter and the blog. Here’s Mark’s Twitter to follow, too!

How can people get involved with Train for Humanity?

If the genocide that is taking place in Darfur moves certain people to want to help or assist then I would strongly encourage those individuals to get involved. However, even if it’s not TFH, chances are, if you are reading this interview you are wealthy compared to most. Please know that you CAN make a difference!! If you are moved by animal welfare issues then support honest people who are trying to make a difference in the lives of animals or if your child’s school needs some help then maybe try to assist them.

The easiest way for people to get involved at this time is to send an email to trainforhumanity@gmail.com and if you would like to support us by sponsoring one of the TFH athletes then visit the sponsor-us page.

Learn more about Train for Humanity and how to get involved here.

Interview with John Carnell: Social media at use in BullyingUK

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on November 3, 2008
in case studies and interview
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

bullying uk logoJohn Carnell,  co-founder and project manager of  BullyingUK, a nonprofit organization working on anti-bulling campaigns in the UK including services for youth, parents and schools, recently took time from the active participation in social media to chat with me about the organization’s work.  BullyingUK has incorporated social media tools into communications, fundraising, and community buildling.  Learn more about how they are succeeding in the interview below.

Tell us a little about who BullyingUK is and the work you do:
Bullying UK was founded in 1999, then known as Bullying Online. I had a simple goal to create a new breed of charity that was light on its feet, able to react quickly to changes and be low cost but very high impact.

At the basic level we provide help, advice and support to people being bullied.  We have over 200 pages of advice and content dedicated to the subject matter, as well as tools and services to help spread the anti-bullying messages far and wide. We have a history of using the cutting edge technology to challenge convention and push the agenda in new directions.  We create the projects that others would say are too difficult or impossible.

What are the Unite Against Bullying badges?
UniteAgainstBullying.com is our online world-wide campaign site and has an associated offline campaign.  At its heart is a simple widget that can be embedded into any social site or webpage that tells everyone you’re United Against Bullying.

The campaign widget is currently served by over 3,000 websites and seen by 170k people a week. This year, we are offering 50 U.A.B badges to supporters who would like to sell them to raise a donation for Bullying UK - email supporters@bullying.co.uk with your name and address to get yours!

How have you seen social media help the organization?
Being a founding part of the modern web means social media is what we do, not just something we actively work into our organisation. It’s a core feature of our work and how we communicate.

That said, sites like Facebook and FriendFeed really help to create engagement and find like-minded people. We are out there having the conversations where people tend to find us and latch on with ideas for ways they can help.

How are you leveraging social media in your current anti-bullying campaign?We have a number of off-shoot campaigns from the UAB widget I mentioned above to more low level work connecting with bloggers and supporters to create buzz around our services.

One thing that’s important to me is that people don’t feel obligated to help us, and social media is the perfect way to find those sorts of people.  I feel there is more value added to our work by people who truely feel a connection to us than those that are just involved to be involved.

What was the order or progression of social media adoption at BullyingUK?
As I said before, social media has been a part of our work since before “social media” was a buzzword.  As the founder and CEO it’s my job to identify technologies and services years in advance of becoming mainstream. I then look at how that technology can be used to further our Anti-bullying work: Click, Create and Print is a perfect example using technology that so far no other charity or business has thought of combing the way we have.

Click, Create and Print is an online poster creater that allows schools to build and print their own posters (saving schools £34,000 so far).  Each poster then has a special barcode that allows a child to snap the code with their mobile phone to download a copy of the poster which they can then share with friends via bluetooth or mms or upload back to the web—creating a perfect circle!

I think this is the first time anyone has created a project that fills in the digital divide in such a unique way—it really is a whole new spin on a very old issue.

What has surprised you about social media use with the organization/campaigns?
The most surprising has been how quickly we can achieve critical mass (the point at which you don’t have to promote a service because supporters do it for you and pass the word along to their friends).

Historically we reach critical mass on a service in a little under 6 weeks; I consider critical mass to be 100 new supporters per day at an increase of 10% day on day (it fluncuates but its a good line in the sand).

Using a new supporter network we have been building we received over £1500 of badge pledges in just 2 days from a few thousand new supporters who had only just discovered who we were. That’s amazingly powerful.

How do you engage your supporters via social media and how can readers help out?
We have a presence on every social network site, all life streaming sites and preety much everywhere people from the UK are. Do a search for BullyingUK and you will most likely find us.

We are always looking for bloggers and social media users to help spread knowledge of our service either by adding the UAB widget, or linking to bullying.co.uk. Even just knowing we exist and mentioning us in conversation to someone dealing with bullying can have a huge impact.

To steal a tag line: “every little helps!”

Interview with Jeff Robbins - Drupal & The Future!

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on October 24, 2008
in interview
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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

Jeff is part of a team excited about the future of the web with Drupal.  You may have heard some of the early news already, but more is sure to come.

What’s in the works?  “…an easy-to-use platform for groups, individuals and businesses to create powerful dynamic social websites. Historically, these sites required huge time commitments and expert developers; this platform will allow users to harness the power of Drupal and its wealth of add-ons with a streamlined point-and-click, drag-and-drop interface. With these tools, even newcomers will be able to build feature-rich multi-user websites that go beyond the boundaries of simple blog sites.”  -Lullabot news

I recently connected with Jeff to get the complete story.

lullabot logoJeff’s background, in his own words

Over the last couple decades, Jeff has had a varied connection with the world of the web, including projects with O’Reilly in the early 90s (like buildling the Global Network Navigator, the first website with ads), starting Liquid Media (web design company), performing and making music with Orbit (band, member), and serving as the defacto ‘tech guy’ for A&M Records.

After the band’s contract ended eight years ago, Jeff jumped into the world of web 2.0 by building websites with his wife; clients included bigger and bigger names (like Ringo Star!).  The team was using Wordpress and Movable Type for the client websites when they decided on Drupal for a specific project.

The same thing that has happened before

As Jeff worked through this new project with Drupal, he experienced the state many have before: “starving for Drupal information” in a sea of praise for the platform and the many, many options available.  This is when Jeff reached out to the Drupal community for help and connected with Matt Westgate.

The two wanted to start a company that would provide the help so many people need, including Jeff, when starting a project with Drupal to avoid getting overwhlemed.  And thus, Lullabot was born with a central focus on empowering people with workshops, podcasts, as well as hiring people who are involved in the Drupal community as experts to help out.

What is Drupal?

According to Wikipedia, “Drupal is a free and open source modular framework and content management system (CMS) written in the programming language PHP. Like many modern CMSs, Drupal allows the system administrator to create and organize content, customize the presentation, automate administrative tasks, and manage site visitors and contributors.”

Jeff describes Drupal as a blogging software on steroids.  A blogging platform specializes in one type of content (blog posts), whereas Drupal can handle any kind of content and has the capacity to build things that aren’t content management-based, like e-commerce systems.

So, where did the idea come from?

Jeff and Matt attended N2Y2 in San Jose, CA.  The pair entered the conference with the goal of better understanding what was going on in the nonprofit community and how they could help.  What they found, though, was a huge community of people who had already been told they should use Drupal for their project or website but had no resources on how to do it, told they should get an ‘expert’ to do it so they don’t ’screw it up.’

After scratchy voices and lots of new connections, they realized there was no good way to help individuals individually—it was a problem that needed to be tackled at the platform level.  As Jeff explains, “Drupal is the promise of modular ease, but it isn’t actually that easy.”

So, Jeff wrote an article about how Drupal will save the world.  He said, “wouldn’t it be great if…” as a way of brainstorming how to tackle the platform level of the problems and confusions he was seeing people experience, like: wouldn’t it be great if there was some entity that could give the Drupal community a chunk of money (Jeff suggested $50,000) to work on the platform for a year with the specific goal of making it easier to use.  They didn’t get the money, but they did get interest and ideas.

Drupal will save the world

Jeff then attended O’Reilly’s Foo Camp where he presented on how Drupal will save the world, talking about the ideas he, Matt and others had been thinking about and discussing.  This is when Google’s Jeffrey Veen posed the question of whether people even need to install the software or not—why can’t they just do all that they need to on a website?  Jeff couldn’t come up with an answer of why they shouldn’t.

Together with Ed Sussman, formerly of Mansueto Digital and FastCompany.com, the idea emerged to form a business out of this idea.  The team grew to include Karen McGrane from Bond Art + Science, who’s experience includes designing the current version of NYTimes.com.  The team began working away on this new project to allow users to build Drupal sites via the web in an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop, type fashion.  They were working quietly, experimenting internally, until Friday the 10th when Ed announced he was leaving to come head up the project.

What now?

There is no name yet, and it is still quite early, but the group is in progress with the idea, and with the process of finding investors and hiring developers to make Drupal easier to use.  They want to build something that is more feature rich than Ning but faster and open source.  It is a graduation from the blog, though it’ll have an import fundation so you can move over whatever content you have elsewhere.  It will also be optimized to run larger scale website than most blogging software as it assumes a higher ‘high end.’

Who is it really for?

There are a lot of different groups, and everybody needs a website!  Jeff asks the question, “what website would you build if you could?” and says there are endless options.  People who are building websites, web designers, and the like will probably be interested first, for natural reasons; but Jeff hopes the tool is for everyone!

And for the future…

Jeff compares speculation of the future to the developments in the past: it used to be about code, functionality was held very close to the chest for developers and companies.  Social networking helped change that as companies began building the same applications for people to select friends on their platforms, and once the same features were being reproduced everywhere, the magic was gone.  What’s magical now, is how we assemble features, which tools are put together and how.  While there is definitely still skill involved, it becomes less of a hurdle and more people can start doing larger things online.  The building blocks are out of the way!

Do It With Drupal logoDo It With Drupal

In addition to this new project, Lullabot is organizing its first large-scale Drupal event — a 3-day learning conference called Do It With Drupal. The event is happening at the Marriott in the French Quarter of New Orleans, December 10, 11, and 12th. Speakers include many “big names” in both the Drupal world and online community building experts. There will be sessions on building and nurturing online communities from Flickr’s community manager Heather Champ and author Tara Hunt. Sessions will be given on Drupal building blocks such as Views, CCK, and Organic Groups, from the programmers who wrote them. jQuery author John Resig will be speaking as well as Lockergnome’s Chris Pirillo. There are also some fun sessions such as a look at clone sites of YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter, all built in Drupal.

Do It With Drupal is meant to be an easy on-ramp into the Drupal community and all sessions will be geared at attendees with a wide range of Drupal experience. If you’ve ever felt that drowning-in-Drupal feeling, this event could be of great help!

Check out Do It With Drupal for more information and registration.