(Information) Drupal’s Creator Envisions Web Publishing’s Plug-and-Play Future

Drupal’s Creator Envisions Web Publishing’s Plug-and-Play Future

Dries Buytaert started down his path to fame when he coded up a private message board for his college dormitory. Nine years later, that modest bulletin board software package has grown into Drupal, one of the most popular open-source content publishing systems on the web with thousands of active contributors. In March 2008, Buytaert connected with entrepreneur Jay Batson, and together the two of them founded Acquia, a commercial venture that will provide technical support for Drupal’s devotees as well as further the adoption and development of the platform.

Webmonkey sat down with Dries and Jay to talk about the history of Drupal, where development is headed and the role their new company will play in the project’s future.

Webmonkey: Dries, can you give us Drupal’s back-story? The germ of the idea and how the platform grew into existence?

Dries Buytaert: It sort of happened by accident. I was a student at the University of Antwerp in Belgium around 1999. I was doing web development with CGI and server-side includes, but I wanted to learn more about technologies like PHP and MySQL. Also, at the same time, we had the need for an internal messaging system at our student dorm. So, I wrote a simple message board. Then when I graduated, I decided to move my internal message board onto the internet.

When I registered a domain for it, I wanted to register the name “Dorp,” which is Dutch for “small village.” But I mis-typed, and actually ended up registering the name Drop. Amazingly, Drop.org was still available, and since it’s an English word with multiple meanings, I decided to just go with it.

[Read more..]

Courtesy : http://www.webmonkey.com