I have the most interesting conversations while at open source conferences. A few weeks ago at CMS Expo I had a great conversation with Jeff Eaton about open source as it relates to things other than code. I'm not sure where Jeff had come up with the phrase, but he had recently realized that many of our best third party ("contributed") Drupal modules are "artefacts of paid work." Unlikely many other types of open source projects where a developer was "scratching their own itch", much of the Drupal ecosystem of code has been built by people who were paid for their time.

While this could open up the conversation to all kinds of interesting comparisons and rebuttals and agreements and disagreements, let's head off in a different direction instead. Contributing artefacts has made the Drupal code ecosystem incredibly healthy and a wonderful place to dive into when you are looking to deploy a Web site with a shoestring budget. There are, however, two main problems that we've not yet solved: designs can never be artefacts and training people has no residual artefact.

Today was my second (and final for the conference) presentation at CMSExpo in Chicago. Advanced Layout Techniques was a 1.5 hour presentation covering the basics of the advanced layout modules (and theme): Skinr, Fusion and Panels. The slides include links to some great DrupalConSF presentations.

If you're interested in learning more there's also an online class starting May 12.

In about two hours I will be giving my Design to Theme (in five simple steps) presentation at CMSExpo in Chicago. This one-hour presentation covers the basics of how to convert a design file into a Drupal theme. I use GIMP but the lessons work for Photoshop (and Inkscape and Illustrator and and and) too.

If you're interested in learning more there's also an ebook and an online class starting May 11.