Drupal Changes Government (Changes Drupal)

Over 300 delegates have gathered at the International Press Centre of the European Commission in Brussels to hear about Drupal’s potential to change the way the public sector communicates with its constituencies.

But the change appears to go both ways and members of the Drupal community have expressed dismay at the agenda of one of the conference rooms which has ‘Closed Sessions’. The first of these, taking place now, involves European Commission staff outlining their needs to a small invited audience of representatives from certain Drupal shops.

This isn’t in itself a big thing, but it feels a little out of place in a community that is used to anyone being able to step up and get involved, and where transparency and openness are valued highly.

Mixel Kiemen, from Vrje University in Brussels, who has been studying the Drupal open source community as part of his research, said: “I can understand that they’d perhaps have some private meetings, but I find it sad that it’s effectively a private conference track at an open conference and excludes many of the delegates.”

Anyone want to share notes from the meeting? We’ll update this post with anything we can find out.