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Drupal 8 Accelerate funds key initiatives. Today, Drupal 8 Accelerate is raising funds to support the Promote Drupal Initiative.
Below are details about the Drupal 8 Accelerate campaign that funded key efforts that aided with the Drupal 8 release.
Drupal 8 Accelerate for the Drupal 8 Release Campaign
The Drupal Association worked with the Drupal 8 core maintainers to provide Drupal 8 Acceleration Grants. Our goal was to fund work that would positively impact the release date.
What was this program about?
The D8 Accelerate project was designed to help move Drupal 8 from the initial beta to a full release. This directly relates to the Association's mission: uniting a global open source community to build and promote Drupal. This was a pilot program from the Drupal Association to put $250,000 of community funds toward accelerating the release of Drupal 8, due to the strategic impact this work has on the entire Drupal ecosystem.
Who decided what to fund?
The fund operated much like the Community Cultivation Grants, with fund disbursements directed by a group of community volunteers. The D8 Accelerate fund was run by the D8 core maintainers (who had voting rights on what to fund) and others with deep familiarity with the current status of Drupal 8. Its current membership is:
- Dries Buytaert (Dries) (core maintainer)
- Angie Byron (webchick) (core maintainer)
- Nat Catchpole (catch) (core maintainer)
- Alex Pott (alexpott) (core maintainer)
- Jess M (xjm)
- Alex Bronstein (effulgentsia)
The Drupal Association did not play a role in the decision-making process, but rather played a supporting and amplifying role, by handling tasks such as logistics and fundraising.
The money in the Drupal 8 Accelerate fund was split into two pools: the Core Maintainer request pool (where core maintainers decided among themselves where money should be spent based on current priorities/impact), and Community Request pool (where the Drupal community as a whole had the opportunity to submit ideas for funding).
Sample grants concepts
Here are some examples of projects that requested funding through the grants system:
Types of funding the Drupal 8 core maintainers could request:
- Drupal sprint to fix issues X, Y, and Z: The core maintainers identify a set of critical issues that require specific attention. They request a grant for a 3-day event with key community members focused on this set of issues. (This is a targeted sprint, NOT a general contribution sprint like those at DrupalCons.)
- Fix issue X: A critical issue will be more efficiently resolved with dedicated time from a specific contributor. The core maintainers request a stipend to compensate the contributor for working on the issue. These stipends will assume an hourly rate of $100 for all contributors, which is the standard Association rate.
Check out this detailed description of the core maintainer funding process.
Types of funding the Drupal Community could request:
- I am planning a Drupal 8 criticals sprint at my camp: A camp can request funding to bring in Drupal 8 core maintainers or key contributors to lead work on a specific set of critical issues.
- I am a contributor to the Drupal.org automated testing infrastructure, and want to hold a sprint on drastically improving automated testing performance: A community member or group can request funds for a sprint on tool improvements.
- Individuals can request funding to fix specific issues. For all issues, an initial stipend of $500 for five hours will be provided. This time can be used to work on an initial patch, and create an estimate of the time remaining.
- Surprise us! We want you to tell us what we can best do to support you in your Drupal 8 efforts. Please feel free to submit your ideas and they will be considered.
What was funded?
We looked for creative ideas that foster the acceleration of Drupal 8's release. This was a brand new program, so we learned as we went, providing more guidance and suggestions as we learned. We looked to fund projects that:
- Resolve one or more critical Drupal 8 issues that block release, either directly or by holding targeted sprints with key people.
- Accelerate work on critical issues in other ways (e.g. through tools improvements).
- After a successful grant, applicants may choose to submit a subsequent grant for additional funds to complete in-progress work.
What wasn't funded
While we wish could fund every request, we focused our limited resources on the work that most directly impacted the release of Drupal 8. Here are a few things that we did not consider for funding:
- General contribution sprints. To qualify for funding, you would need to organize a sprint with a Drupal 8 focus and a plan to solve specific, release-blocking issues.
Who received grants?
You can review all the awarded grants.
Application Process
To apply for a Drupal 8 Acceleration Grant, we asked you to complete an online application. Requests were reviewed on a weekly basis.
Grant recipients were required to account for how all grant moneys were spent (on a per-grant basis), and the Association requested copies of expense receipts. After a successful grant, applicants may have chosen to submit a subsequent grant for additional funds to complete in-progress work.
Questions?
If you have questions about the program, please reach out to us directly at accelerategrants@association.drupal.org. We'll get back to you as quickly as we can.
