Better Websites in Trinidad and Tobago - Drupal Group's First Meeting

February 10, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Out of the blue, a message on the Trinidad and Tobago Drupal Group caused an impromptu meeting at Haagen Daz, Gulf City, here in Trinidad and Tobago. Being used to just Shivan Jaikaran and myself as being the Drupal-folk in Trinidad and Tobago, I was pleasantly surprised that there are many more of us.

If you've never heard of Drupal, it's the open source content management system that makes sites like this possible - and what makes Drupal possible is the great community behind it. Locally, one of the better known installations of Drupal is the Trinidad Guardian website. Shivan announced the launch of the Trinidad Guardian's main stage launch with Drupal. You can view it here.

So, we talked Drupal. No big deal to the rest of Trinidad and Tobago, really - but in a way, it is. At a much larger level, we were discussing the poor websites done for companies and, yes, the government, that could benefit from a proper installation and customization of Drupal. We discussed problems we saw in dealing with customers - from the deadbeat customers (a few of us had a common deadbeat customer we knew of) to usability issues to training users to... well, it was quite a conversation. It was so engrossing, we took turns going inside to make our orders. I recommend the Dulce Sundae. A few noteworthy things cropped up. The first is that all the Drupal folk seem to be in South Trinidad - something that seemed non-intuitive in a nation where all the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society and Trinidad and Tobago Linux User Group meetings tend to be in North Trinidad - something that is a pain for South people. In fairness, TTCS meetings were tried in South Trinidad in the past and had a low turnout.

When we were introducing ourselves, I was a bit perturbed to find out I was the old man of the group (I got a nickname I blocked from memory, I think) - but what I found most interesting was that the demographic seemed to fall mainly fall in the 20-something range. This is the younger generation coming up - and they are more than willing to take the torch and run with it.

Last, but certainly not least, the women were represented not in number but in quality - Gisele Benjamin, who was a surprise show from Central Trinidad (and seen above on her... phone... installing Drupal), gladly showed us that there was an even easier way of doing some things. With such a diverse group open to new ideas and exploring better ways to do things, I was impressed - and many who know me in the tech circles know that I'm not easily impressed.

Quite a valuable group of people in the informal (so far) Drupal Group. Perhaps web design in Trinidad and Tobago will finally have the bar raised. Keep an eye out for these people... the web site that they save may be your own. :-)

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