---
layout: post
title: Democamp 11
created: 1164169056
permalink: blog/walkah/democamp-11/
tags:
- drupal
- toronto
- democamp
- democamptoronto
- democamp11
---
<p>Last night, I attended <a href="http://barcamp.org/DemoCampToronto11">DemoCampToronto11</a> and enjoyed the ... well... mixed bag of goodies presented. The <a href="http://www.openqa.org/selenium/">selenium</a> demo made me make a note to myself to revisit that as a testing framework.</p>
<p>I enjoyed <a href="http://theartguy.ca/">Arnold's</a> presentation - not because the demo was really a demo - but because it reminded me how powerful a tool like <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal</a> could be when focused for and tailored to a target such as artists and artisans. Sounds like a great install profile. I also had to laugh when someone (besides me) asked why he didn't build his tool using drupal.</p>
<p>However, like several other attendees, I had to stop and wonder about <a href="http://firestoker.com/">firestoker</a>. I've heard <a href="http://thomaspurves.com/">Tom Purves</a> speak at a couple local events now, and in general they seem to be rather well versed in "Enterprise 2.0" concepts... but the bit of their application (either version) we saw last night made me wonder "why bother"? I certainly didn't see any features or functionality present that didn't exist in hundreds of other free tools (not to mention their app design looks a heck of a lot like <a href="http://basecamphq.com/">basecamp</a>). I don't understand why they would build their own, proprietary system... seems like a lot of development time and resources better spent elsewhere. But, I'm biased. Again, I was left wondering "Why not build it in Drupal"?</p>
<p>I found Sunir Shah's <a href="http://designbiblio.org/design">design bibliography</a> demo to be entertaining and well presented. I know Sunir's a wiki guy and all... but the design bibliography should really have been built in drupal too.</p>
<p>I hereby propose a 5th standard question for DemoCamp demoers: "Why didn't you just use drupal?" No?</p>
