Summary: Kevin Hankens, Acquia Engineer, discovered Drupal 5 when he was looking to build a highly personalized eCommerce visitor experience for his then-employer's website. I was fascinated to hear an origin story of the very beginnings of the sorts of digital experiences everyone is talking about today* (see below), 6 years later. In this interview from March, 2013, Kevin and I also talk about the evolution of Drupal from developer-oriented platform to a more user-friendly experience over the last couple of releases; how Kevin joined then left then "came home" to Acquia, Drupal contributions while developing Acquia products, and the BEST MODULE EVER. Drupal Gardens, Enterprise Gardens, Acquia Cloud Site Factory Since we were talking in March, Enterprise Gardens has been substantially reworked and rereleased as the Acquia Cloud Site Factory, and even more powerful and flexible platform for rapid site deployment. Every time Kevin says "Enterprise Gardens," pretend he said "Acquia Cloud Site Factory" :-) Here's some more information about that: Acquia Launches Acquia Cloud Site Factory And don't forget Drupal Gardens: http://drupalgardens.com Namechecks and Resources Here is the Queue Runner Module, that Kevin mentions in the context of Acquia product development that flows directly back into community code. More on Acquia Search The BEST MODULE Kevin has ever used: TABLE FIELD! Services Module REST(fulness) Module OAuth Module *Digital Experiences today Here are some resources to learn more about Drupal and the "Digital Experiences" that everyone is chasing now: "Digital Marketing: Embrace change or Play Russian Roulette" - Podcast with Acquia CMO, Tom Wentworth "The next generation digital experience is built on open source" - Generation DX article on opensource.com by Acquia CEO, Tom Erickson "Let's Get Personal: The Basics" - Blog post by DC Denison Acquia Named a Leader in Social Depth Platforms Industry Research Report - More information on Acquia and Drupal's increasing leadership according to Forrester analysts. "Acquia Says Open Source Helps Enterprises Thrive in Today’s Digital Disruption" - Interview with Tom Wentworth, Acquia CMO kevin_hankens_final.mp3
