I have learned the HARD WAY that fixed-bid projects are NOT beneficial to web development firms or to the client.  For one thing, they create an adversarial relationship between consultant and client.  For this reason and many more, I have joined the No Fixed Bid movement - find out more at NoFixed.org

ShopTheAvenue.com is a project we did this fall for Cousins Properties, working with Spitfire Media Group and Fred Squared.  We did all of the Drupal work on the site, which makes use of Domain Access to manage 9 websites through one Drupal install and share users and content across the sites.  We also created a custom email alerts system that gives users targeted emails based upon their favorite stores and preferences.  Check out the site at www.ShopTheAvenue.com

Koine Media was proud to be a part of sponsoring and planning DrupalCamp Dallas!  The entire planning committee did a great job, and all of our speakers, sessions and BOF's were excellent!

Here is a summary article...

Presented at DrupalCamp Dallas - August 2009

If you are evaluating Drupal for a website project, this session is for you!  An objective comparison with other CMS solutions such as Wordpress and Joomla, and some things to look for in a CMS with emphasis on how Drupal does them. We'll talk about the Drupal community, Drupal resources, and you will see an overview of what Drupal has to offer, including the "Top Web 2.0 Drupal Modules."

For those who missed my presentation last night, you can view it here.

Also, I'm attaching my example of a custom CCK widget which creates a basic distance measurement field.

Tom mentioned the hidden "Multigroup" module in CCK that allows grouping fields. The CCK developers claim it isn't ready for primetime but he reports it works.

Attachment: 

measurement.zip

DrupalCamp Dallas has launched their website.

This is going to be an awesome opportunity to find out more about drupal.  You don't have to be a drupal pro to come.  In fact, you should come even if you are trying to figure out if drupal is right for you.   It is going to be a two day barcamp which means it is about whatever you want to talk about.  There will most likely be beginner and advanced tracks so no matter what your skill level is, there will be a place for you.

When I started doing web development in the mid 90s, I did most of my development in Notepad.  I just wanted something that did simple text editing and nothing more.  What I didn't know was what more was possible.  Since then I've bounced around between a bunch of different IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) which are essentially Notepad on steroids. 

Open Source is going beyond just software and web development.  There are some philosophies behind it that deal with collaboration and community, and even some paradigm shifts on how we work.  I'm not sure if everyone would group all of this together, but there are commonalities between social media, open source, agile development (e.g., SCRUM), Barcamps, and now "co-working" that are changing not just the way websites and software is development, but even how we work.