David Needham Chats about Venturing Outside WordCamp to Visit Other Open Source Communities

While at WordCamp Europe I had the chance to chat with David Needham, a developer advocate at Pantheon, about his session titled “Intro to Drupal for WordPress Folks.” Needham frequently travels between the WordPress and Drupal communities, representing his company as a developer liaison. He has spoken at various Drupal camps and WordCamps and is also one of the organizers for WordCamp US 2018 in Nashville.

During our chat, Needham discussed some of the more notable differences between the WordPress and Drupal communities and how the two can inspire each other in various ways. He encouraged attendees at his session to venture outside of WordCamps and said he hopes to see more collaboration across the platforms in the future. From his unique vantage point, Needham said he doesn’t think CMS rivalries are as big of a deal as they used to be.

“We’re realizing that we’re really not competing,” Needham said. “The internet is a big place and there’s plenty of room for all of our communities to work together – especially since our values are so closely aligned already. If there is a rivalry, it feels a little bit more like a friendly sibling rivalry than anything.”