DrupalCon London 2011: PRODUCT, FRAMEWORK, OR PLATFORM? WHAT THEY MEAN, AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Channel: Drupal Association
Date: 22/03/2013

Presented by
Jeff Eaton
As Drupal's popularity has grown, its core audience of hobbyist developers has exploded into an international community of businesses, nonprofits, independent developers, startups, and governments. Bubbling under the surface is a recurring debate: Is 'Drupal' a product for people who build web sites, a framework for web developers, or a platform that other products are built on?

Often, we've given the easy answer: Both! As Drupal grows, however, tough choices about experience design, software requirements, and system complexity can no longer be ignored. What principles will guide the next decade of Drupal, and how will we reach agreement? There are no easy answers, but understanding the nature of the questions before us is essential for anyone who cares about our platform's future.

Intended audience
Core developers and decision makers looking to understand the history and motivations of the 'smallcore' movement; developers looking to shape or participate in the development of Drupal's APIs; business stakeholders considering the future of Drupal for their web applications and web projects.

Questions answered by this session
What's the difference between a product and a framework?

How has Drupal's evolving community shaped the software's priorities?

What parts of Drupal are hot spots for this debate today?

Is it possible for Drupal to be both at once?

How can we answer these questions and build a stronger, more resilient ecosystem?