Key takeaways from BADCAMP 2017

Was this your first time attending BADCAMP and visiting Berkeley?

Yes, Berkeley was a completely new experience, especially the atmosphere of the university itself. It was very open and filled with lots of positive energy.

There were also many regular non-students who could come in and out of the campus facilities, which largely contrasted with Japanese college campuses where it could feel a lot like a cage.

Why did you go to BADCAMP? What was your first impression?

Mainly it was to go to meet people since ANNAI had already been a Drupal agency for about 10 years. ANNAI has been to other Drupal conferences in Europe, Asia, and the US but hadn’t had the chance to go to BADCAMP, which is one of the most famous free Drupal conference in the world,  and we wanted to go to meet other people in the field.

The positive energy felt there was completely different from the Drupal community in Japan. It felt more revenue-oriented in Japan and not so much about the passion towards “open-sourcing and sharing”. Japan seems to be more monopolizing and being secretive with what one had come up with and withholding that valuable creation within a company and a skilled developer (who may want to share).

Of the talk sessions that you attended, which one left the most impression on you?

There was Anne from Knopi Studio, who was also part of the BADCAMP organizing team, that said we were all here to “Grow Together, Share Everything, Learn from Each Other, and Magic Happens”; this really left an impression on me.

There was so much logic in her presentation “Website Musts: How to Define Everything That Your Website Needs to Do” and it made so much sense that it is ultimately the “End User” that is the very key to Drupalʼs success. She mentioned the three things to a successful website: the people, the technology, and the definition of success.

And the last point was especially something that struck a chord; many Japanese clients seem to be more interested in finishing a project because it is an assignment and part of their job. Whereas the emphasis should really be on the “End User”: who is your audience and what is the level of success you want to achieve with your goal.

You hosted 1 talk session, how did that go?

Yes we introduced how we work with local government in the session. We have been working closely with government, local government with Drupal and one of the major area. Where we help them is Open Data field.

About 20 people attended, the majority of them were other Drupal agencies or people who worked in civic tech community. It was very fun!

I made a comparison between the current Japanese Drupal environment to the end of the samurai era and this really helped with relaying our message:  Just like the past in Japan when people rebuild country from mysterious, isolated samurai society to this evolved, modernized society by taking the help from the US, today's large organization and enterprise company need more open technology and great case study from the US to make society more open.

What is your final takeaway from BADCAMP?

There is a need for more awareness in educating people. I was under the impression that Drupal is already very well known throughout the US and although that is true compared to Japan, there are still much to be learned and taught to clients and even developers as well.

Just starting is not enough, but rather moving with the momentum is very important. Overall BADCAMP was very comprehensive and informative and lastly, we would like to give back to the US in some way such as more case studies from us.