It can sometimes feel overwhelming to keep up with evolving technology. If you’re worried that migrating your organization’s Drupal 6 or 7 site to the latest version, Drupal 8, is going to cause headaches, this post is for you. Major benefits of migrating your site to D8 include: built-in responsiveness for mobile and other platforms, faster page loads and optimized performance, and a more streamlined and intuitive content editing experience. But change can be scary, I know.

I’m proud to announce our work with Fair Trade USA, a non-profit that seeks to cultivate the conscious consumer and eliminate exploitation. They do this through a market-based approach that ensures sustainable livelihoods, safe working conditions, environmental protection, and community resources for farmers and workers around the world. In collaboration with Oakland agency Comrade, we relaunched their site on Drupal 8.

The Drupal community’s got heart. We partner with organizations that do work that matters, and we champion web accessibility, higher education and nonprofits in our events. This year at BADCamp we wanted to shine a light on this aspect of the community and do something different with our sponsor booth. Instead of giving away schwag, we gave away pre-paid charity gift cards that BADCampers could spend on causes they care about. See how the community spent the cards, and get a little background on how this charity donation booth came to be.

There are plenty of other posts out there, including some mighty fine documentation, explaining stabil

We’re happy to announce that once again, we’ll be participating in the Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp,) an annual celebration of open-source software at the University of California, Berkeley. This year, in addition to contributing to the free talks and trainings, we’re excited to participate in a new way — one that we hope everyone will be a part of.

There’s that secret pleasure in scanning another person’s bookshelf while they’re not looking. It’s like Googling someone; you learn things about them that they may not realize they’re sharing. I acknowledge this pleasure and wish to share it with you, the interested Internet, so I queried the Kalamunists on what they’re reading. Check out the list and get a peek at our mental underbelly.     Matthew Mack is reading:

We’re excited to announce that two of our members will be speaking at the Drupal North conference this summer in Ottawa, Canada. Drupal North is a free, three-day conference focusing on Drupal-related topics and the community that drives the Drupal Project. If you’re attending, you’re in for a ton of great sessions.

I want agency life to mean smiles, rainbows, and slaps on the back. But in a business that trades in collaborative intellectual output, that feelgood place doesn’t happen overnight. Over the past 11 years I’ve worked in marketing strategy and account management roles in Europe and the US, at shops like Mucho Design, Orbital BBDO, and EuroRSCG, and I’m now an account manager at Kalamuna. Over time I’ve picked up a thing or two about how agencies can do great work on time and on-budget, with more than enough feelgood to go around.

Our time on this earth is limited and we have a commitment to leave it better than we found it. Practically, this means refusing to corroborate the agendas of organizations who, knowingly or not, act with blind disregard to the consequences of their actions on present and future generations. Moreover, it means devoting our collective energy towards causes that will impact the world in a positive way. Kalamuna works primarily with mission-driven organizations. The best way to live up to our values is to act upon them.

During our agency’s weekly video call, our developer in Romania, Emanuel, showed us images of massive protests in his city’s streets. On a Slack channel, someone else posted an image of Beavis and Butthead’s Beavis alongside Kellyanne Conway. These are just two of several occasions when I’ve thought, “Uh-oh. We’re talking politics. Someone’s going to get pissed and there’s going to be a fight.” So far that hasn’t happened.