Turns out that quite a few visitors to this site are looking for Drupal Themes.
If you are finding this page because of just such a search, you can find some postings about Blue Beach and other themes elsewhere on this site.
Some people have even contacted me to design themes for their Drupal powered sites. I am very flattered. (Just in case you were looking for someone to design your site's template, I do entertain all reasonable offers. I work primarily with the phpTemplate engine - but can work in anything you would like).
So why am I writing about all of this? Mainly, I was fascinated by the percentage of people visiting my site looking for this one thing. I also thought it was a good illustration of how being involved in an Open Source project can create opportunities for people.
I participate in the Drupal project as a coder and themer because I like the product, I enjoy doing the work, and I feel good about giving back to the community (even in modest ways). The fact that I have now started to earn real dollars and cents as a result of my efforts is nice, but its certainly not the primary motivation.
The opportunities created by participation in Open Source development are real. Its not theoretical. Reg over at his site, once wrote that he looks at Open Source development experience when hiring people. And if you read his site you know he will only hire the best. Just because you work in open source doesn't make you the best, but it does show potential employers that you are passionate about writing code (why else would you do it in your spare time for free).
And besides opportunities, there are all sorts of other benefits. Education, experience, satisfaction and don't forget the babes. Babes love geeks that write code (YMMV).
Long story short, I guess this post is an ad for all of you out there that haven't found the joy of Open Source to go out there and get involved in a project. You might just find out that you love it.
andre
Posted by andre at February 13, 2005 06:00 AM