Drupal Camps in Middle America

As promised in one of our previous blog posts, the area between North and South America will not be forgotten. Therefore we present you Drupal Camps in Middle America. We already guided you through Drupal Camps, which were organized in Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and South America. Since our expectations were so wrong last time, we'll say that we expect Middle America to be ranked between South America and Africa in our world tour ranking table, which measures the quantity of organized Drupal Camps.

Let's clear up first the geographic part of view. Term Middle America can also be used as Central America, because both words can be used a synonyms. But to be fair, that's careless. Central America consists of seven countries between Mexico and Colombia, excluding the southern part of Mexico and the nations of the Caribbean. That's in contrast to a term Middle America, which includes both parts. Therefore, we'll stick to the word Middle America.

 

Drupal Camp Guadalajara

 

It's true that different authors defined it in many different ways, even with some of the countries from South America also included, so the scope of the term Middle America can vary. But that's the common case in sociology, so you just have to go with one of the available definitions. We went for the one explained above.

This year's Drupal Camps

Since south part of Mexico is also included, there is room to once again mention one Drupal Camp, which was organized in Mexico and we did not present in detail in our blog post about Drupal Camps in North America. This is Drupal Camp Guadalajara, which was this year organized from 7th to 9th of April in the University Center of Economic and Administrative Sciences (CUCEA). There were two keynote speakers – Joe Shindelar and Carla Briceno.

 

Drupal Camp Costa Rica

 

Besides Drupal Camp Guadalajara, the only Drupal Camp, which was organized in Middle America this year, was Drupal Camp Costa Rica in San Jose. It also lasted three days, from 31st of August to 2nd of December. It had 36 sessions about front-end, back-end, Drupal and business on the second and third day, because the first day was reserved for workshops. Camp was held in the country for the 6th time and it also provided scholarships that covered the costs of registration to the event.

Drupal Camps in the past

Besides both Drupal Camps that this year took place in Middle America, there were some other camps that were organized in the past. We already mentioned that there were five Drupal Camps in Costa Rica before. In addition, other countries also came into life. For example Guatemala, which organized DrupalCamp Guatemala in the Universidad Galileo in October 2013. A year later Guatemala also hosted a Drupal Camp, this time under the name of Drupal Camp Central America. It was a three day event with 40 lectures and one day for workshops. Prior to both events, DrupalCamp Panama took place in 2012. It was also a three day event in Ciudad Del Saber, so it looks like that if local communities decide to organize a Drupal Camp, the only possible solution lasts for three days.

 

Drupal Camp Panama

 

Drupal as part of bigger events in the future

In conclusion, after a slip, our expectations were right again. Middle America organized more Drupal Camps than South America, but less than Africa. However, the situation should and must improve in order gain on Drupal's popularity. Nevertheless, it's good to know that Drupal in that area is also becoming a part of some other events. Namely, Panama is next year – 2nd and 3rd of February – organizing a DevConf, an event of promoting software knowledge. Different technologies will merge together and Drupal will also be a part of it. Until then, wait for our new blog posts about Drupal Camps, which are still not over.