Drupal is an open source software project that has been building a better open web since 2001. It is built by thousands of individuals and organizations, made up of both volunteers and sponsored contributors.
If you're an end-user of Drupal you might have wondered how all this open source development works, and maybe even how you can get involved.
The key to contribution is the community. If you are an individual or member of an organization that builds your web presence on Drupal, there are many opportunities to engage with the community, learn how to contribute, and help build a better web.
So how can you get started?
One of the best ways to get involved in open source, and in Drupal specifically, is to participate in open source events.
Drupal.org publishes a list of regional and virtual community events at drupal.org/community/events
These community events vary from evening meetups of a dozen or fewer people up through major DrupalCamps with hundreds of attendees. At these events you can learn from local experts, find solutions to challenges you're trying to overcome, and find mentors to help you contribute.
You can also attend DrupalCon.
Find the next event at: events.drupal.org
DrupalCon is the largest Drupal event in the world, with thousands of attendees, and conferences every year in North America, Europe, and from time to time other regions as well. It's a place to network, learn, and be inspired - and hosts the largest contribution mentorship events in the Drupal-sphere.
What can you contribute to?
There are many opportunities for contribution. Most individuals and organizations find their first contribution opportunity in a problem they need to solve for their own use case. Have you encountered a bug in a module you use? Do you have a feature request? An excellent way to get involved is to help solve that problem, and then contribute that solution back.
Drupal.org also provides a lot of guidance for contributors, but the best place to start is the Drupal Contributor guide.
If you are interested in contributing to significant technical innovations for the future of Drupal we encourage you to check out Drupal's strategic initiatives.
You can also contribute financially. The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization (501c3 category in the United States) that supports the global community. You can join the association as an individual member, or become a partner organization. Within the United States, your contributions are even tax deductible.
There's much more to contribution than we can fit in a single blog post, but we hope this has provided you with an entry point, and expanded your horizons.
We can build a better web together.