Drupal has grown tremendously in the past 13 years. It’s now a leading open-source CMS and development platform used by some of the biggest websites and organizations in the world.

But has Drupal become so common that it's basically the same no matter who you buy it from? Has Drupal become a commodity? And if so, what does this mean for the Drupal community, contributors to the project, service providers who support Drupal, and the clients, IT departments, and web teams who use Drupal to build their sites and apps?

Topics

• What it means for software to become a “commodity”
• Whether Drupal has become a commodity
• The pros and cons of the commoditization of Drupal
• How Drupal compares to other software that has reached a commodity status (like Red Hat)

This won’t be one of those echo-chamber panels where everybody agrees with each other. In fact, we vehemently disagree! Expect arguments both for and against the “Drupal as commodity” question:

YES! Drupal has become a commodity!

• Commoditization is a market reality and an inevitable phase in most technology's evolution. No one is to blame, and everyone is to blame: Drupal's own success led to this. This panel will discuss how we navigate this reality, not how we wound up here.
• How do Drupal firms differentiate themselves in the face of commodity pressures?
• Can Drupal’s commodity status actually benefit service providers and clients?
• Can commoditization free up our services firms to build even cooler stuff on the more “common” foundations that anyone might provide?

NO! Drupal still requires lots of customization and skill to implement.

• Will it ever become a commodity? Should it become one?
• Is the commoditization of Drupal a good thing? The definition of "commoditization” — making a process, good or service easy to obtain by making it as uniform, plentiful and affordable as possible — sounds an awful lot like open source ethos (accessible, affordable, open to all).
• Are Drupal products and distros commodities?
• What factors keep Drupal from being a commodity, and will those factors remain true over time?

Panelists

• Crystal Williams, Director of Technology at Dwell Media
• Zach Chandler, Web Strategist at Stanford University
• Karen Borchert, EVP of Strategy at Phase2
• Brian Skowron, Director of Sales at Lullabot

The panel will be moderated by Todd Ross Nienkerk, Digital Strategist and Partner at Four Kitchens.