Panelists: - Marc O'Brien - VP, Distro & Solutions, Acquia - Michael Shaver - Intel Open Technology Center - Ezra Gildesgame (moderator) - Technical Lead, Acquia Distribution team. Project maintainer, Commons & COD distributions. - Jeff Walpole - CEO, Phase2 Technology - Karen Borchert - Director of Products, Phase2 Technology - Tom McCracken - DIrector, Owner, LevelTen Design We know that Drupal and open source software are disruptive technologies, but the connection between awesome community contributions and market success against proprietary software is not always clear. In this session we will - discuss the history of key Drupal distributions and their competition in the market with proprietary software - review Acquia's successes and lessons learned in working to increase community collaboration while developing more competitive products - share proof for the unintuitive phrase: to get more customers, offer fewer services - explain how Intel's Open Technology center has leveraged COD to build a re-usable conference platform, and Atrium as a project management tool and OpenAtrium to build a customized project tracking tool - learn why external tech communities like Twitter and Linkedin are choosing Drupal over proprietary systems - Discuss strategies for engaging the Drupal community to help advance at Drupal-based product

Questions answered by this session:
What are Drupal distributions and why are they important?
How do you measure success of your distributions?
What lessons have these organizations learned so far about distribution development from a technical and business perspective?
How do distributions get started? Client work? Seed funding? Community needs?
What is your strategy for encouraging community participation in your distributions while prioritizing your internal roadmap?