Get your text editors started: the next Drupal code freeze will be September 1st. This means all new features for the next Drupal release need to make it into the development version ("CVS HEAD") no later than August 31st. That is only 3 months from now! As of September 1st, we will start preparing for the next major release by focusing on performance, usability and stability. At that point, mainly bug fixes will be allowed.

This announcement is directed at those who have CVS commit access to our contributions repository.

Thanks to the work of Derek Wright, some very important changes have been made to the contributions repository. These changes are intended to increase safety.

The most important change is that CVS commit, tag and branch permission is now restricted to the drupal.org user who is listed as author on the corresponding project page for that specific project. In other words, only project owners may now commit, branch or tag their projects. Read on for specific details.

I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of Packt's new book: Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites. Written by David Mercer, this book is a complete guide to every aspect of creating a variety of different websites using Drupal. The book has been written against the latest release v4.7.

Packt are big supporters of open source and are keen to support the Drupal project in more ways than just publishing a book on the subject. Therefore, as part of their Open Source Royalty Program, the project will receive a percentage of every book sold.

"From top to bottom, Drupal is the type of project that makes the Internet work as a medium for communication" explains author David Mercer. "With powerful and flexible functionality, it is the ideal tool for people to begin creating their own Websites, without being subject to the burden of learning how to program."

He goes on to say that he "would not hesitate to recommend Drupal as the tool of choice for anyone wishing to have their own Web presence. Accordingly, I hope that the book I have written will prove to be an invaluable tool for a whole new generation of people switching on to Drupal."

UPDATE: The application process has ended. Thank you for all the great applications.

Google is still accepting applications until May 8.

Here is a list of projects which we proposed but either nobody has applied to them, or we feel that there is room for more than one student working on the project. It goes without saying that you have a better chance of making the cut if you apply either for one of these projects or for a project of your own creation.

• AJAX Form creator
• Content recommendation engine
• GData API
• Google Site Search Enhanced Module
• HTMLArea/Xinha plugin for img_assist
• Integration through the Flickr API
• Social Networking Analysis (SNA) Tool
• Turn poll module into a CCK field type
• User experience analysis with implicit meta-data
• Video module rewrite and new features
• Views Calendar Style
• Wiki module
  

With Drupal 4.7.0 out of the door, it is time to start talking about the next version of Drupal. If you plan to work on something, or if you are going to contribute to Drupal in one way or another, please share your "personal battle plan" in the comments. A "personal battle plan" is a summary or itemized list of things you are going to work on in the next couple months.

With Drupal 4.7.0 spreading its wings, we want to do everything we can to promote it. And as you may have noticed in the spotlight item above, we have some videocasts for you!

The friendly folk at Lullabot have volunteered to create 3 sessions about our new release:

• What's new in Drupal 4.7?
• How to install Drupal 4.7?
• How to upgrade to Drupal 4.7?

Jeff, Matt and Ted show you the ins and outs of our latest release.

The files can be found on the videocasts page in the Drupal handbook.