We are proud to present to you the second release candidate of Drupal 6.0. Although there are still a few known issues that we are working on fixing for you, we are confident that our code is stable enough for wider testing by the community. Since the first release candidate, we have fixed various issues including the security fixes that come with Drupal 5.6 and others involving caching filtered content, menu item inheritance, missing breadcrumbs, better error reporting in the installer and updates, some translatability issues and lots of code style cleanups, and other small fixes. The most notable usability improvement since Drupal 6.0 RC1 is that the files directory is now automatically created in sites/default.

The first beta announcement provided a comprehensive list of high level improvements made since Drupal 5.x, so in this announcement we'll concentrate on how you can help ensure that Drupal 6 is released as soon as possible and is as rock solid as the previous Drupal releases that you've grown to love!

Note: This post assumes that you are aware of the Google Highly Open Participation Contest. If not, see that link, or listen to the latest Lullabot podcast about GHOP.

Since our last status report on December 13, 2007:

• An additional 12 students have taken on tasks from the Drupal project, bringing our total to 54 student participants.
• 11 new students have completed one or more tasks, bringing our total to 38, which means about 70% of our students have completed tasks. Of that number, 65% are brand new contributors who came to the Drupal project because of this contest.
• There have been a total of 67 tasks completed so far, which is nearly double since the last report. The leaders in terms of raw task numbers are cwgordon7 (6) and Corsix (7), with Etinin (4) and ezyang (3) coming up behind.
• We have 97 available task slots remaining. The community created and offered to mentor 31 new tasks since the last status report, but we still need people to Propose new tasks and, perhaps more importantly, Review and refine existing task ideas.
• We also need help reviewing tasks promptly and throughly. Please keep your eyes on the list of GHOP issues, specifically those that need review. Note that we have a good mix of types of tasks (documentation, marketing, training, etc.), so non-coders can help as well.

There are fewer than 3 weeks left to propose tasks and fewer than 5 weeks left of the contest. Please help us get through this final stretch, folks!

Read on for a description of the tasks that have been completed since the last status update.

The Drupal Association is pleased to announce that the next Drupalcon will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA from March 3 - 6, 2008 in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

This Drupalcon represents two big advancements for Drupalcon.

• Larger capacity. The last two Drupalcon's have sold out, capped at 450 people. Depending on final arrangements we may be able to handle 700 at this event.
• Community expansion. Drupalcon is being held at the same time/place as AIIM International Exposition & Conference, the largest content management technology conference in North America. Though technically independent of each other, the Boston team is working to arrange some cross-event access. The goal: introduce Drupal to thousands of potential new Drupalers.

Yes, the end of the year is just around the corner so the old habit of looking back and forward regarding all things Drupal is here again! It is time to see what we predicted right, where we where not really on the spot and where we failed to see what was going on. And of course to make our new predictions for 2008! Take a look at last years predictions.

You can become a member of the Drupal Association by purchasing your membership like many individuals and organizations already have. You can also apply to become a Permanent Member, if you would prefer to volunteer.

With your financial support the Association helps the Drupal community by supplying hardware for the Drupal.org infrastructure and financially supporting the Drupal conferences, such as Drupalcon Barcelona. If you become a member for one year, you are encouraged to pick a badge from the badges page that reflects your status. Please make a local copy and display your membership status on your site. These badges were designed by Roy Scholten who handed the copyright of them to the Drupal Association. So grab your wallet and become a member and show it on your site!

The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to help the Drupal community with fun­ding, infra­structure, events, promotion and distribution.

Since we launched the Drupal Association in January 2007, roughly one year ago, we (i) improved the drupal.org infrastructure, (ii) we helped organize two international Drupal conferences, (iii) we established a relation with an accounting firm, (iv) we funded Drupal's presence at a number of events, (v) we started setting up fundraising campaigns, (vi) we entered into a relation with the Software Freedom Law Center, (vii) we are close to launching a Drupal Association membership model, etc.

In January 2008 we have to elect our second Board of Directors, so in this post, I'll explain you how you can help make a change. Despite the progress that we have made in 2007, we would like to ramp up our professionalism and activities in 2008. We are looking for people that want to become either a Permanent Member or a member of the Board of Directors, and that can provide leadership and experience to expand the reach of the Drupal Association and its activities.

If you are interested in helping to drive Drupal's explosive growth or if you want to help make a change in this world, you can submit your candidacy to become actively involved with the Drupal Association. Read on for more information ...