"We Really Want More People Contributing to Drupal"

In this exclusive conversation with The DropTimes, sub-editor Alka Elizabeth sits down with Nikhil Deshpande, Georgia’s Chief Digital and AI Officer, and the Secretary of the Drupal Association Board. Over the past decade, Nikhil has led transformative digital initiatives that have not only redefined how government services are delivered in Georgia but also influenced how public institutions across the United States approach technology.

From steering Georgia’s migration to Drupal to championing accessibility and ethical AI, Nikhil’s work bridges innovation and impact. With a background in visual communication and human-computer interaction, his journey from art school in Mumbai to leading digital transformation in the American government is anything but typical, and that perspective shines through in every part of this discussion.

In the interview, Nikhil shares how Drupal won over sceptics in his team, the importance of community contributions, and the future role AI plays in multilingual access, inclusive design, and smarter digital experiences. He also reflects on Drupal's biggest strengths, what it still needs to work on, and why it’s time for users to become vocal advocates.

At the heart of his message is a call to action: don’t just use Drupal, contribute back.

TDT [1]: To start off, can you tell us how you were first introduced to open source and Drupal? You've been working with Drupal for over a decade. Was it something you planned, or did you come across it through a specific project or by chance?

Nikhil Deshpande: So yeah, definitely more than a decade. About, I wanna say, 13 years ago, at my then job, which was the Director of Web Services, the State of Georgia was using a proprietary content management system. When I took over that job and looked at the toolsets, what we were paying for those, and the overall customer satisfaction, I could see a big gap. We were paying a lot for that particular tool, and the people who were using it were not happy.

Just to give you context, my organization, the Georgia Technology Authority, is the IT arm for the State of Georgia. So we provide IT services for state agencies. They are technically our customers. One of those services is this content management system, where more than a hundred websites are now hosted. It gives all of the websites a certain level of consistency.

So, when I looked at that particular option and saw it wasn't working, I needed to change it. I wanted to see what we could change it to. That’s where my research started. I also wanted to look at open source because, from my early days, I had been using open source at a personal level. So I was a big proponent of open source. Looking at what existed back then, I was searching for something that was easy to use, had a certain level of stability, and a certain level of scalability.

And Drupal really checked all the boxes. I don't think anything else really came close to what Drupal could do. The second big factor was the overall cost to implement. Right off the bat, in the first year itself, I was poised to save about a million dollars. So that got buy-in from our CFO.

But the big sell was about open source. People didn't really know much about it within my organization. When they heard that it was open source, they immediately put their guard up. They thought if it’s open source, it can’t be good, and if it’s free, it must not be valuable. So I had to do a lot of education.

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Before deciding, I attended a DrupalCon, and that was really my glimpse into Drupal as a product, a community, and what agency options are available. I had a pretty good glimpse of the entire ecosystem, and that really convinced me. That was really helpful in strengthening my resolve. As a customer who was not using Drupal back then, that place felt like, for me, like a fish out of water. Everybody was a Drupal community person. They were all at that Drupal level. For me, coming in from the outside and trying to gauge, I think it was very important. I felt like more businesses should have that sort of view into DrupalCons.

That’s what really made me choose Drupal. We started small, with just about 25 websites. I did not have any internal expertise for Drupal. So back then, as a government project, we issued a request for proposals for our Drupal implementation. We knew exactly the sort of platform we wanted. I think we ended up migrating about 50 websites.

It was Phase 2, Acquia, and Mediacurrent that collaboratively bid on that project. We were able to build that platform. So that’s really the journey I took to get drawn to Drupal.

TDT [2]: You mentioned that you hadn't had any direct experience with Drupal before taking on this project, and you also described it as easy to implement. That stands out because most people say Drupal is difficult to get started with, that there's a steep learning curve, and it can be intimidating. So was that ever a problem for you or your team? Did it cause any difficulties or concerns during the implementation?

Nikhil Deshpande: Well, it was. It was, because we leaned on our partners, which were Phase2 and they were the ones who implemented it. Also, we used Phase2's distro back then. That’s basically where I was leaning, because that distribution was more government-focused. They had tailored it to government use cases.

Even with that, and I have heard the same thing from others, end users found Drupal complicated back then. A lot of people thought it was very complex. But it was still easier compared to the tool we were using.

Our reference point and our comparison point were just that one tool that everyone was required to use. Just to give you an example, it took about 18 steps for someone to publish a content item in the previous system.

TDT [3]: How did you transition from initially researching Drupal and attending a DrupalCon to eventually becoming a member of the Drupal Association Board? It's a significant journey over 13 years.

Nikhil Deshpande: I would say that first of all, it's such an honor and a privilege to serve on the Drupal board. Ever since implementing Drupal back then, one of the things that is very different in the government space is that you work in the open. The whole idea of open source is that if something works for you, you want other people and organizations to benefit from it.

I work in one of the 50 states here, and what I was seeing was that if something is lowering my costs and adding value, it’s a no-brainer for other states to implement as well. So I embraced the position of being an advocate for Drupal.

I started speaking about it at events and conferences. I also began offering 30-minute sessions to speak with other organizations. It really began with me talking at events. I’m thankful that back then, our Drupal partners invited me to speak, because they wanted me to talk about this project so that other organizations could benefit from the lessons we had learned.

That’s how it began. And then, honestly, one day I was asked if I would be open to serving on the board or being nominated. Someone was looking to nominate, and I thought, of course. I had to give back to something that had helped me so much over all these years.

TDT [4]: When you stepped into the role of Secretary of the Drupal Association Board, did you have any specific thoughts or expectations? It’s a big responsibility, especially in a community as large and unique as Drupal. Were you intimidated? Did you feel unsure about what you were getting into, or did you already have a clear idea of what you wanted to accomplish?

Nikhil Deshpande: I did not step into the board as Secretary right away. I started by simply being there and learning. That first year was all about observing and understanding. I was fortunate to have board members around me, some of whom are still there, who were incredibly supportive and generous with their knowledge.

At the time, I didn’t know much about the agency side of things. As a customer, my perspective was very different, and that’s exactly what they wanted. They were looking to bring diverse viewpoints to the board, not just those from agencies. They wanted a balance of voices to shape more inclusive conversations.

So I spent my first year just taking everything in. Once I felt grounded and confident, I stepped into the Secretary role. But it never felt like I was being thrown into something I wasn’t ready for. Everyone on the board was always willing to help. Whether it was Dries, Tim, or anyone else, they were approachable and supportive.

Even though we’re spread across different time zones, people are ready to help at any hour. For example, I’ve had moments where I needed input from Owen in Australia, and he would jump on a call in the middle of the night. That kind of commitment is rare. I’ve served on other boards, but I’ve never seen that level of energy and passion.

It has been a humbling experience. What I’ve come to understand is that serving on the board, and now as Secretary, is really about stewardship. It’s about carrying the vision, making space for others, and staying connected to the community. Leadership is not about giving orders. It’s about building trust.

From day one, I have seen that everyone on the board is focused on making decisions that benefit the entire community. The goal has always been to act in ways that build and sustain trust.

TDT [5]: After spending some time on the board and then stepping into the role of Secretary, did you have any specific goals or ambitions for that position? Was there a particular initiative you were eager to contribute to or something you especially wanted to focus on?

Nikhil Deshpande: Personally, there were a few things I immediately aligned with, and I was glad they were already being discussed. The first was the rebranding of Drupal. For many years, I had been speaking to organizations, and a lot of those conversations would start with the perception that Drupal is outdated. People would say things like, “Drupal is your dad’s CMS. It’s not modern.”

In many meetings, the first several minutes would be spent just explaining what Drupal is now. And this was even before the launch of Drupal CMS. I realized that we needed a new message. We needed to redefine and relaunch Drupal.

I was happy to see that this was already on the agenda, so I focused my energy on supporting that initiative. I was really proud to see it come to life. For the first time, we worked on a proper marketing plan. We brought in someone from the industry to work with us, and we also had experienced marketing professionals like Den Posey, who had been a CMO for most of their career before joining the organization.

We had strong direction, and that was important because I always felt there was a gap in how Drupal was being presented. As someone concerned with how customers perceive Drupal, I felt this was a top priority. Being part of that project was meaningful to me.

It was really about bringing in different perspectives and making Drupal feel modern, relevant, and strategically positioned. When I was first evaluating Drupal, the number of CMS contenders was much smaller. Now there are more than a hundred options. So the challenge today is how Drupal is positioned in that landscape and how organizations come to see its value.

TDT [6]: You led Georgia’s transition to Drupal for state agencies, and beyond scalability and efficiency, what deeper impact did open source have on your team? You mentioned that when you first brought up open source, there was a lot of scepticism. What changed over time, and how has that perception evolved?

Nikhil Deshpande: The biggest change has been in the acceptance of open source. I strongly believe that, back in the day, the people I had to convince really had no experience with open source. When you're not exposed to something and someone just tells you about it, you take that as fact and form your opinion based on that, until you actually see it in action.

We were able to demonstrate that Drupal is not just a cost-effective solution. It has added a lot of value. We started with 50 websites. Now we have more than 100 as part of the state. Agencies were not required to be on Drupal. They joined voluntarily because they saw the value in what we were building and wanted to be part of it.

Only recently, in my role as Chief Digital Officer, did we establish guidelines. For any organization to have a website in Georgia state government, they now have two options. They can either join GovHub, which is our official state Drupal platform, or they can host their own site. But even if they host their own site, it still needs to be approved.

Some organizations don’t fit into the GovHub design. For example, public broadcasting and the Secretary of State. These are offices with unique needs and very different focus areas like broadcasting, so they built their own platforms. But we still collaborated. With public broadcasting, I connected them with a Drupal implementation partner. They ended up creating a pretty massive Drupal website of their own.

What I see as the real value in Drupal is its ability to support modular, consistent, flexible, and most importantly, accessible websites. Accessibility was a big factor in our original decision to go with Drupal. We’ve kept up with its advancements ever since. I would say we are now on our third or fourth version of the CMS, and we're already planning the next one based on the newest features.

Every few years, we re-evaluate. We talk to users because needs and expectations change. When mobile-first design became important, we made sure our Drupal implementation reflected that. Everything was built with responsive design.

TDT [7]: You mentioned accessibility, and Drupal has always been known for prioritizing it. But do you think Drupal is keeping up with the evolving needs of users, especially those with disabilities? As expectations around accessibility continue to grow, is Drupal evolving quickly enough to meet those standards?

Nikhil Deshpande: I think so, yes. I haven't seen any gaps in that area. Accessibility is non-negotiable in the public sector. In government, you have to be accessible. Otherwise, there is no point. You are also liable for many things if you are not.

Drupal has made commendable progress (in a11y), especially with features like semantic markup and ARIA support. But the accessibility focus in Drupal goes beyond compliance. It is rooted in empathy-driven design.

The people maintaining Drupal core consistently center their work around users with disabilities, not just during testing but from the very beginning of planning and design through to deployment. From my experience, Drupal has always been a strong and reliable solution for accessibility.

TDT [8]: Security is a critical aspect, especially for public platforms and government-run websites. Over the years, Drupal has had to evolve to meet growing security challenges. How has Drupal adapted to these needs, and in your view, how successful has it been in keeping up with emerging security demands?

Nikhil Deshpande: The rule of the game is to never talk openly about security, but I can say this, Drupal has always stayed informed about what is happening in the security space. Whenever there is a zero-day event, a patch is released immediately.

Honestly, knock on wood, we have never been caught off guard by a security issue related to Drupal. We always see that a patch is available and know when it will be implemented. The Drupal Association takes security very seriously.

The Association brings together people from various industries and agencies who are part of the security team. They are extremely vigilant. From a public sector or government perspective, I feel confident relying on Drupal. The work their security team does is on par with any other professional security organization I have seen.

The key factor is ensuring that your hosting environment is secure, regardless of the specific level of security required. That environment must always stay ahead of the curve. This is something we are able to count on, and we also lean on the Drupal Association to make sure that whenever a patch or update is released, it is shared promptly and implemented immediately.

TDT [9]: Georgia’s Drupal platform seems to have checked nearly every box for what a public-facing system needs. Have any other states in the U.S. followed Georgia’s lead after seeing its success? Did any of them adopt Drupal based on your implementation?

Nikhil Deshpande: Yes, absolutely. Right after we launched our platform, several states followed suit. They saw what we were doing, reached out to us, and in some cases, we even shared some of our code with them. States like North Carolina and Iowa are examples, though I’ve lost count over time. There are many who have adopted similar approaches.

Different states have taken different paths with their Drupal implementations. For example, Massachusetts has a very different model compared to ours. While we use a single-source, multi-site platform, they have a singular site setup that integrates all their agency and departmental websites into one. But they are still running on Drupal.

The key thing is that all of us stayed connected. We had regular meetings to discuss what each state was doing and to share resources. That collaboration was extremely helpful.

TDT [10]: Since you're the Chief Digital and AI Officer, a question about AI is inevitable. AI is clearly reshaping digital services, so how do you see Drupal integrating AI in a way that is responsible, transparent, and trustworthy? And how can it enhance the user experience without compromising on those values?

Nikhil Deshpande: We’ve already seen what Drupal CMS can do with AI capabilities, and it’s pretty fantastic. I believe AI will act as the bridge between a user's intent and actually making something happen on a CMS. It can simplify the entire process.

A lot of users approach Drupal with different levels of understanding, even if they are working on the same platform. There are multiple ways to do the same task. With AI, especially from a site-building perspective, it can become much easier for someone to take action without needing to fully understand the complexity.

One of the biggest contributions I see AI making, especially in government, is with translation. In Georgia alone, we have around 14 international languages spoken. Other states, like California, have even more. There is a clear need for multilingual support. Generative AI has matured to the point where it offers context-aware translations, which older online translators couldn’t do. In the past, they would often get confused by words that meant different things depending on context. Generative AI handles that much better.

Another area is accessibility. A lot of government content is written in complicated, formal language. AI can help simplify that content and rewrite it at a middle school reading level, making it easier for everyone to understand. That’s a major step forward in accessibility, ensuring people can actually comprehend the information being provided.

There are also other shifts happening. For instance, I see huge potential in combining search functionality with chat interfaces. On our websites, traditional search usage has dropped significantly, especially when chatbots are available. People naturally prefer to interact with a chatbot. Even before generative AI, we had basic bots, but once we introduced generative AI, we saw a huge spike in meaningful engagement.

People enjoy how these bots respond. They no longer have to sift through a list of links to find what they need. Instead, they get a direct, conversational answer based on the content available. That interaction model feels more human and intuitive.

Ultimately, with Drupal and its structured content model, it becomes much easier to feed information into these new AI-driven channels. As new technologies emerge and user behavior shifts, Drupal is well-positioned to evolve with them.

TDT [11]: You have engaged with Drupal as a leader, a technologist, and a user. What do you consider to be its greatest strengths? And are there any areas where you feel Drupal or its community still has room to grow or improve?

Nikhil Deshpande: I think the biggest strength of Drupal is its belief in the open web. For organizations that want to make a difference and avoid being locked into the limitations of a specific toolset, Drupal is a strong option. It also appeals to organizations that are focused on cost-effectiveness.

If an organization has deep pockets, there are plenty of commercial platforms available. They can pay for licenses and use services that may offer similar outcomes. But for public institutions like ours, where every dollar spent must be justified and handled with care, that kind of model is not ideal.

That is where Drupal stands out. As an open-source solution, it is well supported and dependable. One of its biggest strengths is strong leadership. Dries Buytaert continues to guide the product and is widely respected in the Drupal community. He is supported by a healthy ecosystem of agencies. His work is always informed by input from the community.

Not everyone contributes, but enough people do. Their contributions have made the platform significantly more valuable than it would be otherwise.

When you combine strong leadership, a reliable network of vendors, and a passionate developer base, you get a product that stands apart. These three pillars make Drupal unique and competitive compared to other platforms, even within the open source space.

TDT [12]: You mentioned that Drupal is a standout product and one of the pioneers of the web. At the same time, there is a visible decline in its adoption. From your perspective, what should Drupal improve as a CMS and as a community to regain its position at the top?

Nikhil Deshpande: I think that is exactly where the recent marketing efforts have come in. Drupal is a strong product, but with all the noise in the digital space, it can be difficult for someone unfamiliar with it to discover and rally behind it.

What I would really like to see is more advocacy for Drupal. In my role, I often get approached by people trying to influence decisions at the enterprise level. These are not just salespeople. They are highly persuasive and strategic. Open source communities typically do not operate that way, which is understandable, but it also means we have to rely more heavily on community-driven advocacy.

I try to do my part by speaking with as many organizations as I can. But the real power comes when more end users, especially those who do not have a personal stake or financial interest in Drupal implementations, step up as advocates. That kind of customer voice carries weight. When an organization is trying to understand the real experience of using Drupal, they want to hear from people like me, people using it at scale in the public sector.

If more users start sharing those experiences, I believe Drupal will regain visibility as a top-tier solution. Being the best product is not enough. People also have to know that you are the best. That is where I see the biggest gap.

Rebranding Drupal was the first step. Now, when someone lands on the Drupal website, they should see a product that looks modern and future-ready. That was not always the case in the past.

With Drupal CMS becoming easier to implement, I hope we can also address the perception that it is only for developers or that it is outdated. We are in a position to change that narrative and show what Drupal is capable of now and in the future.

TDT [13]: You attended DrupalCon Atlanta this year, and there was a lot of discussion around site templates and even a marketplace, which leans away from traditional open source models. What are your thoughts on this direction, and how do you think it will shape Drupal’s future?

Nikhil Deshpande: I think we need to be ready to serve a wide range of users. If there are people who want a marketplace, we should have one available for them. At the same time, we should not make it the only option. It is important to maintain flexibility.

The marketplace will likely offer a variety of choices, which is great for organizations that are ready to invest, find what they need quickly, and move forward. That kind of efficiency should be accessible to those who want it.

Right now, I would say this is still an experiment. If it works and the community embraces it, that is a win. But growth often requires taking risks and trying new approaches. This seems to be one of those opportunities.

The goal is to expand Drupal’s adoption. We are seeing Drupal evolve, we have the traditional model, and now we have Drupal CMS. Our portfolio is growing, and to stay relevant, we need to be ready for what comes next.

TDT [14]: Aside from technology and Drupal, what are some things that interest you personally? What do you enjoy outside of work?

Nikhil Deshpande: I'm primarily a designer at heart. I went to art school in India, and even now I'm a big advocate for visual design and art. I still create art whenever I can.

After art school, I went on to pursue a master's degree in design at IIT Bombay. It's a small but well-known design program. I was fortunate to get in, and that's where I was first exposed to technology. Before that, I wasn’t very tech-savvy. IIT really opened that world for me.

Before grad school, I worked in advertising for a bit, which has also helped me contribute meaningfully to marketing conversations today. So my journey has taken me from traditional art and design into technology, but I think those areas are deeply connected.

You can't have truly good technology without strong design. It's about making things usable and intuitive. If Apple has taught us anything, it's that usability and visual appeal are just as important as the technology itself. That intersection of design and tech is where I’ve always found purpose and creativity.