Meet Vladimir Roudakov — Candidate for the 2025 Drupal Association Board Election

TDT[1]: You’ve highlighted your focus on bridging the gap between Drupal and academia. What are the top three challenges that prevent universities from fully adopting Drupal, and how would you address them at the board level to ensure Drupal is a platform of choice in educational environments?

Vladimir Roudakov: In my two years spent with teachers and students, the biggest hurdle for Drupal adoption in academia really comes down to documentation that's not fit for purpose for different users..

Here are my top three challenges, and how I'd tackle them:

Versioning Confusion in Documentation: teachers doing development courses could find Drupal 8 documentation, but then struggled to understand why there were no clear Drupal 10 guides, or why older docs were still prominent. There's often no clear indication that documentation applies across multiple versions, or how to filter by the current stable release.

• Board Level Approach: I'd advocate for a clear, board-backed strategy to improve documentation versioning on Drupal.org, i.e. improving resources for documentation sprints focused specifically on updating and tagging content for the latest versions (D10, D11, etc.), and ensuring a streamlined user experience when searching for current information. Dedicated and clear "latest version" pathway is a must.

Mismatched Documentation for Different Audiences: Students in less technical courses were confused when administration guides included technical information. The 'one-size-fits-all' approach isn't working for a diverse academic audience.

• Board Level Approach: I'd push for a user-centric overhaul of how documentation is organised and presented. This involves supporting initiatives to segment documentation more clearly by audience. Insights from users and contributors will help us structure learning pathways effectively.

Lack of Feature-Rich, Non-Technical Overviews for Decision-Makers: stakeholders evaluating Drupal for college-wide use couldn't easily find documentation that simply listed the features and functionality of core components, like CKEditor features. They need high-level overviews of what Drupal does and its value proposition, not just how to implement it.

• Board Level Approach: At the board level, I'd facilitate the creation of feature-oriented documentation aimed at non-technical decision-makers in academia. This isn't about code; it's about clear use cases, comparisons with other platforms (like WordPress, as I've done in my teaching), and a concise articulation of Drupal's benefits for an educational institution. This kind of content is crucial for convincing colleges that Drupal is a top-tier choice.

TDT[2]: You’ve co-organised documentation sprints and worked to improve Drupal’s help resources. What specific steps would you take as a board member to streamline the process for maintaining and updating Drupal’s documentation, ensuring that it remains relevant and accessible to all users, particularly new ones?

Vladimir Roudakov: Recently, while attending sprints at conferences like DrupalSouth and WordCamp Brisbane, the focus has often been squarely on the code. I even heard someone at a recent meetup joke that documentation is "boring and for AI to fix." While AI might help, it's not a silver bullet, and we can't just leave it to chance.

Personally, my plan is definitely to keep running and participating in regular documentation sprints, reviewing and improving content on drupal.org. But as a board member, I'd push for the following steps to increase Drupal's documentation quality, targeting new users:

Set Standard for Documentation Sprints: I'd advocate for the Drupal Association to formalise regular "Documentation Weeks" or dedicated sprint days throughout the year, similar to how Global Training Days used to operate, but with a clear focus on documentation. The board can help with the promotion, provide communication support, and even secure resources for tooling or contributor recognition. We need to amplify the message that documentation is not an afterthought.

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Integrate Documentation into Development Workflows: At the board level, I'd push for a more embedded approach where documentation is seen as an integral part of any code contribution (similar to new feature release documentation for each major and minor release). This could involve exploring ways to encourage or even require documentation updates as part of core and contrib module development. It's about shifting the community mindset so that "done" means the code and updated documentation.

Easier Documentation Contributions: The Community needs to make it as easy as possible for anyone to contribute to documentation. I would explore board-level support for investing in better tooling on Drupal.org for documentation authoring and review. This could include clearer contribution guidelines, simplified editing interfaces, and potentially even setting up regular online training sessions for new documentation contributors, making it less intimidating for newcomers to lend a hand.

I’d like to make documentation contributions relevant and welcoming, which is vital for bringing in and retaining new users, whether they're students, teachers, or anyone just starting their Drupal journey.

TDT[3]: You bring cross-community experience from other open-source projects like GitLab and WordPress. How would you leverage these insights to strengthen Drupal’s community-building strategies, particularly in terms of contributor recognition and engagement across diverse contributor groups?

Vladimir Roudakov: I see the opportunities to adapt successful strategies from GitLab and WordPress to improve Drupal's contribution efforts. The goal is to create a more robust framework for contributor recognition and engagement. Here are the highlights of other projects successful programs:

GitLab's "Most Valuable Person" (MVP) program regularly highlights top contributors. While Drupal acknowledges contributions on user profiles, we can create a more visible and celebratory platform. MVP moves beyond simple credit attribution to telling the stories behind the contributions, which inspires new community members and validates the hard work of existing ones.

WordPress’s "Five for the Future" initiative ensures sustained and strategic contributions. It encourages companies to dedicate a percentage of their resources to contributing back to WordPress, formalising corporate contribution and giving individuals a clear pathway to get paid for their open-source work.

Both GitLab and WordPress are successful at creating high-quality, accessible documentation for contributors. While Drupal's documentation is extensive, we can focus on the contributor experience.

TDT[4]: As someone who works directly with students and educators, you’re in a unique position to see how they interact with Drupal. How would you ensure the board fosters an environment that not only attracts new developers but also provides long-term support and growth opportunities for them within the Drupal ecosystem?

Vladimir Roudakov: While teaching, I made sure my colleagues and I presented Drupal as a genuine alternative to students, on par with WordPress and other CMSes, highlighting both similarities and differences.

My colleagues and I are also actively building out more events, including hackathons and student addresses, promoting open source and contribution. Though the events are typically low-budget and do not draw many sponsors, they are essential for introducing the next generation – students and teachers alike – to Drupal as a strong, viable alternative platform.

The plan for the next two years, whether I'm on the board or not, is to keep developing practical documentation that can be directly used in courses (both academic and private) of various lengths providing practical and useful references.

However, securing a seat on the board would give me the platform and access to resources to make this a more centralised, far reaching initiative via Drupal.org, rather than just relying on individual efforts or private enterprises.