It is mid of April and Karsten is standing in front of me with this certain bright smile – I have a sense of foreboding – and tells me “Rike! You have the great luck to find sponsors for our i18n Sprint Camp. I bet you are doing a brilliant job!” Aha, i18n Sprint Camp. This is one of those moments which make me think “Welcome to the world of techies”..

“Karsten, what is a ... thingy-sprint camp?” When I started to work for comm-press in March I recognised reluctantly that I was allowed to asked countless questions without raising rolling eyes, sighs or impatience. So Karsten explained with the patience of a sixfold mother that it is about a gathering of 20 developers who want to work on the multilingualism module of Drupal 7 to improve the internationalisation. Experts from all over the world are expected on May 11, 2011 to spend 5 days and nights between computers, coffee, barbecue, coke and pizza to watch the results of their work on Sunday, totally whacked, scared of daylight, but endlessly proud and happy.

I like the idea. This is somewhat the three Musketeers would have done – one for all and all for one. Drupal and the whole community work is still new to me, but one thing I learned pretty fast: Drupal people are unbelievably passionate if it comes to the community and it is code of honour to invest time to improve things. So now the focus is to organise that the developers are able to work in a good environment, to offer a nice atmosphere and taking care of their needs.

In theory this sounds oh so simple, lean and fast organised – practically it means to get attention on the project, do not consider yourself as to good for calling people and asking them for money for the good cause and invest unbelievably much time yourself to get a good sponsoring.

I spent days on research who might be interested, calling these persons, sending them info on our event and approving what they are willing and able to provide for the camp. In the beginning I started to doubt if we might get the support we needed for making this sprint camp happen. But after a few days one good news after the other arrived. It was so great to see so many people are willing to help and appreciate our work.

Since Karsten's said first smile and the message 20 days have passed. We experienced many positive occasions, agonised, worried, and found new courage when from unexpected parties support was promised. Today, we are looking forward to the upcoming week in Berlin with interesting people and are proud to help forming Drupal an tiny bit ourselves.