When my business partner, Paul Chason, and I joined forces over seven years ago we had a rather simple vision for Mediacurrent. We were convinced that open-source software offered a superior value proposition over proprietary, licensed based solutions. We had an ambitious goal of starting a digital agency that was going to revolutionize how companies thought about the way they managed their web properties. As Simon Sinek so eloquently describes, this was our "why" and purpose.
However, our goal was rather daunting at the time. The content management system (CMS) market was firmly controlled by name recognizable, global tech giants like Oracle, Adobe, and Microsoft. We would not be deterred though. We started out with a lot of grassroots marketing. We met in the back of restaurants and evangelized the virtues of Drupal to whoever would listen. These early meet-ups morphed into larger events like Drupalcamp Atlanta. We were dogged in our pursuit and exponential, year-over-year growth and momentum continued within not only Drupal, but open-source software in general.
Fast forward to the present. Mediacurrent has organically grown to over 45 team members. Today, we are proud to announce that Weather.com, which at times is the most trafficked website in the world, has launched on Drupal. The web stats are mind boggling - weather.com has over 100 million unique vistors per month. The Weather Channel has created an innovative forecasting grid system that pushes weather updates to over 2 billion locations every 15 minutes. The Weather Company just happens to be headquartered right here in Atlanta. To think that Mediacurrent, an Atlanta-based digital agency with big aspirations that started out in the back of a 100 square foot office led the development and migration is incredibly humbling.
This launch is for all those early adopters of Drupal who dared to take a chance. This launch is for the The Weather Channel's in-house team for not playing it safe - thank you for allowing us to be your trusted advisor. This launch is for all those volunteers who are part of the Drupal movement. This launch is for Dries Buytaert who started Drupal in his Belgian dorm room some 13+ years ago and continues to serve as Drupal's project lead. This launch is for people like Doug Vann, who has offered his training services at over 40 Drupalcamps, and is part of the international community that makes Drupal so special.
Above all, this launch is for the Mediacurrent team who simply amaze me with their talents...we did it! We are incredibly proud of each of you - take a bow, you deserve it. Lets continue to change how the world views open source and Drupal.
Weather.com is serving millions of pages to more than 100 million people each month. Weather’s move to Drupal shows how complex, content-rich sites benefit from an open, agile platform to deliver an amazing experience for every site visitor.
Dries Buytaert, Acquia CTO and Drupal project creator
For more information about Weather.com's Drupal selection, please watch the video interview below with Chris Hill, VP of Web Development at The Weather Channel.
Additional Resources
The Weather Channel | Case Study
Understanding the Role of Enterprise in Drupal | Mediacurrent Blog Post
