LocalGov Drupal’s collaborative philosophy underpins the aim to do more with less. This mindset informs the Annertech team’s way of doing things, too, and is part of the reason why the company is so invested in the LGD project.
LocalGov Drupal started out as a collaborative effort to share the code behind a council website. This would enable other councils to use the money they would have spent on development to create other features, which could, in turn, be used by others. It was about doing more with less, a concept understood very well by one of LocalGov Drupal’s loudest cheerleaders: Annertech, Ireland’s leading Drupal agency.
“At Annertech we’re all about collaboration. We know that when people come together in the spirit of giving, that's when magic happens. It’s the heartbeat of most open source organisations, and it was this way of doing things that made me fall in love with Drupal,” said Annertech’s Managing Director Stella Power.
Stella started Annertech 15 years ago, initially to fill a gap in Ireland’s digital space for non-government organisations, but the company soon started branching out to other sectors – creating ambitious digital experiences for public and private sector clients. These included websites for Ireland’s biggest local governments:
- Dublin City Council
- Limerick City & County Council
- Cork County Council
- Tipperary County Council (who were also the first Irish council to make the move to LocalGov Drupal)
“When I first heard about LocalGov Drupal I got as excited as I did when I first heard about Drupal. Here we have a collaboration of developers, councils and other stakeholders all getting together and pooling their resources to save time and money, to create the best possible digital hubs for their users that they can,” said Stella.
Anntech's involvement with LGD
Annertech has been involved in LocalGov Drupal since the beta phase, and has contributed as much as it can to help it grow over the years. Its Director of Development, Mark Conroy, is the LocalGov Drupal front-end lead and, in 2023, when the Open Digital Cooperative was established to help run, develop and ensure the financial sustainability of the project, Mark was elected to the board.
It was no surprise that when word got out about the first-ever LocalGov Drupal Camp, Annertech came on board as the headline sponsor.
“We’re so excited about this, the first LocalGov Drupal Camp,” said Mark. “Annertech has been proud to be associated with LocalGov Drupal, and we’ve helped many councils – both in the UK and Ireland – move their websites on to this ground-breaking platform.
“It’s inspiring to see LocalGov Drupal has grown quite quickly – not even six years since the first code-sharing exercise between Brighton-Hove and Croydon and we have 44 live sites already, with far more in the pipeline.”
Levelling the playing field
The LocalGov Drupal Camp will see the community coming together for a day of networking, learning and socialising under the banner of: “How collaboration can help bridge the capacity and resource gap.”
“For me, this is one of the most exciting things of LocalGov Drupal: seeing firsthand how councils – especially smaller councils – have benefited from the platform,” said Mark.
“It’s really levelled the playing field, and allowed councils that may not have as much budget to put towards something like a website, to also offer their constituents an excellent website that offers the same standard of user experience as a council that has far more money to spend. Users in poorer or rural areas also need access to services and LocalGov Drupal really allows councils to bridge that gap.”
LocalGov Drupal Camp takes place on Tuesday, 23 April, at Birmingham City Council in the UK. Annertech will be there, so if you’d like to chat to them look out for their booth. If you haven’t secured your tickets yet, head over to Eventbrite.