Dries Buytaert

[Minde]

(AFAIK pronounced drees boy-tart)




Apparently he self-types as ENTJ in MB. My impressions are soft-spoken, friendly, easy-going, not especially driven by power or mega-aspirations. He continually expresses surprise at how well his software has done. He seems to really like the ideas of decentralized power, collaboration, community, and individuality.



OP 4/26/10 on OpenSource.com:

When I started Drupal, I didn't have a grand plan for it, and now ten years after I started, I'm leading a worldwide project that is changing how many people collaborate, communicate, and interact with each other online. We estimate that there are 500,000 sites built with Drupal. There are thousands of people making money with Drupal. I never expected this to happen, and I feel that I have a very unique situation as the leader of the Drupal project. Certainly, my life is different from that of many of my friends.

I enjoy everything that I do, and I hope that I can continue to do what I like doing best because we have only begun to scratch the surface. I don't want to look back and see a missed opportunity a few years down the road. So in my keynote at DrupalCon, I talked about how we need to maintain what we do. As we grow in size and more people join the project, the Drupal community needs to stick to its core values and the culture that we established many years ago. We need to keep innovating, collaborating, sharing, striving towards simplicity, and having fun. If we do that, I believe we'll continue to do amazing things.

[...]

Q: If you could give one principle of the open source way to the next generation, what would it be?

A: Do I have to choose just one? For me, this is passion and believing. Beside the passion and believing in what you're doing, the number one thing is to have fun. Having fun can be applied to everything in life. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. If, on the other hand, you are having fun, you can do big things.

People come to me and ask how they can contribute. I always tell them to do what they want to do. If I told them what to do, then it wouldn't always be fun and it wouldn't necessarily translate into the passion that I'd like to see happen.

[...]

Q: We saw your Myers Briggs type listed on your resume. How has knowing more about your personality type helped you to collaborate more effectively with the teams you work?

A: According to the Myers Briggs test, my character type is ENTJ – or field marshall. Knowing my profile really hasn't changed my approach to my leadership style. It really helps me, when I understand how other people think and operate though. With that in mind, I think it might help others to know my character type as it helps them frame my reactions, or lack thereof.

Meeting people in person, like last week at DrupalCon, gives you a chance to learn much more about a person than you can over email or IRC. Knowing someone's personality, can change the relationship you have with that person, often in a positive way.

Q: Where do you see open source principles having the next greatest impact outside of technology?

A: The principles that come to mind are those of self-organization and scratching your own itch. Getting out of people's way as much as you can, and enabling people to accomplish what they are passionate about. When people can come together and take action collaboratively, impressive things can happen. And I'm not just talking about technology, I see it happening in many places like our governments and in local communities. This can be fueled by openness and transparency, two other principles often found in open source.

OP 11/19/08 on CNET:

Dries Buytaert celebrates his thirtieth birthday today. For someone that has built an open-source community that numbers in the millions of downloads and hundreds of thousands of contributors, Dries is a very unassuming, interesting, and likable person.

It's even more impressive to me that Dries wrote Drupal in his spare time as a PhD student in Belgium. Bonus points for doing it in PHP, despite the fact that most of his academic work has related to Java.

Businessweek paid homage to Dries earlier this year, naming him a "2008 top innovator." It's a nice honor, one that I'd love to have.

But for me the real measure of Dries' success is the thousands of cool websites that run Drupal, a number of which Dries has profiled on his blog.
Actually, the real measure of Dries' success is that he remains a good person despite the success. I was in Belgium last year and we sat down for gyros and frites, and dug deep into the metrics and methods for open-source success. I learned a lot, and loved spending time with him.
Happy birthday, Dries. You deserve it!

OP 12/15/10 on Young Designer's Guide:

I recently had the special opportunity to attend the Drupal Business Summit in Chicago and the chance to interview Dries Buytaert, Founder of Drupal and Co-founder of Acquia. Maybe I am a geek, but I was excited to meet the FOUNDER of Drupal; to me it was meeting a Tech Rockstar. The man who developed one of the top Open Source Content Management Systems used by 1 million sites online today. I find that to be very impressive. For being (in my mind) a Rockstar, Dries is actually very humble, laid back and soft spoken. I was really appreciative of his willingness to speak with me for an impromptu interview during a session break.

[...]

Online you can visit Drupal.org… though with his accent, I thought he had said, “Drupal the Dork”, to which he responded, “that would be cool if there was site named that.”

Videos - These three might be a bit boring at times to some of you. Still, I think videos help when determining type. Maybe the fact that I couldn't find any "exciting" ones is a clue...?






http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9472482654896#

[Park]

Alpha Extrovert. ENTp > else.

[Beautiful sky]

He's neither an ENTj nor an ENTp. He's an ESTj

[glam]

i guess Delta NF.

[Krig the Viking]

Some kind of Alpha NT, I think. I initially was pretty sure of ILE, but his low energy levels in the videos make me unable to rule out LII.

On the other hand, that hair seems much more ILE.

[Park]

i guess Delta NF.

Passion, believing, and fun? Give me a break. Also, he avoids Fi like the plague. Reminds me of jxrtes.

[Beautiful sky]

Q: Where do you see open source principles having the next greatest impact outside of technology?

A: The principles that come to mind are those of self-organization and scratching your own itch. Getting out of people's way as much as you can, and enabling people to accomplish what they are passionate about. When people can come together and take action collaboratively, impressive things can happen. And I'm not just talking about technology, I see it happening in many places like our governments and in local communities. This can be fueled by openness and transparency, two other principles often found in open source.

^ That's pretty Delta and Fi valuing to me.
"Take actions...collaboratively" That's Te...with Fi valuing.

[Marie84]

Alpha Extrovert. ENTp > else.

ILE is my guess as well, at least from the text posted (heavy Fe+Ne valuing), I didn't watch the videos though

[glam]

Passion, believing, and fun? Give me a break. Also, he avoids Fi like the plague. Reminds me of jxrtes.

but look at what he says about fun, he talks about it as if it's some sort of productive goal in itself, that will lead to more productivity and worthy accomplishments. he doesn't talk about fun for the sake of fun - which would be more Alpha-like.

as for passion, the kind he seems to talk about is more about having a drive to fulfill your goals and to stick to doing what you love. in his videos, he doesn't display any outward emotional passion himself, nor does he seem to do anything to encourage it.

another thing: he apparently "continually expresses surprise at how well his software has done." i don't see ILEs being so humble, in my experience they tend to have more of "of course i'm right", "of course i made a good product" etc. attitude.

how does he avoid Fi? i'm not seeing it.

[Exodus]

Definitely seems like an type to me - all the stuff about openness and transparency. He's a lot like Sergey Brin, so I'd guess LII. Maybe ILE. edit: Actually he is really low energy - probably not ILE.

[Exodus]

Also, in the TED talk he defines everything when he first mentions it. Movember is ___; Drupal is ___, period. An ILE would probably give some context beforehand.

[Minde]

My initial thoughts were not-Se/Ni. In other words, he's probably Alpha or Delta. So I'm glad you guys are seeing the same thing.

Some kind of Alpha NT, I think. I initially was pretty sure of ILE, but his low energy levels in the videos make me unable to rule out LII.

Yes, it's hard to see him having an extrovert temperament. I could be wrong, of course, but he seems much more... dealing with what comes instead of energetically moving things. Then again, perhaps he's an introverted subtype of an extrovert temperament.

but look at what he says about fun, he talks about it as if it's some sort of productive goal in itself, that will lead to more productivity and worthy accomplishments. he doesn't talk about fun for the sake of fun - which would be more Alpha-like.

as for passion, the kind he seems to talk about is more about having a drive to fulfill your goals and to stick to doing what you love. in his videos, he doesn't display any outward emotional passion himself, nor does he seem to do anything to encourage it.

another thing: he apparently "continually expresses surprise at how well his software has done." i don't see ILEs being so humble, in my experience they tend to have more of "of course i'm right", "of course i made a good product" etc. attitude.

how does he avoid Fi? i'm not seeing it.

That's a good point about his approach to fun and passion. It does seem Delta.


One thing I thought of while watching the TED talk is that his approach to "out of control" is a bit IJ-ish. I'm not sure how to phrase it, since right now it's largely a feeling, but he kind of assumes that something that's out of control is normally something a bit scary and undesirable. He kind of had to talk himself into seeing it as a good thing. In contrast, I know people, especially EPs, who consider that not only normal but desirable. And even his apparent idea of "out of control" actually isn't all that wild. For him, there's still an underlying structure, even if said structure is organic in nature (i.e. people doing what they want to do). Just a thought.

[Krig the Viking]

One thing I thought of while watching the TED talk is that his approach to "out of control" is a bit IJ-ish. I'm not sure how to phrase it, since right now it's largely a feeling, but he kind of assumes that something that's out of control is normally something a bit scary and undesirable. He kind of had to talk himself into seeing it as a good thing. In contrast, I know people, especially EPs, who consider that not only normal but desirable. And even his apparent idea of "out of control" actually isn't all that wild. For him, there's still an underlying structure, even if said structure is organic in nature (i.e. people doing what they want to do). Just a thought.

That's a good point. The more I think about it, the better LII is sounding.

I noticed that my own visceral response to his photos and videos was of embarrassment. It's the same embarrassment I sometimes feel when I first meet other LIIs, and I notice them accidentally doing the same sorts of things I try not to do myself. Identicals amplify your strengths, but they also amplify your weaknesses. In this case, it revolves around Sensing -- his hair in the second, fourth, and fifth photos looks like he was going for the look he has in the first and last photos, but isn't really aware of what it actually looks like. I'm not sure if that's Se or Si, but I've noticed that ILEs don't tend to have that problem as much.

At first I thought the embarrassment might be because he's ILE, and the two types are similar enough to feel a version of that "Identical embarrassment", but I'm intuitively starting to gravitate toward the idea of him being LII.

[Minde]

That's a good point. The more I think about it, the better LII is sounding.

I noticed that my own visceral response to his photos and videos was of embarrassment. It's the same embarrassment I sometimes feel when I first meet other LIIs, and I notice them accidentally doing the same sorts of things I try not to do myself. Identicals amplify your strengths, but they also amplify your weaknesses. In this case, it revolves around Sensing -- his hair in the second, fourth, and fifth photos looks like he was going for the look he has in the first and last photos, but isn't really aware of what it actually looks like. I'm not sure if that's Se or Si, but I've noticed that ILEs don't tend to have that problem as much.

At first I thought the embarrassment might be because he's ILE, and the two types are similar enough to feel a version of that "Identical embarrassment", but I'm intuitively starting to gravitate toward the idea of him being LII.

Hm, interesting. I didn't actually get a whole lot of "identical embarrassment", though I think sometimes I do with some LIIs. He actually seems comfortingly normal to me. His unconcern for appearance puts me at ease; I don't have to think about it either.

He might be a nicer sort of Ne-INTj, which would put him a little closer to Delta values while explaining the extroversion that he does show.

[UDP]

Type: Minde's dream husband.

[Minde]

I met Dries once while helping out at a conference. He was accompanied by the CEO of his company Acquia, Tom Erickson, as well as another person who I don't remember as well. From my brief impressions, Tom Erickson seems the opposite in some ways from Dries. Dries fit in well with the geeks/nerds/techies in the vicinity. He did not really come across as a high-powered owner of a rapidly growing company. He was wearing jeans, had a loose posture, messy hair, was soft-spoken, made techie jokes, smiled, was kind of awkward at times. I felt I could relax around him, and did.

In contrast, Mr. Erickson seemed almost exactly like a stereotypical CEO. He intimidated me, and I felt I had to be alert and mind my p's and q's around him. He wasn't wearing a suit, but he acted like he was. He was direct, a little pushy, concerned with image, asked manager-ish questions ("have you done this?" "has so-and-so-important-person stopped by here?") They made a joke or two how Mr. Erickson was the real boss, the slave driver, and how Dries never got a rest.

Mr. Erickson seems to be the one handling the business and financial side of things, helping them look good and make money and actually get somewhere in the business world, which I think is what Dries wants and needs.


In case anyone is interested in Tom Erickson for compare/contrast purposes:

Tom Erickson's blog

OP 3/4/09 on ZDNet:

Acquia, the commercial arm of Drupal, today named Thomas Erickson (right) as its new CEO.

The announcement is happening around the company’s DrupalCon show in Washington, D.C..

Erickson, a former CEO of Systinet, was already on the Acquia board.
I had a chance to chat with Erickson Monday, as he was leaving the Open Source Think Tank in Napa.

Erickson said Drupal is now positioning itself as the world’s leading social publishing system. He described future developments as aiming at both increased usability and scalability:

Our goal is that Drupal will be substantially easier to use, so with a few clicks you have a Web site. That’s what it will become. You’l l go through a set of menus. That will expand its use dramatically. We’ll also extend its scalability so we learn more about hosting higher performance sites, which are currently custom built instead of tool built.

Erickson estimated Drupal now runs over 400,000 Web sites, and that the next wave will include a lot of enterprises that will value paid support. Some are likely to be companies that used Vignette or Interwoven in the past.

He said that at the Think Tank he met the heads of other open source firms reporting great results, like JasperSoft and mySQL, and that DrupalCon itself has grown 50% year over year.

One point Erickson did emphasize was that “this is still Dries’ (Buytaert) company. We’re going to follow Dries’ strategy about making Drupal more successful. We’re going to help with contributions from the community, round out the product so it’s more complete,” even add a search capability.

“We just found out last week Intel runs their whole Intranet off Drupal,” Erickson added, illustrating one key difference between open source and proprietary management.

Proprietary managers need to find customers, while those in open source just need to convert their users.

So, Intel, when can Tom expect a check?

OP 11/1/10 on ZDNet:

The fact that Drupal creator Dries Buytaert’s Acquia is a success is not news.

The size of that success can be difficult to measure, given the company remains in private hands. But today we have some numbers and the answer is it’s pretty successful.

Acquia just closed a new $8.5 million round of financing, bring the total capital advanced to $23.5 million, Dries reports. “We weren’t sure if we could go any faster but we just found the turbo button,” he writes.

He didn’t have to look far. The new capital comes from existing investors, North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners, together with Acquia CEO Tom Erickson. Erickson did real well with Systinet and, before that, webMethods. He could be sitting on a beach somewhere but making money is a hard habit to break. And when the insiders are doubling-down it’s usually a good sign.

An official release notes that Acquia tripled its customer base in 2010, and has big plans for 2011. The company has multiple business models, as Dries notes:

• Support licenses for Drupal.
• Enhancement software through the Acquia Network.
• Hosting services like Drupal Gardens.

Much of the money will be used in a geographic expansion, including the opening of a European office. Since Buytaert is Belgian, you might say he’s coming home. (The success of Acquia has also encouraged a host of other European open source start-ups, as I learned last month.)

Acquia has always been a good model for how an open source company can actually make money. The good news rolls on.

[Minde]

Type: Minde's dream husband.

If you're being serious, you do not know me. If you are trying to be funny, I am not amused and in fact am somewhat annoyed.

[eunice]

Buytaert seems like a rather nice guy. Anyway, my first impression was Te-INTp. Not a very confident typing though.

[Jarno]

Buytaert seems like a rather nice guy. Anyway, my first impression was Te-INTp. Not a very confident typing though.

I was thinking that too.

[Minde]

There is an unconfidance, shakiness, nervousness that is familiar to me in Dries Buytaert speaking style in the second video. It reminds me of the way that Warriorlibrarian (hope you don't mind me mentioning you) and I speak when in front of a camera or people also in my case. Mainly because of this I lean towards introvert for Dries Buytaert of the NT kind.

That makes sense.

Buytaert seems like a rather nice guy. Anyway, my first impression was Te-INTp. Not a very confident typing though.

I was thinking that too.

Does anything in particular make you lean in that direction?

[Jarno]

Does anything in particular make you lean in that direction?

I don't like to say it, but my first impression was based on VI.

But fortunately most agree that he has IP temperament.

And I think we all agree that he's some kind of NT.

So that makes... INTP

[sudler]

From the pics I guessed some kind of Delta, but in the videos he looks very LII to me. He has that soft-spoken thing I see a lot in LIIs and that out of control video looked like pointless Ne wanking to me (sorry Neers ). Like, I just don't get what he wants to fucking *say* there.