Drupal Downunder, a conference for users of this particular content management system, will be held at the Jasper Hotel in the heart of Melbourne on this weekend, with a day of tutorials and workshops being held on the Friday.

Drupal Downunder is the second such FOSS conference being held that weekend; as reported in these columns, AdaCamp, organised by the Ada Initiative, will be held on January 14.

As with AdaCamp, the Drupal conference will aim to attract people heading to the 13th Australian national Linux conference, which is scheduled to be held from January 16 to 20 in Ballarat, a regional Victorian town about two hours from Melbourne.

This is the second Drupal Downunder conference, with the inaugural one having been held in Brisbane this year. The Brisbane conference was inspired by Drupal South, a conference which was held after the LCA of 2010 in Wellington.

The main conference will be held on January 14 and 15, from 9am to 6pm on Saturday and from 9am to 5pm on Sunday. Conference organiser Donna Benjamin, who ran the Linux conference in Melbourne in 2008, has drawn up a very comprehensive FAQ which answers practically every possible question that can spring to mind.

Conference charges are $220 (early bird), $275 (full price) and $121 (students).

There will be three keynotes, with Drupal creator Dries Buytaert, well-known Drupal developer Dmitri Gaskin, and accessibility expert Gian Wild to do the honours.