Information technology lingo and names could be funny at times. Drupal is one. It is the corrupt English version of the Dutch word Druppel that means drop. This Web site-building open source platform is creating waves among developer communities. If you have not heard about this already, you will soon.

If excitement in engineering colleges and corporates is any indication, you will soon hear about institutes starting courses to train people in this open source platform that helps us build Web sites.

Wondering, what's the great deal in this? Whitehouse.gov, Aljazeera, www.data.gov.uk are some of the sites that use Drupal platform.

It is cheaper many times over than building Web sites using proprietary software. Unlike other proprietary software that make cost of operations shoot up, Drupal is a big boon for start-ups and entrepreneur-wannabes, said Mr Dries Buytaert, Chief Technology Officer of Acquia.

Growing interest among corporates, users and developers is making Drupal popular by the day, encouraging IT pros to start companies of their own to build solutions around that.

Mr Dries, the creator of Drupal, is in India to address developer communities in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad to build the ecosystem. Visitng the country for the first time, Mr Dries said India is among top-ranking nations that have shown interest in the open source platform.

An open source platform allows amateurs and professionals to work on applications using the freely and readily available software platform.

After developing the platform and making it free for use about 11 years ago, the 32-year-old IT pro who did his PhD in computer science is passionate to talk about his baby. Answering queries from over 1,000 developers, Mr Dries said he has no regrets for not patenting Drupal. “It is growing so fast because it is open. I am happy about it,” he quipped.

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