Drupal's community has been growing rapidly and reaching a diverse audience: developers, hobbyists, designers, frontend developers, marketing strategists, non-profits, small and big businesses, developing countries, latinos, women, minorities, etc.

This diversity may present some challenges, but with the right attitude it may present many benefits as well:

• Technical: many talented individuals can contribute to the Drupal project.
• Organizational: a more balanced governance can foster a stronger community.
• Financial: attractive business opportunities may arise.
• Social: these opportunities can have a huge impact on people's lives.

Additionally, it's well known that innovation requires a high dose of creativity, the type that emerges "in the edges" of the network where diversity lives.

Drupal, the software, is as powerful as it is today because of its healthy ecosystem where most innovation comes from the edges. Think about every great thing in the Drupal world: Fields, Views, Entities, etc. Every single one of them started either by an individual or a very small team in the edge of the network, "scratching their own itch". Now these innovations are part of Drupal's core. Drupal 8 is also a great example of how the Drupal community embraced innovation from "the edges".

People "in the edges" can provide a different (and potentially revolutionary) perspective. For example, while constellations in traditional cultures were observed by connecting stars, in the Incan culture the constellations were observed by visualizing the whole (not only stars, but also the "dark clouds"). In the photo above we see the Llama Constellation, with the alpha and beta Centauri stars representing the llama's eyes.

This diversity and openness to different perspectives are key to innovation and very much part of the open source philosophy. Open source represents the freedom to study, to learn, to adapt, to collaborate, and to contribute back, no matter who you are or where you are from.

So despite all the challenges, let's embrace diversity and continue working the edges of the network, because the future of the Drupal community might very well be there!