At Drupalcon Amsterdam, thanks entirely to an oversight on my part, there were two Birds of a Feather sessions of interest to freelancers (Martin's, my own.) Afterwards, Martin and I compared notes, and we worked out that some 23 people came in total to one or other session. Coincidentally, then, those freelancers who attended themselves made up 1% of the estimated 2300 Drupalcon attendees.
If we like, we can increase that figure anyway way we choose by guesstimating further: what fraction of people generally hit the BoF track at a conference? and what is the relative likelihood of freelancers—always a somewhat loner breed—wanting to talk about this stuff rather than e.g. hustle for work? Are we talking about 3%, 5% or 10% of attendees in total being freelance? Who knows? Arguing about these factors is like trying to argue about the coefficients in the Drake equation: less edifying than what the result tells us qualititatively. And so, quantitative estimates aside, I think we're all agreed that freelancers make up a substantial and active part of the Drupal community.
At a time when the Driesnote was all about trying to (a) estimate people's contributions more quantitatively and (b) aggregate contributions for corporate entities and attribute them in part to that entity (and, by extension—they were all asked to stand up for applause in the closing session, after all—employees associated with that entity), then it's really important that we acknowledge the presence, and the needs, of freelancers. Otherwise, when a lone freelancer makes a contribution to Drupal, it will never amplify the message "freelancers matter" in the same way as if any one of the big companies made the same contribution.
Are freelancers adequately represented in Drupal? I don't really know but I certainly feel there are gaps, outside of new initiatives like Small-Scale Drupal: which are themselves still very much having the "meta" conversation about "what are our needs?" My own experience is all I really know, and I remember that, when I was thinking about going freelance, I had nowhere on g.d.o I could ask anonymously or pseudonymously for advice, to avoid causing problems with my current employer by being disloyal in public. Later on, when I had a look at Drupal Jobs, I found it had nothing really for me: like any other job site, it was focussed around the needs of large corporate entities wanting to hire largely permanent or contract staff ("upload a resume": really?) Do we need pseudonymous or private g.d.o groups? Do we need a more relaxed and semi-private "bazaar" of Drupal piece-work and longer projects, to more suit a freelancer's way of acquiring work?
Are such things widely needed by other freelancers? Are they actually already satisfied by some other forum? I can't say, because I'm only one freelancer. Each of us freelancers is, ultimately, only one freelancer. But our essential, necessarily disintegral nature is also what might mean our tiny, often cacophonous chorus is easily swamped by the voices of the bigger players. And so, we return to the title of my own BoF: freelancers unite; briefly?
