Twitter unveiled July 11 a new online community website for third-party developers to access APIs in an open, collaborative environment. It's not entirely surprising that the site is built upon open source web content management system Drupal--and developed by Acquia, the company's commercial arm. Twitter's decision appears to be something of a trend for open source developer sites.

"This is a big deal for Drupal--it's not every day that one of the hottest technology start-ups switches one of its sites to Drupal," wrote Dries Buytaert, founder and chief technology officer at Acquia, in a blog post.

More than 750,000 Twitter developers are already using the site, according to a press release from Acquia.

"A population that big requires a lot, as we in the Drupal community know. Fortunately, Drupal handles big communities well. Developer communities have been quick to recognize that and have adopted Drupal at a remarkable rate," wrote Buytaert.

Dev.twitter.com provides access to documents, APIs, tips, tutorials, a blog and forums that aim to bring a social, collaborative component to Twitter application development.

Acquia recently announced the proprietary product, Acquia Commons 2.0, a cloud-based, community website-building tool based on Drupal. Acquia is touting Commons 2.0 as "social as a service," which allows community websites to be built quickly, with customized social interactions branded to the network.

For more:
- see the press release
- see the blog post
- visit the Twitter developer site  

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