The simple answer to the question, “What is Drupal?” is: Drupal is a web publishing system. Drupal is a program, or a web application, used to manage content on a website.

But this is only one part of the real answer. Drupal is not only a tool for managing content on a website, but a tool to build tools to manage content on websites. It is a meta tool used by web developers to build customized web publishing tools. In some respects, you may even call Drupal a programming language.

But even this is not the full answer. Most people who have used Drupal for a while will tell you that Drupal is a community: a group of people spread out over the world, sharing a common goal or interest, and feeling that they have something connecting them. This community has more than half a million members, in one way or another contributing to the project called Drupal. Some put their efforts into making Drupal look better (an appreciated contribution). Quite a few people code and build new functionality. Some work with documentation, translations, or answering questions from people new to Drupal. Some people in the community are so well known that they almost could be compared to rock stars. But the vast majority of the community consists of people who mostly just use Drupal as a publishing tool. They help the project every once in a while by posting new questions, reporting a bug or bringing feature requests to developers.

Several of the people who will be most important to Drupal's growth and development in the future have just started using it.