Joomla! Community Magazine™

Unfortunately, I am not able to attend 2011 CMS Expo, USA (May 2-4) which seems to be a highly anticipated event in the fast-growth CMS Sector, and usually I write articles after attending a conference and not in advance, but in the Joomla!sphere, everything is a bit different these days. I assume many people will come directly from the CMS Expo to Europe for a truly unique event:

Each month Joomla! users around the world gather for collaboration, learning, and good times with Joomla! User Groups in over 50 countries (55 to be exact). Groups range from get-togethers of 8 or 9 people, to meetups of over 40 people! I caught up with the Joomla! User Group in Suffolk, England for this last month's meeting for a good time, and a quick interview. We were able to talk with JUG members and get their thoughts on JUG's and how the Joomla! Community is affecting them.

It’s Back! J and Beyond is back for its second annual event, and it’s out to please! Joomla! Community Magazine editors caught up with Robert Deutz, Events Team Leader for OSM and Coordinator for JAB11, as well as Brian Teeman, Joomla! Co-founder and Organizer for JAB11, to get the scoop on the upcoming event!

Casting call! Grab your camcorders! The JCM is looking for a few good videos of how you use Joomla! in your part of the world!

There are quite a few Joomla! Days in the near future around the globe thanks to so many volunteers including Bade Adesemowo of the 4th Joomla! Day in Nigeria. But I think a Joomla! night is a first, so I had a skype chat with the organizer Martin Blodau.

Joomla! Day DC will be held on 16 October 2010 just one block outside the United States' capital city of Washington, DC. The event is being sponsored by the Northern Virginia Joomla! Users Group. We caught up with its President, Bruce Scherzinger, to learn about their plans.

One of many Joomla! Days around the globe in the coming weeks is Joomla! Day Denmark — a small Scandinavian country of 5.5 mil. citizens, but it has the most CMSs per capita. Since the mid '90s every web company developed their own inhouse CMS. But the state of the economy is in the favor of Joomla! and more and more webdevelopers and companies are realizing the benefits of deploying Joomla! because they can cut down on development time — and save money, get their websites up faster — and make money.

This article explains from my point of view, why being part of the Joomla! Community can be of benefit for you. This is mainly aimed towards users that only use Joomla! for their own site development, just for fun, or don't fall under the professional/commercial umbrella.

Many exciting Joomla! Days are coming in the near future all around the globe. While on-line communication and collaboration is great, nothing beats the opportunity of meeting in person. I am delighted to see so many Joomla! Days being announced from Nigeria to Denmark, Brazil to the US. So many chances to meet, share and learn.

Joomla! Day USA West 2010 in San J! California, October 1-3 and Joomla! Day DC October 16.