Perspective is a strange thing, probably best experienced less metaphorically, when drawing still life. The slightest head movement can change how an object looks - it's the same object in the same position, only our perception changes.

In the same way that no two people can occupy the same space to look at that object - we, even when standing shoulder to shoulder, see things differently. We have different life experiences, we're from different cities, regions, countries and we express ourselves differently to make matters more complicated.

But whatever our perspective, as part of this community we have one objective, to create and distribute free and open source software - together.

Our varying perspectives can make it difficult to collaborate at times, but more importantly the collective experiences and knowledge that make up those perspectives are a catalyst for ingenuity that produces innovation.

I’ll make a leaping assumption that, for most developers involved in open source, it’s absurdly satisfying to create without strings attached, only hoping that someone will find our work worthy of use or even improvement. It’s obvious from where I stand, anyone willing to put time into improving work you started, sees potential in that work.

Sure, sometimes, I sit back and wonder if we're all crazy, spending our time to create something and then giving it away or improving something without any return on our invested time, I’d guess we all ask ourselves at times, “why do I do this?”. But the benefits are valuable: faster development, exponentially increased knowledge, an ability to learn from others who may have different areas of expertise that compliment yours, respect, recognition and even camaraderie.

So today, I won't ask you to join an official team again, maybe you haven't found one that suits you, but I encourage you to get open - share your perspective and gain some - collaborate:

1. Get forked¹: Create a template, a plugin, something and put it out in the wild for other developer's to extend, fix bugs.
2. Fork² ‘em: Search for a project you’re interested in, fork it, extend or improve it and offer it back up³.

Github is a great place to start (and you'll get the added bonus of learning to use Git if you don't already know how): [1] Create a repo, [2] Fork a repo, [3] Send a Pull Request

 

or just kick back and read an article...

In this issue:

A special thanks to the members of our Joomla! community who contributed articles to this month's issue: Eric Lamy, Dmitry Strizhov, Andrew Eddie, Hagen Graf, Sean Redfearn, Victor Drover, Jarrod Nettles, and Chad Windnagle   !

Feature stories

• Andrew Eddie provides updates on upcoming Joomla! releases in The Source April 2011  
• Hagen Graf shares insights about Multi-Language Websites with Joomla! 1.6 core
• Sean Redfearn points to two key questions for sitebuilders in Convincing the Skeptics about Open Source and CMS

International stories

• Community members have submitted two articles in two different languages for this issue.
• Opportunities are now open for community members to submit articles in 21 different languages.

Website Case Studies

• Dianne Henning knits up a sweet sounding case study in For Rocker Samantha Farrell, Joomla! Rocks.

Leadership Connections

• Alice Grevet shares updates on what OSM has been doing during March on behalf of the Joomla! project.

JUGs and Events

• Victor Drover invites you to submit your nominations for The J!OSCAR awards - recognizing excellence in the Joomla! community.

Developers Workbench

• Jarrod Nettles shows how get more out of templates in Rapid Development Techniques – Templates Within Templates!
• Chad Windnagle shares about the importance of Documenting Documentation.
• Arlen Walker introduces us to Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos in The Joomla! Setup.

Designer's studio

• Anthony Olsen shares How to become a css detective with CSS Edit.

The Joomla! Haikus

• Prolific poets,
  punsters and word masters too,
  spread the Joomla! love...
  Post your April 2011 Haiku here!

Joomla! Books

• Milena Mitova reviews "Joomla 24-Hour Trainer"-the new A to Z book for novices.

Joomla! in the Press/Media

• Mark Bender bring us Joomla! in the Press/Media — April 2011.

On the lighter side...

• Yepr has contributed another Jane Beyond & friends cartoon.

In our next issue

We want to publish your Joomla! story in the next JCM issue! So take a look at our Author Resources content to get a better idea of what we are looking for, and then register to become a JCM author and submit your Joomla! story!