The first time abroad on his own was when we visited a JoomlaDay in England. Joomla rerouted all his life, he loves J! and its community has been actively involved since 1.5, and uses Joomla for all it can be used.

He is an active member of the Spanish and the international community, participating in the organization of Joomladays in Spain and speaking at international events.

He has been running Mastermind Joomla for a few years now, a podcast in Spanish about Joomla, where already 75 episodes were hosted. From the podcast, he has started some other initiatives aiming to market Joomla for people who speak Spanish. Recently, Mastermind JUG, a virtual JUG is established around the podcast, trying to reunite all Spanish-speaking Joomla Community in these days of confinement.

Carlos Cámara Mora gives an interview to JCM.

Tell us a little about yourself

I am from Spain and I currently live in the south-east coast (in Almería). I am married and have 2 wonderful forks (sorry, children :P) and a dog called “Gúguel” (Spanish phonics for Google).

How did you get involved with Joomla and the J! Community?

At the University of Seville I was a SPIP guy till I was involved in a student community project: “La Comuna Teleco” which was aimed to help students of electronic engineering as me sharing knowledge and resources. This website was built with Joomla and had an integration with the SMF Forum system. The site worked so well and it was really a place where we can find answers and the assistance we needed. I met Isidro Baquero there, and he was the one who convinced me to switch from SPIP to Joomla for my side projects.

What do you do for a day job, and if this includes Joomla, how?

I’m a web developer specialized in Joomla and PrestaShop and most of my daily jobs are about developing features for Joomla sites, fixing buggy implementations or developing my own Joomla Extensions and PrestaShop modules.

Do you use Joomla in other ways? (hobby, own website, building websites for clubs, friends etc)

I use Joomla for all I can ;). Recently, I have implemented a Joomla site to track my first son's school homework in the current COVID situation, and in general, I love creating side projects which involve Joomla at some point.

Are you involved in the Joomla community, apart from in your official position?

I try to be on top of my local community and I have helped to organize some JoomlaDays in Spain and of course, I love speaking at Joomla events (local or international).

A couple of years ago I started a podcast about Joomla called Mastermind Joomla aimed to help Spanish users to know more about Joomla and which nowadays I co-host with the marketing expert Andrea Gentil. From the podcast, I have started some other initiatives like mejorconjoomla.com which is aimed to market Joomla for people who speak Spanish.

Recently we have also started a virtual JUG around the podcast: Mastermind JUG trying to reunite all Spanish-speaking Joomla communities.

How did Joomla change your life?

Joomla allowed me to attend international conferences, to work with lots of people from other countries and to have clients all over the world. Most of my company projects are developed in or for Joomla.

I was meant to be an electronics engineer, and I am a software engineer, basically, Joomla rerouted all my life ;).

What did you learn and/or gain personally from being a J! Volunteer?

I improved my language skills and understanding of people from other cultures. I have learned new software techniques and to self organize and help others organize their work.

You have been actively involved in the community for fifteen years. Could you imagine Joomla without the community?

No. Per definition everything in Joomla is the community. Our government is defined by the community, our software is made by the community, our support is the community and all our events are handled by the community.

Most important or/and funny J! memory

Definitely my first JoomlaDay. It was JoomlaDay UK 2009 in Maidstone. It was my first time out of Spain on my own and first time I was going to speak English out of a language school… On my way to the hotel when I arrived at Maidstone train station, I got lost and had to walk around 30 minutes at night with no idea where I was heading to… Finally, I arrived at the hotel and among others, I spoke a bit with Geraint Edwards from JEvents.

The day after, at breakfast, Geraint and I met again and not sure why or how we decided to go walking together to the venue (which was around a 30-minute walk). And we also got lost. Finally, Geraint could figure out the right way and we arrived at the venue on time for the first session. From this day on, we have been friends and actually Geraint is a key part of my involvement with Joomla, but that’s another story...