The teams in Joomla’s Operations Department are our enablers. They’re the quiet and unobtrusive teams, working silently in the background on everything the other teams need to get their jobs done. Carlos Cámara, coordinator of this department (and just elected for his third term), tells us what his department does and why he likes it so much.

First of all: thanks for stepping forward for this role and congratulations on being elected!

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Let me be a bit chatty on this one and bear with me, in the end we’ll connect the dots.
I was born and raised in a small Spanish country in the North of Africa called Ceuta. It’s just in front of Gibraltar. A wonderful place full of history, culture and with a great mixture of different religions and ways of life.
I moved to Seville to start my studies in Telecommunications Engineering and when I finished I went to work in Munich for some months just in 2010.

Then I came back to Spain and I started my own small business of Web Development. Initially I focused on Joomla development and I kept learning new technologies like PrestaShop, WordPress, mobile App development with Flutter, and even I gave Laravel a try. Joomla is my passion though.

At University, we used Joomla to share our class notes and group learning, and I started attending JoomlaDays. First JoomlaDay Spain in Madrid and then JoomlaDay UK in Maidstone.

Living in Germany gave me the opportunity to attend the very first JandBeyond where I met more Joomlers and I became moderator for the Spanish forums. That’s when my journey in the international community started.

Finally, when back in Spain, I got to start and grow my business about Joomla and engage more in the Community.

You're Coordinator of Joomla's Operations Department. For most of our readers, Operations may be a mystery since it's pretty much ‘behind the scenes’. What is Operations responsible for?

I usually joke that Operations is where everybody goes to complain when something doesn’t work in the community.

In essence we stitch the project together and manage our Joomla properties, we manage our resources like CDN, Status page, Mattermost… 

Basically we do all the underground work that helps the community share their ideas and keep helping Joomla grow.

What is the most common misconception about Operations?

I had the idea that it takes a brilliant mind to be part of the department as some of the smartest Joomla people I have ever met are part of the department, but in general it only takes good faith and some will to help Joomla to be around. 

What teams are part of your department?

• JED Team
• Forum Team
• Community Sites Team
• Capital Team
• Trademark and Licensing Team

Do your teams need people and if so, in what capacities?

We definitely can use more hands..I would like to see more volunteers involved in the JED team and definitely see the new JED happen any time soon. If I had to pick just 3 roles I need right now they would be:

• Volunteers with experience in financials and sponsorships
• Volunteers with project management experience to help finish the new JED
• Volunteers with leading capabilities for the Community Sites Team

This is your third term as Operations DC. What do you like about the role?

What I like most about the role is that I have lots of opportunities to help other volunteers to do their jobs.

In the two terms before this one, what has your department achieved?

We have kept the updates with the Community Sites and we keep working toward a new JED. We have lots of stuff almost ready to see the light, but still need to wait for it 😉.

What are you most proud of?

The volunteers on every team. I’m amazed by the dedication and love they put in their tasks. I don’t have to put extra energy in that, it’s them who make the magic happen.

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now my focus is on the new Capital Team and keeping up with the great job members of the Community Site Team are doing.

But as I said, I’m not alone: some members are almost finished with a new Services Provider Directory extension that hopefully will solve the issues we have right now.

Other members are working hard on the redesign of our properties and of course, we still have to finish the new JED.

And are their any plans for the future?

Tons!! But we need volunteers to share their vision and improve ours and also to help us achieve them.

To someone who doesn't know Joomla, how would you describe it?

Joomla is the perfect tool to share and communicate your ideas: It’s free as in speech and as in beer, it’s extendable and it’s really fun to build things with it. Join one of our New To Joomla sessions and for sure you will get to try it ;)

What do you like most about Joomla?

People who are involved in Joomla maintain the essence of Free Software. We build things that we need and we share it with the rest of the world. This ends up in things that work and help people to build more things.

I like this freedom and community essence. In Joomla we build bridges and not walls around us.

What is the most common misconception about Joomla?

I think lots of people outside Joomla have a wrong idea about Joomla’s capabilities. Right now we are the most accessible CMS that supports multilanguage out of the box, and the most extensible in the market. Also we are the most secure and we are probably one of the most performant out of the box.

Where should I go when I want improvements for joomla?

These years I have found lots of people that think we have an established organization with crowded teams that perform their work like a clockwork. These people usually complain when something is not working and they ask for responsibilities.

This is not the case. Teams are usually managed by a couple of volunteers giving their free time to help the project, so please be understanding when something does not work as you expect and communicate without being judgmental.

Also if you think there is room for improvement or if you’re missing things, please step up and contact any project member directly with your ideas and communicate how you can help. We can always use a new idea and a new extra hand 🙂.

Come and join us!

Do you want to contribute in one of the Operations teams? Great, we'd love to meet you!

These are the steps you should take to join our community: 

• Head over to our Mattermost channel: joom.la/chat
• You'll be redirected to the Joomla Identity Portal, create an account and you'll get added to the Town Square channel on Mattermost
• Search for the channel called New to Joomla? Start here and join that as well (if you can't find it, ask in Town Square)
• Introduce yourself
• Join a New to the Joomla Community Session, they're on the 15th of each month
• We'll help you get settled in and find you a team / project to contribute to!