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Outside the Box: Joomla! at php[world] Conference

Outside the Box: Joomla! at php[world] Conference

We’re used to seeing all Joomla community members attending only Joomla events. Nowadays that’s changing. David Hurley and Michael Babker are representing Joomla at a global event, the PHP World Conference mid-November. They will not only represent Joomla, but will also try to attract new members to the community. That’s worthy of an interview.

David is the Community Manager for Joomla and part of the Production Leadership Team (PLT) , Michael is also a member of the PLT. The PLT is the team that’s responsible for all code matters within the Project, the Framework and the CMS. Michael has also been pushing every release of Joomla since last year.

What?

“This event seeks to gather the best of the PHP development world and bring them together to a single location.” says David. Michael adds, “All these PHP developers from all over the world come together for a week of learning, networking, and sharing.” If you want more information about the PHP World Conference you can find this on: http://world.phparch.com/

Why?

For Michael it’s clear why he’s going: “It’s an opportunity to learn about different tools in the PHP community and to meet some of the developers behind those tools. I’m always seeking new challenges and I like learning about new things, so being able to be at an event where I can learn about some of what’s happening in Symfony or Drupal, for example, directly from leaders in those projects intrigues me.” David is really looking forward to the event as well: “I’m most excited about being able to sit on the “Greatest Panel in the World” which will be closing the conference. This panel has representatives from most of the major PHP communities. But the main reason, of course, is the opportunity to represent Joomla at this conference.

Joomla & php[world]

“The PHP World Conference is a great time for Joomla to increase awareness of other developers in the PHP world. Joomla has historically not been present at these types of events, and as a result has not been as widely recognized as others may be.” David tells me.

Michael confirms: ”Having been to a few events outside Joomla over the last couple of years, I’ve learned that quite a few folks stopped using Joomla a couple of years ago, because of things happening back then. So they may not be aware of what’s changed, good or bad, with Joomla since they last used it.” David adds to that: “Seriously, some of the things we offer are cutting edge and we have been the first in the world to introduce many new features. “Last but not least Michael adds: “This event gives us a unique opportunity to market the Joomla Framework to the PHP community, giving the possibility to attract developers who may not be interested in building sites with the CMS but would perhaps be interested in working with some of the underlying code that has been powering the CMS since 2005.”

Does our project need new developers?

Both agree that the project always needs fresh faces. But more than just the developers, they both believe there are opportunities for designers, marketeers, writers, testers, translators, and many others. Joomla has a global community and a global outreach.

David adds to this, “I would offer a small side note here. While I’m always looking to find a way to introduce Joomla to new people, I’m also working hard to make sure Joomla appreciates the developers we have. I believe it’s equally important to appreciate the volunteers currently involved who are giving their time to Joomla. This hard work should not go unrecognized. But to answer your question – yes, I would love to see more developers involved in Joomla. And I would love to see many others as well!”

Is there anything you would like to add to this interview?

Michael : “It’s important for Joomla to take advantage of opportunities to ‘Spread the Joomla Love’ beyond our own community.”

David: “I’m passionate about Joomla. I believe we have great things ahead of us and I believe we offer opportunities which no other community can. I’d like to say thank you to those volunteers who have done so much for Joomla and have worked so hard and given their gift of time to the Joomla community. Our community is what makes us great and our community is what makes us special.”

Thank you to David and Michael for this interview. Would you like to follow them while they are at the PHP World Conference from November 10th until 14th? Follow them on Twitter:
David Hurley: @dbhurley (https://twitter.com/dbhurley)
Michael Babker: @mbabker (https://twitter.com/mbabker)

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