Joomler in Focus is a new collumn in Joomla! Community Magazine where volunteers who contribute to the Joomla! Project will be introduced to our readers. We expect to show some of the faces from Joomla around the world who make Joomla happen each and everyday. Our first guest is Marco Richter. Enjoy his interview!

Where are you from?

I’m Dutch (born in the Netherlands, Groningen) but have lived in Germany for 11 years already.

Where do you live?

I live in Bremen. A city with approximately 550.000 citizens in the north of Germany.

What do you do for a living?

I have two jobs actually. I and a partner run a company that provides online solutions. We develop and maintain websites and webshops (Joomla! and Magento), corporate networks, servers, cloud solutions, workstations, along with a lot of other technical stuff.

Besides that I am a manager in a PSAP - Public Safety Answering Point.

How long do you know Joomla?

I have known and worked with Joomla since its release in 2005.

How did you start contributing to the Joomla Project?

About 11 years ago I started playing around with Mambo. At first I searched for help mainly on the forums, then I got stuck. As time passed by and I got more advanced, I noticed I liked giving it back to the community as well. I started answering questions on forums more and more. This progressed to me being a moderator on at Dutch Mambo forum, that later turned into a Joomla!forum.

With some fellow team members we decided to start a brand new community (and forum) called http://www.joomlacommunity.eu. I have been active in this Dutch Community ever since and have a leading role in the foundation that supports and operates this community.

How are you currently contributing to the Joomla Project?

At this moment, I am the financial officer at Stichting Sympathy and member of the team that organizes the well known Joomla!dagen (Dutch Joomladays). I contribute managing budget, contracts and the finances.

Also, since 2014, I am a member of the Joomla! Trademark Team. And the end of 2015 I became team leader. At this moment we are restructuring the team and the tasks that involved. A thank you to all contributing team members!

How to contact you if interested in contributing in your area of the Project?

You can email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Skype: spirit26.

How Joomla has affected you and your life?

Joomla changed both my personal life and my business. As mentioned before, I partially make my money developing and maintaining client websites with Joomla. More important is that I got to meet so many kind and interesting people while being involved with Joomla. Some of them have become good friends!

Any last words to the Joomla community?

As we are organizing the next edition as we speak, I take the opportunity to sell some tickets as well ;-) Come to Zeist in the Netherlands and join us on the Joomla!dagen which will be held from April 15th to April 17th. Check http://www.joomladagen.nl for more information.