According to Wikipedia, “Joomla!” is the Romanized spelling of the Swahili word jumla meaning “all together” or “as a whole”. The very definition of Joomla! invokes a sense of community; and what a diverse and talented community we are! We span the globe, our skill sets range from development to design, from coding to communication. We are multilingual, multinational and multicultural. And, we are volunteers.

The greatest joy in volunteering is meeting new people who share your interests and passions. The opportunity for learning and growth is unlimited, the rewards and satisfaction of being involved, infinite.

With that in mind, in Featured Stories this month we introduce you to The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD). The UNCSD Communications and Outreach Cluster has chosen Joomla! as the content management system for their website. The timing for this was kismet, as two of our JCM volunteers, Cristina Solana and Babs Gösgen had recently brought it up in the JCM chat. Not too long afterwards, OSM President Ryan Osimek was contacted by the UNCSD and the seed was planted. Now it needs nurturing. We are reaching out to the Joomla! community for volunteers who would like to be involved in the planning and development of their website. The article, “How you can help change the world!” will give you more information about the project, including deadlines, details and a contact form.

Our International Section chicas, Alice Grevet and Cristina Solana, had a little tête-à-tête and are pleased to introduce a new tab in the horizontal nav bar called "International". Clicking on it takes you to a page showing all active language categories with articles in "Current Articles" on the right, and a list of language categories under the illustration inviting article submissions. We encourage our international community to submit articles in your language!

For those of you who are close to the Joomla! community, you will know that it has been a whirlwind month. The OSM Board welcomed a few new members; the JED has surpassed 6000 extensions and grows everyday, PLT, CLT, JUGs, bugs and mugs... the list goes on. When Joomla! volunteers come together, the end result is something to be proud of! We can be all things under the sun!

In my own realm, I’d like to thank JCM Lead Editor, Paul Orwig, for being an exceptional leader, and for encouraging all those around him to do their best. His faith in his colleagues really shines through. Last month, he asked me to step in and fill his shoes while he was busy at J-Day West. This month, he passed me the pro tem Joomla! pen and said go for it!

So, here goes...

In this issue:

A special thanks to the members of the Joomla! community who are contributing authors in this month's issue: Michael Babker, Lars Eggert, Mike Hamanaka, Theophanis Mastakas and Phehello Mofokeng.

Feature stories

• The Joomla! project is proud to announce How you can help change the world!, a unique opportunity for you and other members of the Joomla! community to work hand-in-hand with the United Nations to help change the world!
• Buzz words defined as only Arlen Walker can! Small Talk is a must read!
• Matt Lipscomb brings us Insights From: The Official Joomla! Book (Part 1)
• Lars Eggert reads our mind and assists us with Converting a client's thoughts - or how to analyse, plan and project.

The Joomla! Haiku: Share yours!

• Prolific poets,
  punsters and word masters too,
  spread the Joomla! love...
  Post your November 2010 Haiku here!

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 17 different languages.
• Shizzle my nizzle, crocodizzle! Marcus Tullius Cicero is back, gangsta style!

Leadership Connections

• Community Leadership Team: Paul Orwig introduces us to Global Forum Moderator Olaf Offick.
• OSM board member Steve Burge shares some of the work that OSM has been doing during October on behalf of the Joomla! project.
• Matt Lipscomb takes us behind the scenes at Joomla! Day West 2010: The 2010 Video Interviews - Part 1

Website Case Studies

• Robert Vining brings us to Zuno Studios' Maribel Lackey, Director of New Media & Client Services to ask her about a recent site build they just completed: Women's Refugee Commission.
• Keeping it on the African continent, and welcoming Joomla! community contributor, Phehello Mofokeng, we learn how the Dihlabeng Local Municipality embraces the positive and strong traits of Joomla! and rebrands their website.

Extensions and Services Evaluations

• Team EaSE takes a look at five easy-to-use options that will help you quickly offer eCommerce on your Joomla! web site.
• Miljan Vujosevic demonstrates methods for boosting your image SEO.

Developers Workbench

• In this month's The Joomla! Setup, Arlen Walker takes us to the Big Easy with an interview of art and renaissance progeny, Louis Landry.

Did you know…?

• Nicholas G. Antimisiaris explains field logic and giving your users the ability to show/embed their YouTube playlist in their user profile.
• More video know-how from Milena Mitova who shows us How to add a video library to your site in 6 easy steps.

Designer's studio

• Joomla! Site Showcase volunteer moderator, Mike Hamanaka writes about Culture, Community, and Design.
• Michael Babker shares his thoughts on Planning and Doing a Site Redesign.

Administrator's toolkit

• Community contributor Theophanis Mastakas gives us some sound advice on website security.

Joomla! in the Press/Media

• Mark Bender bring us Joomla! in the Press/Media — November 2010

On the lighter side...

• Yepr has contributed another Jane Beyond and 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!