Are you a young developer looking for open source projects to contribute to? So was Mohd Shahzan. He was looking for a project where he could make a meaningful contribution to something larger than himself.

"That eventually led me to the Joomla Academy, a place where I could grow not only as a developer, but also as a contributor to a globally trusted CMS."

There are several ways to contribute to Joomla: through Google Summer of Code (GSoC), the Joomla Academy, or by volunteering in a team. Mohd Shahzan, a student at Delhi Technological University in Delhi India, was one of the two first students ever to join the Joomla Academy. He always wanted to make a broader impact. "That eventually led me to Joomla Academy, a place where I could grow not only as a developer but also as a contributor to a globally trusted CMS," he says.

Open Graph Plugin: a huge difference for site owners

Mohd Shahzan joined the Joomla Academy to work on the Open Graph Plugin. He had contributed small fixes to other open source projects, but he had never worked with Joomla. "Joomla was my first large-scale, structured project," he tells us. "It was also my first time working so closely with mentors and seeing my work become part of a globally trusted CMS." Once he started exploring Joomla, he was surprised: "I realized how modular, clean, and community-driven it really is. I found a system that was much richer than I expected: multilingual support, flexible plugin and module structure, and a strong focus on extensibility. It was exciting to see how everything fit together."

What attracted him to the Open Graph Plugin project was the impact: "SEO and metadata may seem ‘invisible’, but they make a huge difference for site owners. Automating OG tags and Schema.org structured data helps Joomla websites look professional on social media and in search engines without extra work." The plugin can automatically generate meaningful metadata for you, so you don’t have to do this manually.

Constant feedback and improvement

At the moment he came in, Joomla had a basic Open Graph Plugin. "It didn’t have fallback logic and consistency yet. I joined at the point where I could enhance it with a three-level fallback system (article → category → global) and automatic metadata extraction." In this project, Mohd sees himself as both a developer and a learner. "My role was to design and implement features, but also to absorb Joomla’s best practices from my mentors and ensure that the solution was scalable and easy to maintain." In other words: not just develop something, but make sure it fits the bigger picture, and keep it simple. That was the biggest challenge: "We had to balance flexibility and simplicity. Metadata can get complicated, but we needed a system that would ‘just work’ for beginners while still giving advanced users control." Mohd overcame these challenges by working iteratively and communicating with his mentors, seeking constant feedback: "Every time we tested, we refined the approach - making sure the plugin was powerful but still intuitive. And I really appreciate how Joomla balances developer freedom with user-friendly features."

You learn so much more than just technical skills

Mohd is proud of what he contributed to Joomla: "I’m proud that my contribution makes Joomla more competitive out of the box. Site owners don’t have to struggle with metadata anymore - Joomla can now generate it automatically in a smart, structured way." He has learned a lot: "Beyond technical skills like plugin lifecycle, content parsing, and structured data, I learned how open source collaboration works: reviewing code, documenting, and contributing to a global project with real users."

Freedom, autonomy and a supportive community

And that’s the real power of contributing to open source software like Joomla. "Joomla offers freedom and autonomy," says Mohd. "You can take initiative, propose new ideas, and see them become part of a real CMS used worldwide. For young developers, that’s not just a chance to build skills - it’s a chance to make a difference." If you’re a young developer, you should definitely consider joining one of Joomla’s tech teams: "Joomla Academy gave me mentorship, real-world coding experience, and the chance to make an impact. It’s a unique environment where you don’t just code - you learn, grow, and contribute to a trusted global platform." 

Mohd found the community to be welcoming, supportive and genuinely invested in helping new contributors grow. "The Joomla community has been nothing but encouraging. From Mattermost chats to code reviews, I’ve felt supported and motivated. Even as a newcomer, I was treated as a valuable contributor," he says. "Joomla is not just a CMS - it’s a project built on openness, mentorship, and collaboration. Its architecture gives developers a lot of freedom, while the community makes you feel your contributions truly matter."

Come and join us!

Are you a young developer interested in contributing to open source software? Then we'd love to meet you!

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

1. Head over to our Mattermost channel: joom.la/chat 
2. You'll be redirected to the Joomla Identity Portal, create an account and you'll get added to the Town Square channel on Mattermost
3. 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)
4. Introduce yourself
5. Join a New to the Joomla Community Session, they're on the 15th of each month
6. We'll help you get settled in and find you a team / project to contribute to!