Joomla! Community Magazine™

For three days in May, Joomla! lovers are invited to come to Chicago for the 6th annual CMS Expo Learning and Business Conference. Every conference has featured a full schedule of Joomla learning sessions, and 2012 will carry on that proud tradition! What started in 2008 as a conference for lovers of Joomla CMS has grown for the past four years into a full-blown conference for the entire CMS Community.

Farsi, Dutch, French, English. Those are all languages you will hear at JoomlaDay events this month when local communities come together to share and learn Joomla!

Alone, you can do everything except the greatest thing. Alone, you can build a simple house but not a palace. The situation is the same with Joomla: you can't do anything marvellous without the help of others. That's where Joomla Groups come in. If you are an experienced Joomla developer or just have intention to put your wet foot in the field, I'm sure there are more you want to investigate about this growing community.

2012 is now well underway, and for the month of March 2012, there's four JoomlaDay events to look forward to. As someone who lives at the Southern tip of Africa, I'm happy to see two events from African countries among these! Here's the roundup for this month:

Spring is nearly here and that can mean only one thing — it’s J!OSCAR season! At J and Beyond — the developer conference held annually in Europe — the Joomla Open Source Creative and Artistic Recognition awards are given to the very best talent in the Joomla community. Today I am proud to announce that nominations for the 2012 J!OSCARs are now open and I encourage you all visit the J and Beyond web site to complete the nomination form.

In February 2012, people will be learning about Joomla! from Bangkok to Guatemala City!

On December 3, 2011 the Joomla! Day LA was held at the Microsoft offices in downtown Los Angeles. Based upon the modes of transportation used by the attendees, it was Joomla’s version of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”.  Several people flew into LA to attend/speak. I personally drove to the nearest MetroLink Train station, rode the MetroLink train to Union Station, then walked the last mile to the event.

- Or how Michael Met Joomla.

It happened in the days of the last weekend of October 2011. People had journeyed from around the globe and throughout the country to attend this recurring yearly event. The event would by many locals be thought of as the one weekend a year that could even measure up with Christmas itself – and this year the expected attendance numbers would climb over 200, although it was only the 2^nd time the event was actually held (and thus the event became recurring).

Joomla User Groups (JUGs) are one of the best ways to get involved in the Joomla community without eye strain. Meetings can take various formats and includes members from developers and  administrators, to those who only know how add an article.

2011 has been a very active year for the International Joomla community.