Community Magazine

Today I’d like to introduce Jessica Dunbar — a famous Joomla! contributor, Joomla! Production Leadership Team (PLT0 member, Joomla! marketing lead, online marketer, speaker, system administrator and a lovely mom. She is also into SEO, strategy management, start-ups development and also works for a web agency in Milwaukee. We have had a talk about Joomla!, marketing strategy and about other subjects. So, here we go!

Last October, Sarah Watz and I represented Joomla at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing at Phoenix, Arizona.  A few booths down from our position was Duke University, which was launching a Kickstarter campaign to create a card deck and poster showcasing notable women in computing throughout the ages, it was fully funded within days, eventually closing at $15,010, 500% of its target. The card decks were also sent out to over 500 educators from around the world - people backing the project could opt for a 'get one, give one' option which sent a pack to an educator in additon to them receiving their own pack - and the project has continued to grow, now including daughter projects featuring upcoming leaders in the Middle East & Africa.

February, 3rd, 2015 marks the 17th anniversary of the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

Sander Potjer, talented Dutch Joomla developer and passionate Joomla Community Leadership Team member, agreed on this interview with me for Joomla Community Magazine readers to share with them his thoughts on Joomla User Groups, his vision for newly launched Joomla Volunteer Portal, recently revamped by its team Joomla Extensions Directory, his competitive rowing schedule overlapping with JoomlaDay "season" and other Joomla related matters.

Meet Jennifer Gress, a mom, a co-author of "Using Joomla!", published in 2014, and a member of the Joomla Update Working Group and Joomla User Group Teams. Read this "no holds barred" interview and see what Jenn has to say on how she became involved with Joomla as a CMS and a community; on her highlights of 2014; on her book; on why you should migrate to J!3; on the struggles of a large Joomla User Group, and on how the world totally missed the California baby boom of the 1970's.

Peter has been working with Joomla since its beginning and is a member of the Community Leadership Team (CLT). He co-leads a web design and development agency based in Sydney, Australia and runs probably the most popular Joomla weekly podcast/videocast called Joomla Beat wherein he explores the Joomla world and gives light to talented newbies as well as talks with well-known people. Being a professional web-developer, Peter also loves working with new technologies and engineering templates, or doing strategic planning or consulting. In his spare time people may find him practicing yoga. I am glad to introduce an interview with this interesting and creative person. Enjoy!

What takes place when the marketers meet the developers? In 2014 I've watched the most incredible community come together, and we are inspired every moment along the way. Each year, we reflect, we remember challenges and we celebrate success. We celebrate the moments that connect us. Here is a glimpse of the marketing successes of 2014.

Michael Babker has been specializing in Joomla based development and contributing to Open Source for more than four years. He was an active member of the Production Leadership Team recently, and now works on CMS Joomla code as a volunteer. I was happy to ask him some questions related to technical features and the entire development process which should be interesting to read for any developer.

Joomla is a very unique Open Source project. Joomla never had a benevolent dictator or a corporate backer. There is no office building and Joomla has no paid staff. Still, Joomla has grown to be one of the most popular CMSs in the world, thanks to volunteers!

Everything started a few months ago when I posted this question on my Facebook profile page. It was amazing how many people answered my post. But, really, what do Italy and Mexico have in common? Reading this article, you will realize that they share much more than just the colours of their flags!