Joomla! Community Magazine™

Maybe you’re wondering if volunteering for Joomla is your thing. You might be uncertain about your English or your knowledge, or about what would be expected in terms of commitment and time. I get that. I was really hesitant about all these things myself. But I did it anyway, I found a team that suits me, started working, and soon discovered that volunteering can be rewarding in ways I had never expected. And I’m not the only one: in this article, five Joomlers tell us what volunteering brings for them! 

Four years have passed since our last encounter at JoomlaDay Madrid 2019. The enthusiasm for reuniting with old friends, meeting new people, and exchanging the latest insights into Joomla and web development was tangible. This is how this JoomlaDay ES 2023 went.

After our special showcase article for Joomla’s 18th birthday last month, we got messages from more Joomla-enthusiasts willing to show their work in the Joomla Community Magazine. Check out these websites, all built with love, passion, craftsmanship and Joomla! 

Joomla is a technical and serious thing, we admit, but we spend a lot of time on it, and it ends up taking up a lot of space in our lives.

As a result, our relationship with Joomla becomes philosophical, even metaphysical... 

After a few years of no Dutch JoomlaDays, it was finally time again!
On Friday 12 and Saturday 13 May 2023, the Joomla Netherlands Foundation organized the JoomlaDagen for the 15th time. The ROC in Tilburg (a school focused on IT education) was our host for this edition. We have been given three rooms to organize the sessions in, in addition to the general room where the canteen was also located.

JoomlaDayUSA, in its third year, was finally able to meet in person. The conference was held entirely virtual for the first two years - which was a challenge in and of itself. 2023's conference, held in Austin, Texas, was also attended worldwide in a hybrid format. This statement screams success to those who took an idea and brought it to life four years ago.

FOSS Backstage is an annual conference in Berlin that is all about the behind-the-scenes work at open source projects, from community management to leadership. Robert Deutz, Sigrid Gramlinger, Jules Weigel, and I were lucky to attend on March 13th and 14th on behalf of Joomla. We all learned a lot from the diverse and engaging sessions, all of which were recorded and are freely available. Here are some of my top takeaways from the two days of learning and networking!

There are events, people, that illustrate the international and building side of Joomla.
Olivier Buisard of Simplifyyourweb grew up in France but his career path brought him closer to Open Source Matters' headquarters. Since then, he has lived in New York, but still has ties to his home country.

When I say that a webpage speaks a lot about its owner, be it a company, a government agency, a project or a person, I am not talking about its contents and layout. I am referring to many things that become explicit when approaching the process of crafting a page for any of them.

After several long years of virtual-only or very few Joomla! Events, our community has come back strong! Our Joomla User Groups are getting back together both virtually and in person. Event committees have been collaborating to start again with Joomla Day events, Joomla Camp events, and other creative events. Some events are in person, others are virtual. We are in a new world where we can give each other hugs and collaborate from across the ponds! Let’s highlight three great events: one ongoing, two coming up.