Before I got my current job as Coordinator Communications & Digital, I ran my own company for 25 years. The first 15 years I was a writer / editor / journalist / writing coach. 

In 2009 I started working with Joomla, not knowing anything about webdesign. I joined a JUG in 2012, two months later I was co-organizer :) (and stayed co-organizer for about five years).

I loved working with Joomla so much that I started projects, just to be able to create a website for them. That's when I thought: hey, maybe it's time for a career switch. In 2014 I decided to go pro with Joomla and switch to webdesign instead of writing. 

Volunteer work

I already mentioned the JUG. After that I did a number of other things over the years:

  • Writer: I wrote articles about Joomla in a Dutch webdesigner magazine.
  • Speaker at JUGs and JoomlaDays.
  • Member of the Dutch JoomlaDagen team for three years.
  • Member of the team that organized all three editions of Joostock (a Joomlacamp/unconference event).
  • Editor of the Dutch Joomla web agency brochure, a brochure webdesigners can use to convince their potential clients that Joomla is the right choice for them.

In 2020 I've started contributing to the Joomla Community Magazine, first as an author, and since 2022 I'm Team Leader of the wonderful Joomla Community Magazine Team. 

Why I contribute to Joomla

To many people Joomla is just a tool. But if you look a little closer, you'll notice it's much more than that. It's a living system, raised and nourished by a community of volunteers dedicating their time to make it the best CMS ever. Without volunteers, Joomla wouldn't exist. It's not 'just a product'. Everyone who uses Joomla, can do so because someone, somewhere, contributed to it. I want to give back to the community that keeps Joomla alive.

And, probably needless to say: I love being part of that community. 

Contributing to Joomla by volunteering brought me so much: valuable experience, more knowledge and a better understanding of Joomla and its community, and the opportunity to work together with a crowd of lovely people all over the world.

Joomla and the EU Cyber Resilience Act

2023---JCM-August-EU1

You may have heard of it already: the EU is preparing its Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), a European law about hardware and software. This CRA is coming our way, and it affects Joomla and other open source software. 

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Get inspired! 18 Joomlers share 18 Joomla 4 sites

2023---JCM-August-18-J4-Sites

It’s that time of the year again: we’re celebrating Joomla’s birthday. August 17, Joomla turned 18. For this special birthday edition article, we’ve asked Joomlers from all over the world to share with us one Joomla 4 website they’re particularly proud of. The result? See for yourself: a wonderful variety from blog to business, from shop to business directory and from government to community. All built with love… and Joomla!

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Be part of Joomla's Leadership

2023-June-Leadership-needed

Twice a year it’s election time in the JoomlaSphere! This time, four board positions will be open for election. Some of these officers may run for another term in their position, others won’t. Are you wondering how you can help push Joomla forward, and/or do you have ideas for that? Find out how you can become a candidate for Joomla’s Board of Directors, and which positions are up for election!

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Explore the Core: How to easily embed videos in your Joomla Articles

June-Videos

Joomla has built-in functionality for embedding videos from, for example, YouTube or Vimeo or any other platform that provides embed codes. You don’t have to install anything for this; all you need is a little preparation.

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Books about Joomla 4: start reading!

May-Books

If you want to learn more about Joomla, you have the Joomla documentation, tutorials (written ones, like the ones in the Joomla Community Magazine, and video tutorials), or you can ask questions in the forum, on social media, in the Joomla Improvers channel on Mattermost or on StackExchange. But, people, nothing beats a book. Yes, a book. With pages, and all the information nicely structured in chapters and paragraphs. Are you looking for books about Joomla 4? We hear you: here’s a list of books! For beginners, experienced users, and developers. Start reading!

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Joomla at the Cloudfest Hackathon 2023: multidomain solution

April-Hackathon

The CloudFest Hackathon is an annual event in Rust (Germany) that brings together developers, designers, and open source enthusiasts from around the world. They collaborate and innovate on various projects, aiming to create cutting-edge solutions that address different challenges in the world of web hosting and content management systems. Like last year, a team worked on a new core Joomla feature: a multidomain solution. In this interview, Elisa Foltyn and Timo Feuerstein tell us what happened. 

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Leadership interview: Crystal Dionysopoulos

April-Crystal

At the moment of writing (mid April 2023), Crystal Dionysopoulos has survived her first few weeks as President of the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters (the organisation that powers Joomla). We at the JCM are very curious about our new president: what is she like, what will she bring and how can we all help her move Joomla forward?

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Leadership interview: Luca Marzo

April-Luca

If anyone knows from personal experience what it’s like to be on the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters (the organisation powering Joomla), it would be Luca Marzo. He recently started his seventh term as Secretary of the Board, elected by us, the people of Joomla. After six terms on the Board, is there still any fun left? And what makes a good Board? Read and find out!

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Submitting your article(s) to the Joomla Community Magazine

2023-March-JCM

In our previous article about writing for the Joomla Community Magazine we explained how you can create an account on the JCM, the two ways you can write (submit directly or share a Google doc first) and, very briefly, how to submit your article. In this article we show you how to do that step by step.

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Capital Team: show me the money!

2023-February-Capital-Team

"We should do an article about our Capital Team," Luca Marzo said during the kick-off meeting for this issue. "Should be pretty easy to write as it will be very short," one of the authors present responded. He was right, and that was exactly the point: at the moment we don't have a Capital Team, but we need one. And if money is totally your thing, we need you to be in it.

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