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.

Getting extensions ready for Joomla 4 - Steve Burge (Joomlashack)

July-Joomlashack

Joomla 4 stable is coming closer every day! If you have been around since Joomla 2.5, or even 1.5 or 1.0, you may remember upgrading as a difficult process, mainly caused by extensions not being ready for the new major version. With Joomla 4 on the way, the JCM asks extension developers what’s going to happen with their extension(s). Joomlashack has been around from the very beginning of Joomla, so if anyone knows what to do when a new major version comes out, it’s them! This month we had the pleasure of talking to Joomlashack’s CEO Steve Burge, who is pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of Joomla 4.

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How I learned Joomla - Darek Śnieg

July-Darek

Darek Śnieg is the Support Team Lead at Cloudaccess.net, the hosting company where you can launch your own joomla.com website for free. The first Joomla website he made was for an organization of former career soldiers. This was ‘a lot of fun, but also quite a challenge’, that required some creativity and some inventive moves. Darek would advise everyone who needs more than a business card website to choose Joomla: “You’ll thank me later.”

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Leadership interview: Philip Walton, Marketing & Communications DC

June-Philip A picture of Philip Walton

Listen, understand and help solve the existing problems: that’s what Philip Walton planned to do once he got elected as Joomla’s new Marketing and Communications Department Coordinator (and had started doing already in the weeks before). JCM had the pleasure of interviewing this highly committed brand new DC, who is, according to his Manifesto, happy to roll up his sleeves and get on with the job - but he may need you and me and a couple of others to become a ‘unified force’ and really get the job done.

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Getting extensions ready for Joomla 4 - Nicolas Claverie (Hikashop)

June-Hikashop

As you may have noticed (and who wouldn’t): Joomla 4 Release Candidate is out! Extension developers have been working hard on making their extensions compatible. This month Nicolas Claverie talks with us about getting their Joomla e-commerce solutions HikaShop, HikaSerial and HikaMarket ready to run smoothly with Joomla 4.

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How I learned Joomla - Rachel Walraven

How I learned Joomla - Rachel Walraven

Before Rachel Walraven decided to build websites for a living, she explored several other career options, all very non-tech. When she made her first website, she knew next to nothing about web development.

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What type of Joomler are you?

What type of Joomler are you?

When you hover around in the Joomla Sphere long enough, you’ll see that, like every community, it comes with its own personality types. In this article, you’ll meet a few of them. And if you recognise yourself in one (or more) of these Joomlers, we also advise you on what role you could play in the Joomniverse. Have fun finding your personality type!

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Getting extensions ready for Joomla 4 - Rüdiger Schultz (JDBExport)

May-JDBExport

With Joomla 4 coming closer, we know that extension developers are working hard to get their extensions compatible with Joomla 4, so you will have a seamless migration once the stable version of Joomla 4 is out. Over the last few months, several extension developers told us where they are in this process and what to expect from them. This month we had the pleasure to interview Rüdiger Schultz, who became an extension developer by coincidence but is now the man behind several interesting extensions.

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Getting extensions ready for Joomla 4 - Sander Potjer (PWT Extensions)

May-PWT

You probably know by now: Joomla 4, our next major version, is on the way. Over the past few months, many extension developers have been working hard to get their extensions ready for Joomla 4 and make the migration as smooth as possible. In previous issues of the Joomla Community Magazine, we interviewed various extension developers: small ones, big ones, famous ones and not-so-famous ones. This month we talked to Sander Potjer at PWT Extensions.

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How I learned Joomla - Abhishek Das

May-AbhishekDas

When Abhishek Das was looking for a more dynamic way to manage his blog website, he tried several content management systems. He chose Joomla because of its flexibility. Abhishek wasn’t trained as a web developer (he studied mechanical engineering), but after his first website, he started developing extensions nevertheless and learned programming during the process.

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Getting extensions ready for Joomla 4 - Tassos Marinos

April-Tassos-Marinos

If you’ve ever migrated your website from one major version to another, for instance from 1.5 to 2.5 or from 2.5 to 3, you may have experienced difficulties with extensions not being fully compatible. So with Joomla 4 on the way, you might want to know if your extensions will be ready on time. That is why your Joomla Community Magazine asks the developers! This month, we interviewed Tassos Marinos who guaranteed us his extensions are 100% compatible already.

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