Joomla! Community Magazine™

"What is Joomla!?" , "Learning Joomla!, is it hard?", "Mastering Joomla!, how long does it take?" — They seem to be the FAQs of all Joomla! users, at whatever stage — beginners, beginner plus or advanced users. How do you get them answered?

Due to its simplicity, ease-of-use, scalability and popularity, Joomla! CMS seems to be gaining some ground in South African government. Despite having immense human resources and skill in Joomla! CMS, our government’s willingness to adopt this popular CMS has been a bit slow.

A new version of Joomla! always attracts new people to Joomla!. Therefore it is very important to embrace beginners. Sometimes they are very experienced in cms related stuff, sometimes not. After the launch of Joomla! 1.7 on July 19th, it was time for a new Joomla! 1.7 - Beginner's Guide.

*On August 9, the name for the January 2012 Joomla release changed from Joomla 1.8 to 2.5.

Joomla's release schedule has been described in its development strategy, and much analysis has been put forth as to whether one should upgrade websites or not to the next version of software.

I have been part of the Joomla! Community Magazine team for an year now, and it has been a very rewarding and inspiring experience, not to mention the many new things I’ve learned and the wonderful people I have met as a result of my participation in the project.

So I thought it would be a good idea to give you my five great reasons for being a JCM writer, hoping that this quick list would help those interested in contributing to the magazine make a more informed decision and hopefully join us soon. So here goes…

I (along with Sandra Warren from the Community Leadership Team) was given the distinct privilege to represent the Joomla! project at this year's Community Leadership Summit in Portland, Oregon on July 23rd and 24th. It was a great opportunity to meet other people from around the world who are all passionate about serving their open source communities and learn from their experiences.  

I write this from San Jose following the third and closing day of the Joomla! Leadership Summit. This has been an incredible few days, not only for meeting fellow leadership team members, but also for discussing and making concrete plans for pushing the project forward.

Volunteering to help with Joomla! is fun! Check here for listings of current volunteer openings throughout the Joomla! project that have been posted in the "Help wanted in the community” forum.

Here is an easy and fun way for you to share your feelings about Joomla! with the rest of the community: Simply write a haiku about Joomla! below in the comments area of this month's page. Be sure to check back here to read the haikus submitted by other members of the community. We will have a page for new haikus in every upcoming JCM issue.

As I stand here, staring down the corridor of endless possibilities for interfaces and user experiences, I must report that I can see the future and it looks good. Joomla’s administrator template system has come quite a long way.

Since the release of Joomla 1.6, back in January 2011, Joomla started to use a new development strategy.

Never afraid of a challenge, a team of dedicated Joomla! Developers decided to document how Joomla! has conquered the world. The result is joomlagov.info, which lists Joomla! powered government websites across the globe. In this case study, the creators share their plan for world domination - and how the site was built.