We've mentioned how Joomla! is being regularly picked up by mainstream media. Most recently, it has been discovered by Information Week scribe, Alexander Wolfe.
In the article, Wolfe touches on the emblematic signature that has drawn so many users to Joomla! His experience — no different to millions of noobs — was one of discovery. Discovery of ease-of-use and power. Power in simplicity in a content management system (CMS), probably best describes his overall experience.
Joomla Rocks!
Indeed, his headline "Joomla Rocks, or How to Build a Professional Web Site for No Money Down" speaks volumes about his summary. He goes on to say: "Joomla is technically an open source content management system (CMS), but it's much for than that. For those of us who've been conditioned to think that running a Web site means you're locked into a hard-to-change, difficult-to-use platform, working with Joomla is a real eye-opener."
Awesome Possibilities
And: "Playing around with Joomla made the awesome possibilities of Web 2.0 really come alive for me, for the first time. (It was also a heck of a lot of fun.) Here's what I threw together, in not too many hours of playing: Go to alexwolfe.net/joomla".
What is particularly interesting is Wolfe is actually waxing lyrical about an old Joomla 1.0+ installation. It appears he's yet to taste the delights of the new refactored Joomla 1.5. One wonders what superlatives he would have revealed had he tried the more powerful and user-friendly 1.5 version.
King of Open Source
Johan's recent post about Joomla! download statistics illustrates the market penetration of this "king" of open source projects. With the project fast approaching downloads of half a million per month, it's no wonder there is such strong demand for delivery of quality third party extensions, training and support.
It's a curious thing, this Joomla! phenomena. Pundits like Wolfe are regularly commenting about it in a tone that more often than not acknowledges its maturity to a point where it is viewed as a pillar among all its peers.
Word of Mouth
On that point we'd tend to agree. However its success is more about the organic word-of-mouth marketing by community members sharing experiences, frustrations and finding solutions. The viral nature of GNU/GPL software has indeed proved it can have mainstream momentum and attract the considered attention of a mainstream pundit such as Wolfe — and with him enjoying the experience to boot.
It's always amazing to hear the excitement openly expressed by so many first-time-users upon launching their first Joomla! website. And, I hope it further emboldens the spirit of those valuable contributors who donate their time and make the software freely available.
