Archive of author
I took the opportunity this week to revisit one of my most popular podcasts on Joomla! Juice!, by contacting Joomla! guru Chris Szabo. Chris, who owns Navega Bem Web Design, lives on the idyllic sub-tropical Portuguese island of Madeira. In this video, I talk to Chris about his adoption of Joomla! 1.5, e-commerce and real estate implementations of Joomla! 1.5.
High Resolution Flash here. You can receive further podcasts and videocasts automatically through iTunes by subscribing here. Note: we’ve re-optimised the source video due to some audio issues.
Our friends at Packt have announced their 2008 Open Source Content Management System Awards. As you may know, Joomla! has performed extremely well in previous years, taking out several prestigious awards. Nominations open on July 14.
Last year, Joomla! took out the “Best Open Source PHP CMS”. Drupal won the overall award. However, last year Joomla’s fabulous 1.5 version was still in beta and not necessarily on the judge’s radar. The new framework could very well take J! over the line for 2008.
Packt says: “The format for the 2008 Award remains the same, with the addition of a new category, which will replace Open Source Social Networking. This exciting new category is for MVPs at Open Source Content Management Systems. This will recognise the contributions to projects made by individuals that often go unnoticed. For the large majority of Open Source projects, it is the tireless contributions from enthusiastic individuals that enable its growth and adoption and these are the people that Packt feels is necessary to identify. MVPs will be nominated by their projects and will be announced during the final week, with features on the MVPs for the Content Management Systems that won their categories.”
The full timetable is as follows:
For full details of the 2008 Open Source CMS Award, please visit the website: www.PacktPub.com/Award
The prize fund for the Award remains at a total of $20,000. The money from the Social Networking Award will be distributed to the Best PHP and Best Other CMS categories, with the projects finishing in second and third collecting $500.
Keep your eyes on the Packt site and make sure you vote!
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Joomlatools is delighted to announce a third founding member of Joomla! is joining our team. Shayne Bartlett, a New Zealander who hails from Albany, Australia, brings a wealth of experience in all things Joomla! and global contacts in the web industry. Apart from his amazing contribution to Joomla! as a core member as Project Manager and a board member of Open Source Matters, Shayne was a Mambo project core team member too.
Shayne brings the ever-popular newsletter extension for Joomla!, Letterman. Letterman, which was originally developed by Sören Eberharter (of Virtue Mart fame), is very close to release its 1.5 native incarnation — Letterman2.
Shayne says he believes the addition of Letterman2 to the Joomlatools suite further demonstrates our commitment to providing some of the most professional code to the Joomla! marketplace.
“I’m really excited to be part of the Joomlatools team,” he said. “There is no doubting the massive contributions made by Joomla’s principal architect, Johan Janssens and marketing / media guru Pete Russell. They and fellow Joomlatools founders Mathias Verraes and Laurens Vanderput exemplify what open source is all about … the quality code, professionalism and fun just about says it all!”
Shayne, a Kiwi (New Zealander) is engaged to be married early in 2009 with two step children and a two year old son. He is also director of Ramped Technology, a leading Western Australian network management company. You could say he’s always busy and we’re delighted he’s found some time to share with Joomlatools.
