Here are some interesting Joomla blog posts I found during week 45, 2013:
- A New Lick of Paint
- Is Joomla Really Easy?
- Joomla Event Team Meeting Minutes for December 15, 2013
- Marketing Team Leadership Announcement
- Joomla Takes a Holiday
- Call for Nominations for Trademark Team Manager
- The JED Terms of Service Updated
- Sneak Peek of the New RocketTheme Site
- DOCman 2 gets a responsive design
- Josetta® 2.2.1 released
Written by Brian Teeman
2013 was a very quiet year for this blog but that is all changing in 2014.
Just because I was quiet here didn't mean I was quiet in the Joomla world, (do you really think I can ever be quiet?), as I tried to contribute in many new ways. For me some of those were successful others less so.
I have learnt new skills which I hope will I will be able to continue to improve. I definitely understand more code now than I ever did before and one day I will be able to completely stop asking friends for help.
So what's happening now?
This blog was created originally as my place on the net to freely express my opinions and views. Sometimes that got me into trouble, sometimes it fell on deaf ears and perhaps that contributed to my lack of desire to blog last year.
Written by Brian Teeman
Ask a Joomla web site builder why they use Joomla and the answer will most likely include "Joomla is easy, anyone can use it and you can have a site online in 5 minutes." But that's not really true.
Saying something is "easy" is a relative statement. Sure, building a web site with Joomla is easier than building a rocket to orbit the earth, but it is definitely not as easy as boiling an egg. Joomla is easy for me, and probably most of you, because you have done your research, read some documentation, watched some tutorials and most importantly have several years of experience.
So when we say "Joomla is easy" what do we really mean and are we setting the expectation for newcomers to Joomla at completely the wrong level?
We've got our marketing wrong!
Joomla is too easy!
We have made Joomla easy enough for people who really don't have a clue what they are doing to build a web site. We give them the impression that they know what they are doing when we all know they really don’t.
Joomla Event Team Meeting Minutes for December 15, 2013
Written by Radek Suski
The Joomla Events Team held a meeting on December 15, 2013. At this meeting the team discussed the goals for 2014 and also identified several areas that could be improved and potential solutions.
Attendees at this meeting were: Radek Suski, Mike Carson, Dianne Henning, Sigrid Suski, and Saurabh Shah
The new goals identified for 2014 are as follows:
- Event organizer downloadable resource area on events website
- Provide print ready documents, images, and banners for promoting Joomla at events
- Increase Joomla promotion at non-Joomla 3rd party events
- Increase number of Joomla!Day events in 2014
- Increase the financial support for JoomlaDay™ events
- Official Joomla Developer ConferencEvents.joomla.org website improvements
Marketing Team Leadership Announcement
Written by Ruth Cheesley
The Marketing Working Group (MWG) is pleased to announce the addition of new team members.
The primary focus of the Marketing Working Group (MWG) is to raise awareness of the Joomla Content Management System (CMS) and Framework within the international Joomla community, as well as the general open source community.
In December we announced that we were seeking nominations from the community for new members to join the Marketing Working Group. The original article can be accessed here: http://community.joomla.org/blogs/community/1786-call-for-marketing-working-group-members.html
We are pleased to announce that Jess Dunbar will be leading the Marketing Working Group, which is formed of the following members:
Jess Dunbar - Team Lead
Jess will coordinate and delegate the responsibilities of the Marketing working group team.
She will oversee the day-to-day functions of the Marketing Team. She will focus on motivating the marketing team and maintain a comfortable and productive team environment.
Written by The Joomla Project
Appreciation and Recognition
This is not the official end of the year summary. So don’t look for detailed reports of what’s been accomplished. Instead, as we approach the end of another incredible year, we want to take a moment and say a very heartfelt “Thank you!”. This has been one of our most exciting years ever and we’ve seen so many outstanding things happen. And everyone deserves to feel the satisfaction of a job well done. So please accept our deepest appreciation for everything you’ve done.
Details of the Holiday / Date of Return
Here’s the bottom line.
Starting at 12:01AM (UTC) Saturday, 21 December 2013, until 12:01AM (UTC) 02 January 2014,
Joomla is taking a holiday. This means that no official decisions will be announced, no major changes will take place, and no one is under any obligation to respond in a timely manner to any request. We know, this sounds crazy and how could anyone live in the real world, interacting with real people instead of spending hours in front of a computer screen staring at another email thread. It’s true. Joomla is more than software, more than a community, and as such, we understand there are some things of greater importance than discussions about code. (Some things...but not many).
Call for Nominations for Trademark Team Manager
Written by Jacques Rentzke
Open Source Matters (OSM) has, as one of its main responsibilities, the managing and protection of the Joomla!® trademarks.
OSM is looking for a new Trademark Team Manager.Joomla! logo
The Team Manager will be responsible for:
- Managing the Trademark team's day-to-day activities
- Adding new team members
- Assigning of responsibilities and tasks
- Reviewing and implementing new workflows
- Managing the Helpdesk software
- Creating systems for storing and retrieving records
- Reporting to the OSM Board
- Assisting with review of current Trademark rules and information
- Assisting with updating of current assets (logos, badges, style guidelines)
The JED Terms of Service Updated
Written by Matthew Baylor
The Joomla! Extensions Directory Team is please to announce that the Terms of Service has been updated and will take effect February 1, 2014.
Summary of Changes
4.1.d We will be removing Translations and Tools that do not use the Joomla installer (excluding extension specific extensions).
4.1.e We've integrated the JED Submission Checklists.
4.4 We have changed the distribution models from "Commercial" and "Non-Commercial" to "Free" and "Paid".
Changing distribution models in either direction will result in the loss of reviews/votes.
Extensions that require any form of payment, trade or connect to a commercial service that requires a payment to function will need to be listed as "Paid".
Sneak Peek of the New RocketTheme Site
Written by Ryan Pierson
RocketTheme is in the midst of doing a complete overhaul on its entire website. This means new tools, easier access to existing features, and more.
Many of these new features were recommended by our community through forum posts, email, and other feedback we have received over the years. It is our hope that these changes will make it easier than ever to get the most out of your RocketTheme purchases.
In this article, we will detail some of the highlights of the new site and how these current and new features can add more value to your experience with RocketTheme.
DOCman 2 gets a responsive design
Written by Johan Janssens
Back in 2012 it was predicted that 2013 would be the year of mobile devices. More than 50% of the web would be viewed with a mobile device. Therefore it was smart to make sure your website was viewable on mobile.
Now 2013 has come and gone we can see in our statistics that “desktop” machines are still on the winning side. However we can also see that the “mobile” side is gaining weight, on some sites growing with more than 10%.
Time for DOCman to join in and implement a complete responsive design. Here is an overview of the changes we are working on.
Written by Ron van Schaik
Today we announce the immediate availability of Josetta® 2.2.1 build 567, which is fully compatible with Joomla! 2.5, 3.1 and 3.2!
This is a maintenance release.
Release notes: Most notably this realease introducing one-click update through Joomla! installer for Community version! in addition to minor CSS and ACL changes.
URGENT: This is a required update before upgrading Joomla! to 3.2!
Joomla! 3.2 has some changes that break backward compatibility. You MUST UPDATE Josetta® first, before any attempt to upgrade Joomla! to 3.2. Failing to upgrade Josetta® first may results in a broken web site. If you experience a white screen or errors, please read the Josetta® FAQ for recovery instructions.
