Anyone new to the Joomla community might be very surprised at how often Joomla users get together in real life. Besides the Joomla World Conference, there are Joomla Days all over. Coming up are Joomla Day NC (North Carolina) and Joomla Day Boston, which CNP Integrations is co-sponsoring.
Why do people who work online get together in person regularly? There are a few good reasons:
1) Better relationships with our colleagues.
Even though web professionals are used to working remotely, relationships with colleagues seem to improve when we can share a meal and get to know each other face to face. When we get home, these friendships often make working relationships easier and help us all create better websites for our clients.
2) Sharing solutions and improving Joomla software.
While we can all read blogs and attend webinars, sometimes the best learning experiences happen when an extension developer explains their newest project or when a web developer discusses experience with integrating a plugin. Partnerships and projects that may not have happened otherwise likely happen because those who use Joomla are in the same room together.
3) An opportunity to give back to the organization.
Joomla is organized by Open Source Matters (OSM), a not-for-profit organization in the United States, created to serve the financial and legal interests of the Joomla project. Governed by a board of directors, the owners of the software are truly the people who use it, a fairly unique situation in the tech industry. Getting together in real life allows Joomla users and developers to talk to the board of Directors, figure out contributions to the Joomla magazine, and how to tackle other volunteer initiatives within the non-profit. Because the work of Joomla is done by those who use it and understanding and contributing to the organization is a key component of every Joomla Day.
Anyone can go to a Joomla Day. Even if you have little experience with the Joomla project, people who attend Joomla Day events are not just people with years of experience. Some are starting out with the software or even just considering using it on their website. The great thing about the Joomla community is that it is a friendly and helpful one so you will not only find seminars geared toward beginners but you’ll also meet people at the conference happy to help you and answer questions.
Joomla Days held in real life are a valuable part of the Joomla community that allow us all to stay connected with one another, keep innovating the software, and contributing to OSM’s mission. You should come!
To see a list of past and upcoming Joomla Days: http://docs.joomla.org/Joomla!_Days/History
To learn more about the non-profit behind Joomla: http://opensourcematters.org/
What Joomla Day will we be at next? CNP Integrations will be at Joomla Day North Carolina where we will launch exclusive details about our extensive new program on effective community building solutions for Joomla CMS called the “Community Building Success Program”.
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