Paul has wanted to become more involved with supporting Joomla! as a direct result of how much both the software and the community have helped him and in turn the users of websites he has developed. He also has wanted to follow the great example which has been set by so many others who have freely given of their time to make Joomla! such a successful open source CMS.

Airton started developing small personal websites in 2005 while learning HTML and CSS. When his older brother asked him, in 2007, to create a web site for a Soar Flight Club he was a member of, Airton started looking for a CMS and found Joomla. After setting the web site up, he started to use the community forums to get help and was soon giving back to the community, sharing the little knowledge he had gathered so far.

The other day we passed our 10 million downloads on JoomlaCode for Joomla! which is a phenomenal mark. Considering that JoomlaCode is just under two and a half years old that isn't a bad effort. JoomlaCode has turned into a great environment for supporting not only Joomla!'s own development but also Joomla!'s free extension community. Every developer from our community has access to the exact same tools that we on the project use to build Joomla! which I think is pretty cool. But shifting nearly 3 terabytes worth of data each month doesn't happen without a few key people.

Over the last few months we've been having some changes around the development team and how things are working. We've got a few changes coming up, but I'll start with the people changes that are happening.

The Joomla Project is currently looking for volunteers to act as webmaster for our community.joomla.org site. 

Background:

This particular website is one of our newer, but also growing sites. We feel it's success is also linked to the successful growing and maintaining of the Joomla Community as a whole. Currently the site is maintained by a few capable people, but we feel having an injection of fresh blood into the mix may be just the thing needed to keep this sites growth on track.

It should be noted that we already have a number of responsible people adding information and maintaining parts of this site already. For example, the Translation section of this site is maintained by the Translation WG.

Duties will include (but not limited to):

• Assuming overall management of the users that are given access to this site.
• Working closely with other parts of the project to supply 'space' on this site as the need arises.
• Liaising with members of the Development Team if/when certain parts of this sites code needs adjusting (added functions etc).
• Overseeing the approval of comments to blog and community submitted content.
• Working on or with people as template adjustments may be needed to accommodate changes to the site.

• The ability to work well together and get along with others.
• A good grasp of Joomla administration.
• Some basic template skills would be advantageous.
• To be familiar with the Joomla Community.
• To be able to commit regular time each day to manage this site.
• To be committed to the success of Joomla, and want to be a sharer in that. 
• A good grasp of English.

It is anticipated that perhaps one of two individuals may be able to work together to spread the load managing this site in the future as well, so don't let the future growth of the site scare you.

Being the webmaster of such a high profile and high traffic site like this would certainly look good on your resume, but we'd like to think you'd also be applying so you can contribute to Joomla.

Only serious candidates should apply. Please make application by sending as many details as to why you are the person we're looking for to: webmaster_position@community.joomla.org (this email address will be removed once we have filled this position)

Replies to this blog post will not be treated as applications.

Today I'd like to announce a new project by the Joomla! team called 'Joopal'. Joopal is a new CMS featuring the power of objects offered to you by Joomla! with the immense hook system delivered to you by Drupal. Joopal is based on Joomla! 1.5 and features Drupal 6 the way PHP5 meant it to be done: with objects instead of globals and incredibly long function names. Joopal is compatible with the Drupal 6 functions and maintains all of those globals for backwards compatibility whilst providing a new object orientated approach to the functions you know and love.

The power of Joomla! with Drupal configurability

Joopal permits you to use your traditional Drupal blocks anywhere a Joomla! module can do and also allows you to integrate Drupal's modules as if they were a normal Joomla! component. This permits your Joomla! site to pick and choose the features and functionality you need against two of the world's most popular content management systems!

Development Evolved

Joopal provides developers with the power of the Joomla! Web Application Framework as well as Drupal 6's many interfaces. Joopal allows Joomla! developers to leverage features found in Drupal and allows Drupal developers to discover the joys of objects. For Drupal developers, objects are a recently added to PHP in version 3 that permit encapsulation of your data and providing tools to permit the removal of globals from your code.

But it doesn't stop there! In addition to creating object orientated versions of the Drupal Core in addition to the function/global system, you can seemlessly use Joomla!'s Framework complete with on demand autoloading objects.  With two popular frameworks behind you, there is no way you can go wrong!

Getting Involved

Like Joomla!, Joopal is a community driven project and we need you to help us out! Joopal needs Drupal testers to help port their components and reveal issues with the system. Joopal also welcomes any developers wanting to fix issues and improve Joopal by submitting patches or even working in a more dedicated role. With Joopal and your involvement, anything is possible! So what are you waiting for, sign up the the Joomla! Development General mailing list and start working on Joopal today!

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