Yesterday I was answering a user question on the joomla forums.

It doesn't matter what it was about but the upshot was that the problem was a known issue in the latest release and that a patch had been written and approved and was ready and waiting to be included in the next release.

But it was 24 hours and a lot of testing before I realised that it was a known issue.

It's not practical for regular users to search the bug tracker for "known issues" and fixes as the tracker is less than friendly.

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I've been sitting on several half written blog posts for the last week never quite managing to finish any of them. Call it procrastination or just the inability to get back into the work habit after the extended holiday season. You can even call it laziness.

It's even been suggested "He won an award and then quit ...".

The truth is I've been lazy, had too much fun clearing the pathway of snow only for it to snow again a few hours later, and messing about on twitter. (More about that later this week - I promise)

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As the year ends rather than look backwards at what has happened in the past it's time to look forward to what will happen in the coming year.

I made such a hash of last years predictions that I hope this year I will do a lot better by stating the obvious instead of stating what I dreamed of whilst recovering from days of indulging myself on beer, food and cookies.

Here are my Top 10 Predictions for 2010 (in no particular order).

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As we approach not only the end of the year but the end of a decade I spent a little time looking back at some articles I wrote back in 2007. Finding this one I was perhaps not surprised but definitely disappointed that it's as true today as it was then.

The article was not looked at with a critical eye or an open mind in 2007, perhaps it is different today as the same discussions are still taking place?

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I've been trying to think of a light hearted and topical blog post for this time of year when I remembered a tweet requesting a Joomla Xmas Carol.

Below you will find "my" version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" and I've taken a few liberties with the numbers.

I'm sure you can do better either by offering an alternative line for this Carol or with your own Joomla Carol.

On the first day of Christmas,
my Joomla! gave to me
ACL in Joomla! 1.6

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Documentation in any Open Source project is seen as the Holy Grail. It's great to have but somehow never quite fulfills the needs of the users.

Joomla has an excellent documentation resource but I think it is fair to categorise these docs as "reference" material and not "user guides".

There are some excellent books (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and some truly awful books (not reviewed here) but without exception they are targeted as the site builder or site programmer.

If you build sites for people or you have had a site built for you, you don't need or want a thousand page manual, you want a simple twenty page guide that tells you want you need to know and nothing more.

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It is easy to sit back, moan and bitch. It is not easy to stand up and speak up. But if you don't then you have no right to complain.

In my travels to several Joomla! days this year, on skype and on email, I have been approached by a significant number of people who are all committed to the success of our Joomla! project.

Each one of them has had some gripe. Whether it be about the direction or speed of development, the changed role of OpenSourceMatters, trademarks in domains and logos, donations, software libraries but the actual issue doesn't really matter.

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An essay on the roles and responsibilites of users and community members in an open source project.

This is the first of several longer blog posts that examine the culture and ethos of an Open Source project, it's development, management, community and future.

Participation in the development of an Open Source Project is in almost all cases voluntary and traditional management cannot apply. Open Source developers are not therefore typically driven by financial motivation. Instead, consciously or not, peer esteem and a desire to acquire new skills are the driving factor.

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Last night I was excited, honoured and suprised to win the ComputerWeekly.com Open Source Blog of the Year Award. But this isn't really an award for me it's an award for you.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for the blog, everyone who has given me inspiration for an article, Marc Ozin from ReformJudaism for nominating me in the first place and two very special people.

The original idea for the blog came from Fotis Evangelou who pestered me to start writing until it was easier for me to start than it was to shut him up and Chris Marinou who is the brains and talent behind the template design. Without the two of them this blog this blog would never have happened.

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