Brian Teeman

This year I have been fortunate to travel and speak about Joomla in 13 countries across almost all the continents on the planet. One thing I quickly learned is that despite increasing globalistaion and harmonisation we are all different.

I've written before about the obvious differences of language but there's much more too it than that. Local culture and economics play an important part as well in defining and differentiating the Joomla communities around the world.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks you will know that the largest international gathering of the Joomla development community took place at the beginning of the month in Kerkrade, The Netherlands.

Rather than write a report on the event in the immediate aftermath I thought I would wait a while and try and allow some time to get my thoughts in order. Of course the opportunity to sober up and grab more than 2 hours sleep would also help.

With J and Beyond rapidly approaching I've started to think about all the things that I need to take with me. Somehow I don't think I will be travelling light especially as the replacement for the cow trousers (not pants!!) almost take up the entire suitcase.

J and Beyond, an International Joomla® Conference in Kerkrade The Netherlands, is coming and the deadline for submitting proposals for sessions is on 4th March.

J and Beyond is not like any other Joomla! event, the entire programme of events is up to you the participants. Any and every participant has the opportunity to present a paper which can be either a presentation, tutorial or workshop. This is your opportunity to not only meet your peers but to share your ideas, experiences and projects.

Today I'm turning the blog over to you. 

Inspired by a facebook post by Jono Bacon, just use the comments to say where and when we've met. Of course if you have something more interesting to say about it feel free to do so and perhaps even link to a photo or video.

Just one small beer too many and crazy ideas start to sound sensible. I'm sure you've all been there and had an idea in a drunken moment that in the light of the day perhaps isn't such a "no-brainer" after all.

That's exactly what happened during JoomlaDay Chile.

During Javier's presentation on OSM and the power of Open Source software he talked about his experience couch surfing and I suggested to Ryan Ozimek that we could probably travel the world, couch surfing and visiting Joomla communities as we travelled.

Ryan, being the big vision thinker that he is, not only embraced the idea but started to think about the possibilities and practical issues.

This is the first of several blog posts inspired by my recent trip to Joomla Day in Chile.

I began my keynote presentation in Santiago with an apology that the presentation would be in English. Being British I have a very poor appreciation of the importance of speaking any language other than English. Even at school the French I was taught would not really help me with conversational French (and even then I was not a very good student).

There is an English joke that if you speak loud enough and slow enough then everyone in the world will understand you but that simply is not true.

It started at J and Beyond in 2010 when Ryan Ozimek introduced the Joomla! cheer.

I say Joomla! and you say Rocks!!

Since then Ryan has spread the cheer at Joomla!Days across the globe. I got in on the act at Joomla!Day Denmark (video) where in a live skype video link up with Joomla!Day UK the Danes raised the roof and showed the more reserved Brits how its done.

For the next two days I will be speaking and participating at the first ever JoomlaDay in Denmark.

With almost 200 people expected in the very small town of Kolding, not far from LegoLand this is an amazing turnout and shows the true strength of Joomla even in a very small country.

I hope to video my presentations for http://hiddenjoomlasecrets.com but I do have a sneak preview you can watch right now.

If you're anything like me, and I suspect most of you are, then you probably upgrade your computer on an almost annual basis.

But what do you do with your old one?

Does it sit in the corner of the room for emergencies that never happen?

Does it gather dust and take up space waiting for you to get around to doing something with it?

Of course you can't just chuck it in the bin.

Not only would that be against the law (in the UK) but it's a crying shame to see all that working processing power and alot of money go to the great landfill in the earth.