Brian Teeman

Oh no, what on earth is going on? I only just upgraded my sites to Joomla 1.6 and now there is Joomla 1.7. What the hell happened!!! Did I fall asleep and wake up 3 years later? 

Joomla always takes at least 3 years to release a new version, when I have to go through the heartache and misery of migrating to a new version. Now there is a new release just six months after the last. This is terrible!!! 

FINAL OPPORTUNITY - THIS CLOSES ON WED 10 AUG. It seems like I'm being asked to speak at a JoomlaDay event somewhere in the world almost every week. Much as I enjoy spreading the word and the Joomla!Love (tm) I just can't attend every event that I'm invited to.

For the last year I've been helping my father publish his memoirs, A Lawyer for All Seasons,  and on Monday that whole process reaches it's natural conclusion with the Press Launch.

After practicing as a Lawyer for 60 years dad had a lot to say and with him being a technophobe it's been a long and drawn out process. Everyone in the family is a Lawyer except for me and so with me being the black sheep who did understand IT it was up to me to help out.

You have probably noticed that this web site uses the awesome component K2 to deliver the content that you are reading instead of the default Joomla com_content component.

But did you know that to truly make it work you need a web host that understand exactly how to configure a web server to work with it?

Whenever I build a web site I try to do it so that the client will have as little to do or remember as possible and yet there are just some things "they just don't get".

One of the things that always frustrates me is when I re-visit the site after handing it over and it looks terrible. It seems that no matter how good the instructions are or how comprehensive the training is some users just don't listen or don't care.

The problem is that Joomla is just too dam good and will let the site owner do things they really shouldn't.

I give a lot of presentations throughout the year and last night I represented Joomla at the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT in a panel debate on Open Source knowledge/skills gaps across HM Government.

One of the complaints I've seen often about Joomla is that the registration process on your site doesn't gather enough data. As supplied it's restricted to asking for just the name and email address which for many people is just not enough.

As a result people have resorted to installing something like Community Builder just for the enhanced registration form without using any of the additional "social" features that Community Builder offers.

That's just using a sledgehammer to crack a nut

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.

Almost every day I'm asked why I am involved in Joomla, what is my motivation and what gets me excited. I know some people get excited and feel a sense of validation when they see big global names building a web site with Joomla but I don't.

For me it is seeing people all over the world working together not just for their own benefit but for the benefit of others and a greater global good.

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.