Brian Teeman

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.

I've said it before and I will say it again - I don't like Virtuemart as software for building ecommerce sites in joomla.

A tweet of mine is even being made into a t-shirt for me and I will wear it with pride.

This week, 21st to 27th November, is Inter Faith Week in England and Wales.

Wherever I go I am always asked why I am involved in Joomla! and why I give so much of my time to a piece of software. Working together with people across the world to produce software that will help, in some small way, activities like this take place is exactly what motivates me.

Of course I am excited to see large multi-national companies and government bodies using Joomla but it is when I see small charities or non-profit organisations able to organise events and spread their message, using Joomla, that I am really happy.

When a client rings and says "I run a website on Mambo", one tends to run a mile & hide for a month or two hoping they will disappear.

Looking for equivalent extensions, editing JavaScript, re-doing that navigation & sorting out those templates... no one needs that hassle.

If we're happy with our websites and they work, why touch them!

Congratulations to Spain, winners of the FIFA World Cup for the first time in the competition's history.

After a game that at times more resembled unarmed combat than "the beautiful game" Spain were the eventual winners.

Although Dutch Striker Arjen Robben will have induced a few heart attacks towards the end.

New Zealand were the only team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup not to lose a game.

They didn't win a game either so unfortunately left the competition after the group stages.

I had been saving several Brazilian sites for the later stages of the World Cup but somehow they managed to get knocked out much earlier than I expected.

Whoever said that this World Cup was going to be predictable?

As there was no game today I'm taking the opportunity to post one of those Brazilian web sites.

Spain were one of the "red hot" favourites before the start of the World Cup but somehow after they managed to lose their first game we all forgot that.

It has been slightly harder to find high profile joomla web sites in Spain than in some other countries

I suspect that this is more down to my poor language skills than any lack of adoption.

Thanks to Sander for supplying me with a very long list of impressive high profile web sites from the Netherlands. I never thought I would need such a big list.

We all know that two of the greatest Joomla extension developers are in Greece.

There can hardly be a Joomla web site developer that has not heard of Akeeba Backup or K2 from JoomlaWorks.

But let's not forget that one half of the Community Builder team are also in Athens.

Maybe there is something in the water of the "Home of Democracy" that makes such great Joomla developers or perhaps it's the quality of the education.