Well, what can we say... but Joomla! is alive, well and prospering in South Africa. The Johannesburg event in the Joomla!Day South Africa series was well attended by about 50 individuals, some new to the Joomla! CMS, others well versed in the open source content management system.
On arrival each delegate was presented with a package containing a CD filled with Joomla CMS extensions, core package files, manuals and other resources - all of the GPL stuff collected to date, an Ubuntu CD, some presentation notes and a freshly finalised programme for the day, which offered some all inclusive sessions and some split sessions to cater for elementary and advanced users.
Represented at the event were users from Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Empangeni. One delegate from Bloemfontein arrived later in the day.
A number of very interesting and informative presentations were given on a range of subjects;
An overview of the Joomla SA Portal and the South African Joomla! User Group by Sean Grant [Joomla SA Portal ]
Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimisation using Joomla! by Christine Anderssen [ TM4Y]
A Joomla! payment gateway solution for South African market by Glenn Ross [ MyGate]
A developers perspective on Joomla! was given by Craig Smith, co-developer of the Fireboard Forum [ ECD Designs]
An introduction to Joomla! by Brendon Hatcher [Brilliant Web]
A community/ membership site case study was shared by our resident Joomla! Hero, Brendon Hatcher - a moderator in the official Joomla! Forum
The localisation of third party extensions for the South African market / country by Clive Primrose [Organic Fusion]
A highly entertaining "Joomla! off the cuff" presentation by Rodin van der Laan [ Massive Advertising]
A case study of a site application development by Matthew Philogene [RaraMuri Design]
A Question and Answer session was facilitated by Brendon Hatcher [Joomla Forum]
The Learn Joomla! initiative, an open courseware resource for Joomla! Training by Sean Grant [Slingshot]
A perspective on Joomla! Content and Copy development and sharing was given by Max Pichulik [PandP]
A discussion about Issues facing the Joomla! CMS was facilitated by Brendon and Matthew [Joomla SA Portal]
The presentations are available on the http://www.joomladay.co.za/website. Audio files, which are yet to be edited and shared, will be available in due course.
Aside from the opportunities that became clearer to me on the day, such as the use of collective bargaining power to address issues confronting Joomla! Users, such as exorbitant hosting costs, internet access and isolated cases of non-delivery by individuals, I came away from the Joomla!Day event in South Africa with a renewed passion, invigoration and respect for the community of Joomla! Users, who are a formidable force that are unleashing and realising their full potential.
We also had a number of funding, training and media partnerships offered to us as a portal, which should see the uptake of Joomla! be rapidly advanced, as well as offers of inexpensive training venues, media coverage and the like.
Of course the event would not have been possible without the generous funding of MyGate, Tailor Made 4 You and Rochen.
Next up - Joomla!Day South Africa - the Durban event , due to take place late in August, so please register your expression of interest by registering on the site at http://www.joomladay.co.za/
Thank you to all of you who attended and supported the JHB event, held at The Peech Hotel on 14 July 2007.
See you in Durban...
Sean Grant
Team Leader
Joomla SA Portal
~ courtesy of www.joomla.org.za ~
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