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2011 goals and budget for the Joomla! project

27.05.11

As a new element of the planning and budget process, each Joomla! leadership team (Production Leadership Team, Community Leadership Team, and Open Source Matters) has set major goals for 2011. This goal setting effort has the following benefits:

• Allows our project’s budget to be a more effective tool for supporting the project's planned priorities for the upcoming year.
• Allows each leadership team to better understand what the other leadership teams are planning to work on, which will improve inter-team collaboration and support.
• Allows the community to be aware of goals and priorities for the upcoming year, which will improve transparency and openness and enable increased support and volunteer contributions.
• Will make it easier to bring in more sponsorship contributions, due to prospective sponsors having a better understanding about what initiatives their contributions will be supporting.

The major 2011 goals for each Joomla! leadership team are listed below. The goals are all numbered for reference purposes (but not as an indication of priority). A bullet list of some tasks that are planned to be worked on in support of these goals during the course of the year are listed below each goal.

The Joomla! project is also pleased to publish its final 2011 budget.

2011 Production Leadership Team goals

PLT Goal #1: Develop four iterations of the Joomla Platform project.

• Develop Joomla Platform 11.1. Target release date is 10 April 2011.
• Develop Joomla Platform 11.2. Target release date is 10 July 2011.
• Develop Joomla Platform 11.3. Target release date is 10 October 2011.
• Develop Joomla Platform 11.4. Target release date is 10 January 2012.

PLT Goal #2: Develop two iterations of the Joomla CMS project

• Develop "Bowerbird". Target release date is 10 July 2011.
• Complete development of com_localise component.
• Complete development of Joomla-MediaWiki importer to support localised documentation.
• Develop the next CMS release. Target release date is 10 January 2012.

PLT Goal #3: Release updates to the current LTS release (Joomla 1.5) as required

• Releases to be made until 3 months after GA of the next LTS. Number, timing and nature of these releases will depend on circumstances.

PLT Goal #4: Outreach and promotion of Joomla to a technical audience.

• Promotion of Joomla at technical conferences and events, particularly in respect of the Joomla Platform.
• Outreach to new developers under a Joomla Student Outreach Program (JSOP).

2011 Community Leadership Team goals

CLT Goal #1: Communication/Interaction with the Community

• More consistency in meetings and publishing of meeting notes/minutes
• Increase CLT membership to ease individual workload as well as broaden representation within leadership and public facing (the community) Task: Assign a member to join the communications team with OSM and PLT
• Volunteer forms for each area of the CWG (JRD, JED, People, JCM, Forum)
• Volunteer recognition program: rewards, public mentions, badges
• More updates to the CWG channels (google group, people site, blogs) about things happening within the working group

CLT Goal #2: Joomla.org site maintenance, usability, effectiveness and improvements

• New joomla.org family site design: volunteer committee run design
• Phased upgrade to 1.6 (and beyond)
• Enhanced Directory Listings
• Single sign on/auto sign on
• Evaluate possible forum software alternatives such as Kunena
• Integrate User Notes for directory and people sites
• Website upkeep - eg. security, third party upgrades, recovery in the event of compromise

CLT Goal #3: Active participation in live events

• Have more CWG attendance at Joomla events (team members)
• More representation of CWG leadership at events
• Joint Leadership Summit
• Video and live steaming of events

2011 Open Source Matters Goals

OSM Goal #1: Increase revenue from sponsorships, shop, and website monetization opportunities

• a) Switch the shop over to spreadshirt.com b) create new souvenirs (key ring , Mug, etc...)
• Brainstorm & update sponsor opportunities/pages
• Increase publicity of new sponsors and sponsor opportunities
• Increase Google Ads revenue using prime locations
• Brainstorm & implement Joomla hosting page
• Try to add international team members to improve international sponsors.

OSM Goal #2: Solidify/stabilize the Trademark team

• Confirm (Acting) Trademark Team leader
• Document Trademark-application processes
• Document and simplify Trademark rules
• Recruit new Trademark Team members & involve more board members
• Implement new Ticketing software to better manage submissions and communications
• Use ProjectFork software to manage above internal tasks
• Clarify Trademark priorities
• Try to add international team members to translate process documents and follow up with international issues.

OSM Goal #3: Establish Joomla supporters club

• Brainstorm details
• Create requirements
• Fix firm dates for going live
• Confirm who is going to develop & costs
• Ongoing publicity & monthly promotions
• Ask for help to translate information to different languages.

OSM Goal #4: Simplification and documentation of our processes

• Document Treasurer responsibilities and processes (for normal duties as well as project-wide processes such as budget/planning, funding requests, and contractor engagements), and add to the Wiki
• Document processes for Events and add to the Wiki
• Document trademark processes and add to Wiki
• Organizing of OSM organizational documents
• Document travel process for leadership team members (Orbitz, etc.)
• Identify repository for international documentation.

OSM Goal #5: Improve support for Joomla events

• Build an events team
• Finding a long run strategy for events
• Defining the target groups for different event types
• Establish Joomla world conference
• Documentation sprints and developer conferences
• Create translations for documentation.

OSM Goal #6: Improve PR/Promotion efforts to raise positive global awareness about value of Joomla

• Raise awareness of Sponsorships
• Publicise Supporters Club
• Translate documents.

Please discuss this blog here.

One of the blogging philosophies I tried to keep to is to use this site is to use it as a test case for Joomla. I figure, at the very least I can provide information with real world examples of different ways you can screw up running a blog, and things you should avoid!

My day to day is spent over at Joomlashack, and sometimes this site doesn't get the care and attention it needs, so last week I gave it some love and attention. What I found was how much is to what extent your host can effect your "SEO"

You are invited to join a meeting to help plan the Joomla 3.x roadmap, just prior to Joomla Day New York City. Much is happening in the Joomla community! Get the latest on upcoming events, interesting threads, latest news, and what to watch for in the week ahead. Did you hear about the new Joomla Template Directory? If not, be sure to read on...  



World Usability Day is coming up on November 10, 2011. There's likely to be an event near you, or you could participate in an online event. If you're in New England, be sure to check out World Usability Day New England. There are great speakers attending, including Tom McCan, the director of retail usability research at Staples. For $30, you get a full day of great networking, interesting speakers, and new ideas you can apply to your own sites. Hope to see you there!

Incase you didn't catch the heads-up on joomla.org yesterday - a new security patch for and full version of Joomla 1.5x has been released.

Apparently a bug in 1.5.5 was allowing unscrupulous fellows to change people's login passwords... which is quite a big deal in my book.  Typically the error is reported to leave the main site admin account open to editing!  You can read more on this issue in the Joomla Developer Blog .

Security bugs are always a little scary but one thing to note with Joomla in general is that the loopholes always get closed very quickly - in fact, when you cruise through the Joomla forums its hard to find many posts reporting sites being hacked due to security flaws in Joomla core. 

I recommend upgrading your Joomla 1.5.x site immediately to 1.5.6 - there are simple patches available on joomlacode.org (scroll down to the 1.5.6 upgrades section) which you can download and just upload on top of your current install; a process which takes just a couple of minutes. 

Thousands of people have downloaded our Scribe for Joomla SEO extension that allows you to use the Scribe SEO service in your Joomla websites. Scribe is one of the best and easiest ways available right now to get your Joomla website ranked higher in the search engines, and it just got better. First is that we have added some new features to the plugin, the coolest being the new Alternate Keyword Suggestion tool.

The Joomla project is requesting comment and feedback for a proposed new site that is planned to be deployed in 2009.  The working name for the site is the "Joomla Services Directory".  This site is to be a directory along similar lines to the Joomla Extensions Directory but with the purpose of connecting people or companies that provide Joomla related services, whether they be free or commercial, to people who need those services.  It has been identified that providing a centralised directory will have a significant positive impact on Joomla user and business community.  The scope of the site is yet to be decided but it is envisaged it may include services such as consulting, free-lancing, training, professional advice, legal advice (pertaining to Open Source or operating a software business), Joomla-ready hosting, and so on.

I was surprised to see how much searching it took to find this solution and so thought it worthy of a blog post...

... When installing a fresh copy of Joomla 1.5 you may notice that it comes with a configuration.php-dist file; my assumption upon seeing this was that I should rename it 'configuration.php' and chmod it 777 so that the installer could write the values I fill in during installation to the file.

Well, don't worry about the configuration.php file until the end of the install walkthrough screens; you're likely to get an error when trying to install sample data using a pre-defined configuration.php file - instead, wait until the last install screen where a congratulations message is displayed, then copy the code it provides into an empty file called configuration.php and upload it to root.

More info @ the forums...

A few years ago, fluid width templates were all the rage. Accessibility guys loved them, and it was cool to grab the corner of your browser window and see all that content slide around. Heck, my original Joomla template tutorial published at joomla.org even showed you how to make them. We even sold templates that had the more advanced "jello layout" (fixed side columns and fluid middle). But now, at Joomlashack, we don't make fluid templates, but focus on fixed width templates. I firmly believe they are misplaced on today's web.

SEO is not rocket science for people who create online content. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do, and more importantly, consistently doing it. You know you have to create valuable, reader-focused content, and also: You’ve got to do keyword research. You’ve got to optimize your reader-focused content. You’ve got to build links to your site. That’s basically it. Effectively and consistently do those three tasks, and you’ll achieve higher rankings and more targeted traffic. Thousands of content creators do all three of these fundamental tasks right from Joomla (or Wordpress, or Drupal). And scores of professional web writers use a web-based application to perform SEO for clients for use on any content platform. How? With the Scribe SEO software.

Its kind of long, and a little boring, but if you have time and are interested in finding out what people want Joomla to become, check out the wrap-up notes developers attending the 2009 Joomla Developers Conference in NYC recently shared:

We have a winner for our Joomla Freelance Web Designer Giveaway Greg from Australia! Congratulations Greg! With so many unexpected people entering, we'll be rustling up some consolation prizes... check your email inbox over the next few days for more details.

In October 2009 the new Joomla training course - Joomlashack University opened its door to its first class of 100 students. For the last 4 weeks, these students have been learning how to Joomla with our rich video screencasts and tutorials and asking questions and networking in our forums.

Before launching Shack U, we knew we had a great product to offer. We gave leading Joomla figures a sneak look at the content and, as you can read yourself, they loved it.

As well as teaching insider Joomla tips and tricks to our first students, we have been taking feedback and improving the course. We have streamlined the student path through the learning content and added more courses.

After 4 weeks, we are ready to open our doors again.

Joomla! 1.0 has served us well, but after nearly 4 years of service it has reached retirement. Things are moving forward with Joomla! 1.6 and there is no better time to start migrating to the Joomla! 1.5 release!

Joint Summit Attendees:

CLT: Peter Martin, Paul Orwig, Wendy Robinson, Sandra Warren
OSM: Robert Deutz, Alice Grevet, Dianne Henning, Sandy Ordonez, Paul Orwig, Ryan Ozimek, Jacques Rentzke, Marijke Stuivenberg, Akarawuth Tamrareang, Altansukh Tumenjargal
PLT: Chris Davenport, Mark Dexter, Louis Landry, Sam Moffatt, Omar Ramos, Ron Severdia, Jean-Marie Simmonet, Andrea Tarr

Where we came from:

Topics Covered and Action Items (where applicable) Created

The following is a brief summary of the topics discussed. Detailed reports will be published as they are produced.

1. Removal of the AGPL license from the Joomla Contributor Agreement (JCA)
   
   It was unanimously voted to discontinue the AGPL license. This lessens restrictions and will open up the project to more contributors.
2. Restructuring
   
   The Joomla Leadership, including the Open Source Matters board, Community Leadership Team, and Production Leadership team, recognize that our current leadership structure could be more effective.  Communication between our teams and the community needs improvement, and oversight needs rethinking.  As a team, we strive to be more effective leaders for the community. To achieve this, we have begun extensive discussions about the project’s leadership structure. This discussion is early and on-going.  As we consider important changes to continue on a path towards more effectiveness, we intend to request community input and feedback to help us in this important effort.
3. Communications - External
   
   The communications breakout discussion was one of the most lengthy. Audiences and current communications channels were identified - there are many! A review was made of the document produced by the current communications team this past spring, defining what is communications. Roles and responsibilities for the communications team moving forward were listed. Action items include: condensing the 12 newly defined roles into a more manageable list and begin identifying potential owners for these roles. Candidates must have a passion for communications and experience in the specific area (marketing, branding, graphics, etc).
4. Communications Internal
   
   A working group will be started to bridge the gap when communication needs a boost between the community and the JUGs, the JED, events, merchandise and trademark. A comprehensive leadership directory wiki will be created for a better flow of leadership communication and troubleshooting. The communications team volunteers to disburse intra team communications, and facilitate intra team conflict resolution, including the creation of a FAQ list within the wiki for that purpose.
5. Internationalization
   
   While English is the common language in the software world, the majority of the world population does not speak English. To increase Joomla’s presence in a proactive way and recruit more non-English-speaking volunteers, the following action items will be implemented: concentrating our efforts in the different regions of the world by identifying one or two community coordinators / contact persons in each region; compiling a list of currently active local communities and JUGs and see if there are any groups which have not yet been accounted for; identifying their needs, the nature of their communities, and recruiting translation help to update the Joomla info pages.
6. Roadmap and Goals
   
   This discussion first explored the benefits of creating a public unified roadmap that encompasses the entire scope of the Joomla! project. After that, the discussion continued to define a process for creating a public unified roadmap that also includes periodic public progress updates from leadership.
   
   The process for creating a public unified roadmap involves: Leadership defines and publishes an overall mission statement for the project. This is high level and conceptual.
   
   Each leadership team defines and publishes their team’s mission statement, which should support the project’s overall mission. Each leadership team’s mission statement may need to be revised to insure that they all tie in well with the overall project mission statement. Each leadership team defines and publishes their annual goals which support their team’s mission statement. For each leadership team’s goals, the following supporting details will be added and published: milestones (achievement and target completion date); action items (each task required to progress toward achieving the milestone; resource(s): volunteer or paid workers, financial (specify the purpose and budget line item); features (if applicable), action items (if applicable), resources (if applicable). Each leadership team publishes periodic updates during the course of the year regarding their progress on each of their goals.
7. Volunteer Recruitment and Rentention
   
   The PLT discussed forming a Joomla Outreach Project (JOP), where a "bucket" of tasks is created by teams, using the wiki. Community members would be invited to join these teams, and they would work in alignment with development goals, under the guidance of the PLT. Incentives (such as T-shirts) would be awarded upon the completion of each set of tasks.
   
   Volunteer Now is a plan for recruiting new team members, because teams should be created to manage recurring, long-term tasks that require deeper knowledge. A volunteer engagement page will be created on the wiki, and a Volunteer Now button will link to it from the joomla.org home page. In the wiki a future volunteer will find documentation on how and why we build teams, and contacts for the projects major teams and assets.
   
   A concept will be drafted listing outreach ideas for engaging university students.
   
8. Process Improvement
   
   Regarding processes and messages in correspondence (for example, in areas of trademark, the JED and events), we often need more differentiation and adapted responses to specific situations.
   
   Action items include: reviewing our texts to verify if we are using a friendly approach aimed at optimizing communication; listing and identifying situations and creating responses adapted to them; simplifying language.
9. Review Developer Sponsorship Program
   
   We talked about the state of the Developer Sponsorship Program and how we handle the involvement of sponsored development time from companies and guide this process more effectively in the future. One Idea was to move from pre to post recognition and use a to-do list and let people pick from the “cookie jar” list to sponsor development time.
   
   Action items include: speaking with the existing sponsors about their experience and writing a report; deciding if a money only approach or money and development time approach is best, finding a volunteer to manage the cookie jar.
10. Certification
    
    A 1 - 2 plan of certification ideas and how to approach them will be drafted. Feedback from each leadership team will be gathered. The plan will include creating levels for web masters, designers and instructors of joomla, creating a curriculum and courses template for trainers, financial and licensing fees to create more revenue, a test database infrastructure.
11. Improving Recruitment of New Developers
    
    A story we want to help tell is that Joomla can provide students with CS degrees experience on a global team that goes far beyond just a curriculum. Action items include creating a spreadsheet where we can determine which events developers are attending, and writing a one page messaging document outlining persuasive reasons why the Joomla Platform and CMS are useful for developers, and target university students.
12. Long Term Roadmap
    
    We talked about the process for establishing goals and milestones for the Joomla project long term releases. Once every 6 months the PLT and developers will meet just before or after an existing event such as a Joomla Day or JandBeyond. We are hoping to do the first one this fall where milestones and goals for the July 2013 long term release will be discussed.

The entire leadership would like to thank eBay for the use of its offices for our summit, and Louis and Ron for coordinating with them. Thanks to Rochen we had tasty lunches, ordered with care by Wendy. And Gunner, our Summit Facilitator Extraordinaire kept us on target and on time!

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