Joomla CMS Raises The Bar

Posted on April 12, 2007
Filed Under Design |

Joomla positioned to grow as fast as Apache did!

Joomla CMS has broken all barriers and rewrote the rule book when it comes to open-source project successes. For the first year of its existence, Joomla was largely a European and Australian craze that soon caught on as it was recognized as a serious development tool for content driven sites.

Now Joomla is being recognized with greater frequency by developers and site builders as a serious tool in the web developers arsenal just as valued as any commercial development application. Comparing Joomla to the internet’s #1 free application “Apache” may be bold, but Joomla has crashed on the scene with has much vigor and tenacity that seasoned professionals are starting to take notice as the attitude is shifting on a global level regarding free open-source applications. Nearly reminiscent of the days Apache was considered hippie and non conformist because it wasn’t Microsoft. Despite billion dollar marketing efforts for IIS, web servers using Apache exploded overnight.

Today Joomla announced that it has the largest Open Source CMS focused forum on the planet. Having reached 100,000+ users whom have signed up (validated), Joomla! contends with some of the biggest forums on the Internet rivaling even the most authoritative and laced up professional communities in terms of participation. Reaching this 100k watershed is significant as the heart of this reveals true Open Source source spirit with many of these members sharing their knowledge and experience. And this strength — the backbone of the project in many ways — manifests in a mature ‘eco-system’ that’s self-supporting. Thousands of helping hands and minds. With such explosive growth, Joomla could be as popular as Linux or even Apache in the scheme of internet solutions.

Joomla as a site development tool kit

Joomla fits comfortably in many genera of critical success elements outlined in todays internet conscious. When factoring in Joomla’s total schema, you end up with a viable design and development resource easily adapted to the task at hand. Joomla benefits in part as a culture for lack of a better term and its an industry unique in this era of social networking. By briefly looking at the open-source industry we can garner a perspective as to why Joomla has experienced such explosive growth.

For many years programmers and every flavor of corporate site developers often looked at open-source applications as anything but professional solutions. Early on for the most part they had good reason to view open-source applications with suspicion and distrust as most were largely birthed from student programmers personal projects and many suffered serious quality issues. Not all open-source applications share such humble beginnings. Projects like vBulletin, osCommerce and WordPress were headed up and started by professional programmers, not students or hobby coders. Joomla was born of well thought out, organized and focused professionals. Like Apache (the worlds most used web server) or even Linux, which many flavors remain free, growth can be explosive when quality is such that it attracts the attention of industry professionals who endorse by usage making it the norm. Joomla stands on that very pedestal now as internet professionals with ivy league reputations recognize Joomla in professional circles without embarrassment or angst toward usage of open-source solutions.

But if its so good, why is it free?

Many free open-source applications that arrive on the scene do so more often than not because of some frustration with a commercial product or lack there of. Necessity can be the mother of invention, but the approach is motivated by either inspiration or desperation and quality is a direct reflection of the motive. Joomla (previously called Mambo) is an inspired product and the quality and level of commitment are directly linked to it’s impressive base of contributing developers, designers and documentation content providers. This combination of contributors coupled with Joomla’s lofty and impressive number of community participants further the spirit of the open-source ideology.

Joomla is NOT free because its junkware, its free because an open-source ideology has become a social element as valid and fast paced as MSN, Google, MySpace or even YouTube, each of which is free yet no one challenges quality in these arenas. Joomla is free because open-source means a great deal more than one is led to believe and Joomla articulates that meaning. Joomla’s character is a polished multi-faceted diamond that shines in the eyes of its users from many perspectives.

The Joomla Playing Field

Where is Joomla being used? Here is a short list. Chambers of Commerce sites, city governments, police and sheriff department web sites, the US Army, countless commercial sites, trade publications, real estate, automotive, industrial tooling and countless others that I’ve been able to verify in researching the usage of Joomla CMS.

I’m going to edit this article later in the week as I finish collecting more information but until then, lets just say; Way to go Joomla!

To read more on free software and open-source objectives visit http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html and http://opensourcematters.org/

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