By Kevin Davis

Raleigh, N.C. –  With the massive amount of websites promising free and legal, legal being the key word, services and software Joomla! delivers.  Joomla!, exclamation point included at no extra cost, is an Open Source Content Management System that is being utilized all over the world.

What is Open Source? Open Source software is free software that provides its source code and allows users to change or improve that code and redistribute it to others at their will.  People can use the Open Source trademark owned by Open Source Initiative if they meet their Open Source Definition, which can be found at http://www.opensource.org/. 

At its heart, Joomla! allows its users the ability to easily create and manage their own websites.  This can be anything from a person that wants to write a blog to a corporation that wants to set up a new website.  It also facilitates multiple contributors to the web design by allowing an administrative login on the page. No longer are the days of needing a Webmaster or expert to manage your website, anyone that can read directions can design a webpage.

“Joomla! provides a service that we need and does it well.  Also, you can’t beat the price,” said Jim Ray, President of Neuse River Networks.  Neuse River Networks specializes in proactive computer networking solutions for small to mid-sized businesses.

By utilizing the Joomla! software, Jim Ray has created two different websites so far: one for Neuse River Networks and the other for The Triangle Open Source Lab.  Recently, the Eastern N.C. section of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) has decided to switch to Joomla! for their website needs at the suggestion of treasurer, Jim Ray.

One of the main advantages of the Joomla! software is that there are thousands of different extensions that can be downloaded and used with Joomla!  Joomla! is like pizzas in that the dough is already there and then all you have to do is pick the toppings you like.  In the case of Joomla!, Joomla! would be the dough and all of the extensions would be the pepperoni, sausage, cheese, and so on.  However with Joomla! there are over 2,812 extensions on their website alone.

The extensions available for Joomla! range from putting an I Pod on your page to Database management.  Other extensions available are the ability to sell products on-line through Amazon.com or by using Paypal.  Extensions are being added all of the time making for software that can change to your needs. Another feature that has helped Joomla! become an international success is the ability to use language internationalization.  Language internationalization allows the software to be adapted to different languages and regions all over the world without re-engineering the software.

With the idea of no borders binding their development, the team at Joomla! got its name by taking thousands of suggestions by their Open Source community.  By compiling these names they chose one after conferring with branding and marketing professionals.  According to their website, Joomla is the phonetic spelling of the Swahili word, “Jumla,” which means, “all together,” or, “as a whole.”

This communal attitude also lends itself to how Joomla! is run. It is separated into multiple different work groups lead by a core team.  Each group is allowed to have a say in how Joomla! proceeds while the core team has members dispersed in eleven different countries allowing for diversification.

With everything Joomla! has accomplished, it recently released Joomla! 1.5.  Revamped to better meet peoples needs while staying true to their Open Source Community that made it successful, Joomla! does not look to be slowing down any time soon.