Well, Steven and I are finally back from the CMS Expo. We had a great time! I feel completely beat up…mostly due to snowboarding. We had a great 3 days – we learned a lot and met a lot of new people. Let’s focus on some of the highlights: Just like last year we were part of the expert panel. We spoke about Joomla! and running a successful business, including topics like time management and building your own Joomla! template from scratch. For the first time this year we had the Business Networking Scramble in which we had 1 minute round table networking. We also had some great sessions with all of the Joomla experts. Thanks, guys!
One noteworthy speech was from Tom Canavan aka. vscribe. He spoke for two sessions on Joomla! security and security in general. Personally, I’ve noticed that a lot of people overlook security. They say, “That won’t happen to me” but it will if they don’t do something about it! Tom spoke about the importance of knowing your enemy, knowing what tools they use to hack sites and how to prevent it.
You may ask, “how do I get time to do this research?” Easy. There are many hacking sites out there that have RSS feeds. Just plug them into an RSS reader and search for Joomla!. Most exploits have an example of how to perform the exploit. Some even go as far as showing you how to patch the vulnerability. Thanks Tom!
While I was there, some people came up to me with WordPress questions. WordPress + Joomla! is not a wrapper, but a full integration into Joomla!. It allows full syncing of users (name, email, username). This feature can be turned on or off. The WordPress modules that we have created can be put anywhere on your site, not just where WordPress is displayed. The subscription is a one year subscription that includes new updates and new WordPress related modules/plugins/themes. If you decide not to renew your subscription after the year has passed you can still use WordPress on your server.
Anyway, we had a great time. We all had some great laughs, and I am really looking for the next Expo in Chicago in May 6,7 and 8. Everyone was very friendly and we made some great connections. Thanks to all of you who took the time to come and talk to me. It’s always nice to put names and faces together. For all of you who didn’t get a chance to go this year, please try and make it to the next one! It is a great place to learn from the experts. You’ll have a great time. Thank you, Linda and John Coonen! If it wasn’t for them, none of this would be possible. If you get a chance, thank them.
In other news, SDR News will have some podcast/videos of the conference available to view within the next month. I hope (disclaimer). Also check out Azrul’s new product JomSocial – its pretty neat! Also, the guys at Community Builder are coming out with a great new plugin. Keep your ears open! And check out Kick Apps that Mitch Pirtle announced. Last but not least, check out the Spotlight Award Winners.
Update: If you are looking for Steven’s Accessibility and Usability presentation, it is Here (no longer available)
