August 2008 Issue of Joomla Community Magazine
The August 2008 Joomla Community Magazine is available now and it's loaded with cool stuff about the World's Greatest Open Source CMS. (Biased? pfff!) Month after month, you will find articles on Joomla 1.5 Web sites, GPL-compatiable extensions, events, communities around the world, ways to get involved, learning resources for beginners, site integrators, and developers, and the latest buzz on what's happening in the Joomla! project.
What kind of buzz, you ask? Well, this month, it's all about JoomlaConnect™, a brand new service that aggregates Joomla! community news from all around the world. Joomla Core Team member and Communications Team Lead Louis Landry developed this nifty new tool for us to use. 
So, if you are interested in some RSS action, get your blog firing J!, and see Getting Connected to JoomlaConnect.
Feature Articles
This month, Joomla Core Team member and Development Working Group Coordinator, Andrew Eddie kicks off the Features Section by revealing an encouraging external market survey that shows Joomla!, WordPress, and Drupal as leading Open Source CMSs worldwide. Hat tip to our friends and partners in free software. Andrew also discusses training resources for developers and calls on the faithful to lend a hand updating our dev doc. Come on, it'll make you feel good.
This is very cool --> International award winning author and illustrator Sarah Verroken shares her creative process that resulted in a captivating Joomla 1.5 Web site showcasing her unique and beautiful work. Then, more cool design --> Per Andre Ronsen combines creative talents in theology, music, and design into a hot Joomla 1.5 Web site for Soul Kids.
This month's Joomla Forum Member of the Month is Marieke van der Tuin, undeniably one of the hardest working contributors in all of J! land. Oh, and make certain to check out the great, new GPL'ed extensions highlighted by our very own Toni Marie.
Involved Community
Joomla is powered by an involved community all around the world. Case in point, Vancouver Joomla Day organizer Wendy Robinson shares Ten steps to a successful event. On the other side of the planet, Chorn Sokun and John T Denny highlight what's going on with the Cambodian Joomla! community. Then, from San Francisco, Ron Severdia, founder of PlayShakespeare.com, discusses his Joomla 1.5 site, also the subject of his recent CNN Comcast Newsmakers interview.
Then, Joomla! developer, Alan Langford of Toronto shares a thoughtful piece on why he participates in Open Source and Google Summer of Code participant, Mostafa Muhammad sends Greetings from Wikimania 2008 in Egypt. Core Team member and Fundraising Team Lead, Michelle Bisson, (Wait a minute! Isn't that a lot of Mounties?) invites the community to support Joomla! financially. Give until it hurts. Well, at least give, if you are able, knowing every little bit helps...
Joomla Learning
There are several great articles aimed at skill development for Joomla community members. Those just starting with Joomla 1.5 are encouraged to read the Learning Joomla using Sample Data written by Mark Dexter. Site Integrators will get good value from Sam Moffatt's Improve the Security of your Joomla Administrator article; practical tips from Andrew's Legacy Mode in Joomla 1.5 and Search in Joomla 1.5 pieces; and inspiration from J! talent Jennifer Marriott's Resources for Designers article.
For developers, Jens-Christian Skibakk's tutorial entitled Creating a single package for Admin and Site Languages will help you take advantage of recent Installer improvements introduced by Jens. If you are geek enough, check out the tutorial Dynamic loading of lists using AJAX in a MVC component written by the very talented, Mathieu Chauvinc.
Joomla Project
Really good effort from the Joomla! project this month. Development Working Group Leads Sam Moffatt and Anthony Ferrara share this month's release updates on Joomla 1.5.4 and 1.5.5 . The Joomla! Extensions Directory takes the Working Group spotlight -- and exceeds 3,500 Joomla Extensions! And, finally, there is that very cool announcement about JoomlaConnect™.
Next month?
Much more, and even a bit more on top of that. So, come back and get some. September's line up is all firmed up but if you are interested in sharing an article with the Joomla Community Magazine for October, we might have a spot for that. Just contact us at Joomla.Magazine@community.joomla.org and let us know what you would like to share. Until then, have fun with Joomla.
You may have noticed the new look of Joomla.org and it's just the beginning of our new facelift. Not only is it a new and pretty face, but deeper changes as well. Here are just a few of the highlights of the new design overhaul:
