Communities are great. When people get together with a common purpose, magic happens. People rise above their own expectations, work together, teach and learn from each other. Cultures don't clash, languages don't matter, distances are virtual. If you've never experienced anything like that, that's unfortunate - come to J and Beyond next year, meet the Joomla community and see the light.
That said, communities aren't perfect. For instance, they cannot be regulated easily - superdemocracy, or lack of followership, makes pushing a community in one direction as easy as pushing spaghetti out of a plate with one finger. Communities move when a majority of members drift in one or other direction, and others are OK with it. Some movements catch on, some die. Survival of the fittest. And communities thrive on 'free agents' that set new directions, take the first step and lead the way -- and so, the Joomla community has many leaders. We all know who they are, even though we don't always follow them.They influence us, show great stuff, write marvelous code, inspire us.
Good communities are temporal meritocracies - you lead for a while, as long as people follow you. If people follow someone else, that doesn't mean you are wrong - perhaps someone else is more right for them. Being 'in charge' is an illusion : if you want someone to follow you, get a dog and a leash, not a community. Leadership is just a symptom of people following your direction : which means you have to have one.
For a while now, our community has been agitated and divided over that direction. At first, I had the impression of being fed
spoon after spoon of promises while I was waiting for a next release. Then, out came the
knives, fingerpointing and accusations, politics and struggles. And now we're talking about
forks : whither Joomla shall survive ?
The last two years have brought us innovative ideas we had never anticipated. K2 blew us away for its user friendliness. Flexicontent looked like the CMS we wanted, coming back from the future. Nooku framework, Molajo, new ideas, a new generation of developers, ... any list is going to fail recognizing all of the talent in this community, but you understand what I'm saying. Some of these initiatives have rekindled the belief in Joomla we may have lost two years ago. And we're all following these thought leaders in practice, building sites with them, faster, easier, better.
And yet, we've all come to accept that innovation does not come from the heart of this project. Perhaps we're not even expecting it from that direction. And that's wrong, people : the heart of the project is not defined by a title on a business card, it's where you feel the throbbing pulse of innovation. At JAB, I heard people talk about the amazing stuff they had seen, but also genuine concern about the future of Joomla. It's our community, our technology, our product or project - let's not give anyone the illusion of control over its future. Let's claim back our Joomla. Let's decide we want this thing to be so good, only an idiot would fork it. Let's break down whatever stands in the way of original ideas, experiments, open minds and progress. What say you ?
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