Joomla! SummitEven for our mostly virtual community there are some things that are just plain better discussed in a face-to-face meeting and for that reason the Joomla! Core Team and the OSM Board try to get together for a Summit at least once a year.  This year we found ourselves in a beautiful setting near the picturesque town of Pfronten in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany.  Not that we had much time to admire the scenery as we were hard at work discussing our favourite subject: Joomla!

Our time together is always precious and so we focussed on those topics that are difficult to discuss online.  I think it's fair to say that after the release of Joomla! 1.5 earlier this year, we were left with a feeling of "okay, but where do we go now?".  This was partly answered by the work being done on Joomla! 1.6, but it was clear that we needed to think more strategically about where the project needs to be going over the next several years, not just in development, but across all areas of the project.

View of the Alps near Pfronten, GermanyWe had intended to blog from the Summit itself, but the remoteness of our location meant that we had considerable internet connection difficulties.  On the plus side, it also meant that we were free from distractions and could concentrate on the work we needed to do.  We certainly worked hard, with many of our meetings going on into the early hours of the morning.

One of our most important goals for the Summit was to come up with a draft statement of the project's Mission, Vision and Values.  I'm very pleased with the outcome and we hope to be unveiling the draft for community input very soon.  We're just now adding some commentary so you will also get to see some of the thinking behind it.  This document is really important as it will set out, perhaps for the first time, what the Joomla! project is about, what our vision of the future looks like, and the key values that will guide us on our path into that future.

We also looked closely at the roles and responsibilities that will be needed and the kind of structures that the project needs in order for us to be able to achieve our vision.  We identified a number of areas where structural change is needed in the project.  There wasn't time to discuss details and so there is much work still to do, but we now have an overall outline of how we think the project should be organised and a much clearer understanding of the roles that the Core Team and OSM need to perform.  Some of the structural changes will take time to complete so don't expect huge changes to be made overnight!

In closing we felt it appropriate to choose a name for the Summit and the name we came up with was "Renaissance" from the French word meaning "rebirth".  I left the Summit with a fresh perspective on the project, a new understanding of what we need to do in the coming months and years, and a renewed enthusiasm for making good things happen.  It certainly feels to me like the beginning of a renaissance.