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At the Joomla! World Conference in November 2014, a team was tasked by the Leadership Summit with reviewing and updating the Joomla! Code of Conduct which is presently available at https://www.joomla.org/about-joomla/the-project/code-of-conduct.html.
The team has worked since that date to update and refine the Code of Conduct, taking into account the rise of social media and the need to update the policy in line with the size and diversity of our community.
Research has been carried out which includes drawing from how other Open Source projects manage volunteer and leadership conduct, identifying example policies, reviewing procedures for dealing with breaches of policies, and identifying what might be the most appropriate way of deciding and implementing sanctions at varying levels.
Following a two week period of feedback from the Leadership Teams, we now request feedback from the Joomla! community for a further period of two weeks, where we welcome comments on the base English language document and translated versions.
To access the base document, please visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mUCWA2TDJ90KxuL89-oh2s9ZL1R34SBJZJtJihfeaJ8/edit?usp=sharing - translated versions will be linked to from this document.
If you would like to help translate this document into your language, please join the translation room on Glip by visiting www.glip.com/joomla and signing up for an account, then join the room called ‘Translation Room’. The team will be able to support you in translating the document.
Community feedback will be open until Friday, 12th June 2015 at which point the final version of the Code of Conduct Policy will be presented to the Leadership Teams for formal adoption by vote. If you would like to make suggestions, please use the ‘comment’ feature on Google Docs. For further discussion please use this forum post: https://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=704&t=888947
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- Written by: Ruth Cheesley
The Joomla! Production Leadership Team (PLT) is pleased to announce the addition of a new member. We welcome Marco Dings to the team. Marco will be managing and helping to document the workflows within the project, helping with the work on Joomla future releases and adding further frontend knowledge to the PLT.
The PLT is responsible for leading and coordinating the development of the Joomla CMS and the Joomla Framework. This includes releasing new versions, fixing bugs, adding new features, translating and creating documentation.
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The Marketing Team Needs Your Input!
J! and Beyond is coming closer, in less than one week time we’ll have our Make It Happen session in Prague. Marketing is planning on 4 projects to happen :
- Content & Sitemap of the Joomla websites
- Sponsorship Marketing
- Public Relations Team kick off
- Traffic generation
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- Written by: Rowan Hoskyns Abrahall
Last week the combined Joomla leadership teams (Community Leadership Team (CLT), the Board of Directors of Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM), and the Production Leadership Team (PLT)), voted to adopt the New Structure & Methodology proposal, by a vote of 19 to 9.
Starting in the fall, the proposal was put through several rounds of leadership, working group and community feedback, and underwent numerous revisions before the proposal was put to a vote.
The structure team that worked on the proposal was formed at JandBeyond 2014 one year ago under the motto of “Make it happen”, and is made up of three representatives from each of the three leadership teams. The team was given a mandate by the Joomla leadership at JAB to do this work, and that mandate was renewed at the joint leadership summit in Cancun in November, 2014. The work of the structure team built on and drew from discussions and research that started at a joint leadership summit in 2011, and from the Governance Working Group research and idea catalogue.
As can be expected in a community as diverse and passionate as Joomla’s, there has been a wide spectrum of reaction to the proposal and resulting vote. Since a two-thirds majority in favor of the proposal was required to carry the motion, the vote was very close and there are some strong dissenting voices.
As with most things, this new structure can be viewed from different angles and with different mindsets. Details might be subject to interpretation, and assumptions are quite often easily made. However, without ignoring those facts, and keeping in mind the lessons learned from them, it is important now to be focused on our future, and have faith in our common goals.
For the first time, this vote gives the Joomla project a unified plan for leadership to involve volunteers, plan, mentor and vote. One legal body to oversee and lead the project, guided by the voices of the teams doing the work. The goal of the proposal is to encourage contributors, bring together fragmented leadership teams and processes, involve more global communities, and to have a voting process where leaders are not appointed by leadership itself. It sets a road map for organized conflict resolution and a code of conduct.
Today we need to come together to continue the implementation of this document. The next step will be to form a transition team to provide the guidance and processes to transition into the new structure. In the coming week the structure team will put several options before the entire leadership for a vote on how this transition team could be formed. Once the transition team is formed, the work of the structure team will be over.
Some areas of the proposal still need more detail. The transition team will oversee the formation of teams to define those areas through a continued process of collaboration and feedback. The structure team strongly recommends that all leadership be actively involved in this process, and that the concerns of the PLT in particular, be addressed throughout.
The public leadership discussion and vote on the structure change is something unprecedented in Joomla history. There is a commitment to increased transparency. The vote was respectfully conducted. As the proposal adoption phase comes to a close, the structure team wishes to thank all of the community members, working group members, and members of leadership who shared their views and offered input on the document as it was being developed.
A new day is dawning for the Joomla project. The CMS scene is very different today from what it was 10 years ago when the project was new. Joomla has made its way, stood its ground, and established itself as one of the top Open Source CMS’s in a challenging environment. It is our sincere hope that this structure change, with the continued work and collaboration of the volunteer community, will form the solid basis to guide the Joomla project through the next 10 years, and beyond.
In the spirit of moving forward, we welcome your feedback in the forum:
https://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=704&t=888437
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- Written by: Structure Team
The Joomla User Group (JUG) team is a vital part of our community, ensuring that our passionate community members can connect with other people living near them and meet up in-person to share their love for Joomla!.
The JUG Team has been led by Liam Mandville for many years, showing enormous dedication to the creation and maintenance of the JUG Directory and encouraging the formation of new User Groups around the world. After many years of dedication, Liam is stepping down from his role as team lead due to work commitments, effective 30th April 2015.
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- Written by: Ruth Cheesley