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Mark Dexter

Documentation, Communications, Bug Squad, General Questions Forum Moderator

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I started writing software in the 1970's on punch cards. For 28 years I co-owned and ran a software company that develops and sells line-of-business software for construction companies. During this time, I did a lot of software design, development, support, training, and documentation.

I retired from the company in 2007 and decided to learn about and get involved in open source software. I taught myself enough about Eclipse and Java to author a series of free video tutorials, including Eclipse and Java for Total Beginners.

A few months ago, I volunteered to become the webmaster for a small community advocacy group for parks and open space. As part of this, I wanted to make it possible for non-technical users to manage the content on their website. Someone recommended Joomla!, so I tried it out.

During the process of learning Joomla!, I made the mistake of pressing the Help button and I got a weird screen with no content. After some investigation, I learned that help was needed to write the 1.5 help screens. So I started writing help documentation, which was a great way to learn more about Joomla!.

I have found the Joomla! volunteer community to be incredibly welcoming and friendly, so I think I am hooked. My two goals are to contribute to making Joomla! as accessible as possible to new users and to learn PHP and eventually be able to write some Joomla! code.

When I'm not working, I enjoy cycling, hiking, and other outdoor recreation.

Mark Dexter is very involved in the Joomla! community. You might know him as dextercowley on the Joomla! forums and helping out in the Wiki.

  • Email mark.dexter AT community DOT joomla DOT org