I want to draw your attention to a blog post entitled Those who can't do, teach. (Really???) by community member Jen Kramer McKibben who speaks to the importance of a diverse skillset within a free software community.

Joomla! is better because people, like Jen, use their teaching skills to help others learn Joomla!. Jen uses many avenues to reach learners, including a blog site with continuously available learning material, Lynda.com videos, including Joomla! Creating and Editing Custom Templates and Joomla! Advanced CSS.

Jen is responsible for the Joomla! User Group New England, a resource available that helps local Joomla! users learn from one another. She is also hosting the first Joomla! Day New England event to be held later this month in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Jen also provides Joomla! training through her job as the Program Director and a senior faculty member for the Master's of Science in Internet Technologies program (MSIT) at Marlboro College Graduate School. In that program, Jen uses Joomla! within the curriculum. Sweet!

I love Jen's comments encouraging community to find some way to get involved with the project:

Get involved in your local Joomla community, if you can't or don't want to join the larger project. Join or create a Joomla user group. Talk to your local community college about offering Joomla classes -- and if you're qualified (which typically means you need a master's in a relevant field), see if you can also teach. And if you're not on the teaching/mentoring track and you just want to write code, talk to the Joomla project about ways you can contribute.

Jen is right. It takes all kinds of people and lots of varied skills and interests to make a free software community work. Thanks to Jen Kramer McKibben for her work as a contributor to this project. Because of her teaching, many are able to take better advantage of Joomla!.