Welcome Robert Vining All Together, As A Whole Host and Spokesman

All Together, As A Whole has been a remarkable experience.

I have been involved in the Joomla! project and community for a number of years. I have been on the outside. I have been on the inside. I have stuck with the project through difficult and enjoyable phases. I contributed significantly to the project and have frequently been called Joomla!'s biggest cheerleader (and sometimes, it was a complement :) ).

After the GPL talks, there were understandably very few people helping keep the fires going. Under Wilco's leadership and because of his enthusiasm and vision and community development skill, we formed the Bug Squad and involvement started to rebuild, slowly, and as a result of that involvement, 1.5 was released and supported.

Joomla! lacks a clear strategy for community involvement and there is no real leadership in that area, there is no one championing the cause, and no apparent recognition that low involvement is due to this lack of leadership, rather than a lack of community interest.

I opened this site in an attempt to see if others shared my desire to come back together as a community and network as Joomla! Developers and Web site Builders. It appears many of us share the same desire and the response has been overwhelming positive.

All Together, As A Whole has very little structure or declared purpose, but there are important principles at play. We are inclusive; everyone is welcome. We share knowledge. We help one another. People are free to speak their mind. Members enforce high standards of integrity, decency, and respect. We take a lot of criticism for the freedoms allowed here and we must continue to respond to those criticisms with a very strong demonstration that personal integrity, peer support, and freedom are what make a Code of Conduct work.

We've had a turbulent start. A number of announcements made by OSM made it clear that there has been a lot of behind the scenes planning that could impact the definition of community and Joomla!'s future. There has been very little sharing of information or opportunity for community feedback. The trademark implementation was poorly handled and OSM discourages open discussion on this policy to this day.

As a result, a lot of pent-up frustration has been channeled through ATAAW and a very strong message was delivered. We are starting to see change but there is a lot of work to do. The effort is not only required of the project, but most especially by the community. We can't just sit back and wait for others to do it for us. We shouldn't waste our time complaining about what "they" do. We need to make good things happen together and accept responsibility for our ecosystem.

To me, it is clear that the Joomla! project and OSM have lost touch with the community and the community has lost touch with the project.

We need leaders. We need those who have helped guide in the past to keep the faith and continue, but those of us who have been in the foreground need to drop back and assume an elders role, helping with advice, as needed, and cheering people on, but not leading the charge. Today, those with new ideas, enthusiasm, and hopeful spirits need to step up and get involved.

The recent announcement of the Open Source Matters Board members was a very good sign of new leadership. The selections were a show of support for local communities, respect for our International membership, and a recognition that personal integrity matters.

I am stepping aside and have asked Robert Vining to be our new All Together, As A Whole host and spokesman. Robert is the kind of person who I know can help guide this effort during it's next phase. He has an exceedingly kind and welcoming nature. He is enthusiastic and has a million ideas about things we could do to strengthen the network. He understands that the most important function ATAAW serves is that it provides a place for people to come. He is inclusive and open minded and honest. He calls it like he sees it, and has the strength of character to listen and make up his own mind. He is strong but not controlling. I am very excited to see how we can work together with Robert's support.

Please join me in welcoming Robert as our new All Together, As A Whole host and spokesman. I ask that you please give him your full support as he takes the lead in this next leg of our journey together.

Thank you, Robert, for your willingness to contribute in this way to the Joomla! community.