All i wanted to do was write code, when my head gets too bugged down with reading about genes, etc; there is and was no secret agenda, its not about making any particular name for myself, or get an award, or making any financial gain, believe it or not, i write code just as a getaway from the things i do all the time. To me this has been a hobby for the last six years and nothing more. I try to avoid where possible the narcissistic ideology that is deeply buried within the Joomla “leadership”, which, like Arno Ziljstra i will blame, but not condemn (for i am probably not a leadership guru either).

Three years ago,I was looking for a good CMS for this very blog, to write about my scientific career and simply to share stuff with my friends. Ideally it had to be written in PHP, a web technology which by this time I had been working with for nearly 3 years, together with a few others. I did not have to do an extra work on the CMS, because i simply did not have time, as you will imagine Joomla was top on the list. Yes, i should have gone WordPress or Drupal, as most of my friends and colleagues, but Joomla to me was fresh, the buzz was hot in 2005/2006, it seemed like it will be a matter of everything is ready for you, just use it and get on! More still this drstonyhills.com was fast becoming a community of friends, than a personal career blog, so i needed to adapt. There popped community builder on my radar. Everything seemed almost perfect, The enthusiasm was high, I became very involved in the Joomla community, joined Rockettheme, joined JoomlArt. Especially the forums at rockettheme, they just make you love Joomla. I used only about three templates from RT in my ~2.5 year membership, but the COMMUNITY at RT was more than just templates, they gave you a sense of belonging, a sense of participation. I made a few great friends out there. Kuddos to Andy on such a great  community.

Just as a child who sets out on their first few steps, after a year of crawling, the atmosphere at 60cm above the ground is different that that at 30cm, the enthusiasm is great, you soon learn, not just to walk, but to run, to play etc. Ironically though, unlike when you crawled you quickly realize the boundaries, the stumbling blocks, etc. It did not take me long to realize the limitation of community builder, and before i could think, i began modifying it. The result was the start of what Joomunity is all about today.I am not going to repeat that story as those who’ve been here since then understand, but i feel compelled to reconsider my mission, in a desperate bit do rekindle my enthusiasm (now almost killed) in Joomla. Remember this set out, to provide a “free solution for,  building communities” with Joomla, represented in the slogan “…building communities”. I am quickly realizing that CMS that a bundled in a cog of leadership jujistu, is not the best choice for people who just want to have fun. Yes leadership is important, I know i fail bad when it comes to that, but seriously Joomla!’s leadership is another level.

Forgive me if i am ignorant, but i must admit, even as i say Joomla leadership, i almost don’t know what it is, or who it is, or what they do. All i know is the odd person, showing up here and there, or the odd email shooting you down for using ‘Joo’ in your component or domain name. Is this the only matter on the openSourceMatters agenda? Maybe, the whole problem is, i am expecting something from a leadership that , either does not exists, or has a different agenda and interest? Who leads Joomla? If there is any solace to find from a potential answer to this question, i had to go find out exactly. My entrance into the Joomla scène shortly after the Mambo, Joomla, Miro saga, does me a disservice, but if OpenSourceMatters are the new ‘leaders’ of Joomla then surely i don’t know what their mission is. I can almost feel the effect of expressed genes in my cells when i read “….to serve the financial and legal interests of the Joomla project….”. Reading this makes me think that the Joomla project is not a community run project, but these people are using the community of developer to serve their own financial and legal interest. If openSourceMatters really cared about its community, then the communities interest will be openSourceMatters interest. Yes they argue that if you fail to protect your trademark you’ll soon realize you don’t own it, but the question is who owns it in the first place?

Worryingly, the people at the fore front on Joomla community, Are not listed on the OSM board, I am talking about people like Andrew Eddie (didn’t he resign in 2006?), Johan Janssens, who are at the fore front, pushing a Joomla 1.6 iteration, Amy Stephen whom to the best of my knowledge is holding what is left of the community together (sadly not even on a Joomla hosted site), and many others who are doing their own bit to make joomla the best CMS out there.. is this some kind of hierarchy? If there is anybody to serve the interest of Joomla community it should be these developers and community cordinators. Like i said maybe there is some other leadership i don’t know off. But my head hurts thinking of the whole soup.

Joomunity to Tuiyo is another story i owe an explanation for. First off i know i have made serious mistakes with Joomunity. With Tuiyo, the plan is to take the project in a different direction, 100% opensource with a Swiss style government. Its not my intention to be president of a Tuiyo ‘matters’ board or anything like that. I am nearly already exhausted with the cost, frustration and criticism on this project. People to assume such roles and binding policies with the community it serves will be drafted when the time comes. Once its complete, this project will be hosted on Google code,

So then why a name change? Back in early-mid 2008 i received an email from some one, can’t remember who, but it was signed ‘president of OSM’. How i wish i hadn’t deleted that particular email the day i got it. Basically it asked me to remove the trademark symbol(tm) on the Joomunity logo because it was in violation of the Joomla rules, terms or whatever unknown, unreferenced Joomla policy, drafted behind close doors by people claiming to have the interest of the ‘community project’ at heart. All this because i used ‘Joo’ in Joomunity?. No big deal, I just had to find out the legal implications of the trade mark symbol, because i honestly did not want any legal jujitsu either. After discussing the issue with many others, and despite being advised, the contrary, i.e i am not obliged by any law to take it off (Maybe OSM should consider suing FusionGarage for using JooJoo as the name of their unfortunate tablet device). Because this component was being written for the Joomla community i complied. The next morning ™ disappeared from the logo and all referenced Joomunity docs. As though that were not enough, i received another email telling me i needed permission to use MY domain name JOOMUNITY.ORG and that i had to fill a form on OSM website to obtain permission, to comply with yet unreferenced Joomla policy. By this point i almost feel like maybe i am not a member of this community or something as i don’t know of such rules. By this time you get a very alienating type feeling; but then if you have complied with the first, why not comply with the second? There went my request, form completed and sent. If you want to believe the true meaning of a joke, then if you have not done this compliance request form thing, go try it out now. Sadly though, even as i speak, its been nearly a year, and i have not received any reply nor the required permission to use the Joomunity name or logo. So what was this all about?

The sense of non belonging, meant i just dumped Joomunity all together. It was so annoying, i contemplated going solo, writing a standalone CMS with plugs to Joomla! This was a serious alternative, work had already began and we decided to rename to YOO- rather than JOO-, I spoke to a lot of people (including several Joomla developers who were going through the same thorny issues) about this and i think it was the best chance yet to salvage what was becoming a lost opportunity, and frustration. But legal quagmires again meant, YOO- died even before it was born, but the code base was available. Now what? All this code on my computer. A friend of mine, was working on a PHP project which he had to submit for an assignment, and basically he had a serious community building initiative going his way and needed help. By this time i needed something to keep me excited and i jumped on the bandwagon. It was proving to be the start of yet another amazing time. The only problem was i had emails banging in my head, “where is joomunity ?”. Honestly speaking there is another beta (beta 4) which still sits on my computer as i speak, but the project i was working on now, with my friend was so much better so the plan was, okay, although it is standalone now, i could force this into Joomla component somehow. And that has successfully been achieved in what is now Tuiyo! I must say Tuiyo is not a bridge, it a fully functional Native joomla component, which started as a standalone component.

Now what? Joomunity, Yoonity, Tuiyo all sitting on my computer, its like a real serious thorn in my flesh. One part of me feels i have let the people who so encouraged this effort down, and makes me want to get it out there like now, The other part of me is extremely frustrated with Joomla! i even considered Drupal (not like it will be any better there). The only reason why i will release this product is because I am almost paralysed by that responsibility. It will be impossible for me to continue with Joomla. Once this is released, It will be handed over to people who care much about this. Although i will be at hand in the first few months (max a year) to support the product. I sincerely apologise to all those who have been waiting for so long, yet are being very loyal. I also applaud your understanding that with the time i have to my studies (research), there is virtually no time to be arguing with the Joomla leadership (if at all any at all). Some people argue that there is a change in the way things are going for Joomla. i.e, decision making is becoming more open, and participation in the project is becoming more open, yes it is, but OSM should not think it can use its community to satisfy its own interest. As far as i am away, the majority of people who care a lot about Joomla, have little or no financial interest or personal gain in this project. Maybe their mission is a little misguided. And unless they reconsider the position of the COMMUNITY in the whole project, a repeat of the Mambo, Miro, Joomla saga, could be reality (Or maybe their whole aim is to prevent such a thing from happening again? ). Stealing something and preventing others form stealing from you is NOT open source. That defines the capital joke that is OSM.

Like i said on altogetherasawhole.com, maybe i should have stuck to what i do best, and not let my hobby become a thorny worry. I wish the Joomla group? team? foundation? corporation? all the best!

Though i am not going to take any swipe at this video at this moment, it is important to point out that i do agree with it in many aspects, but disagree with several other aspects of its character. First, we all agree and its not new, that our planet is in peril,  increasing planetary temperatures, though minimal, are a serious threat to our health and the health of other inhabitants. Major disruptions of environmental cycles, caused directly or indirectly by our actions, leave our planet in a delicate state of imbalance, consequences of which – though not fully understood, could be tragic.

However delicate the situation might be,  the debate I’m afraid is taking a rather unfortunate direction, guided by self interest and shear fear mongering. If the description of this video is to serve as pointers…

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film. HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.

These documentaries, though true, are usually grossly over exaggerated. One thing you are never told, is that nature is governed by laws. No where does the narrator mention a fundamental principle that energy is neither created nor destroyed, and seems to allude to the concept that we are using up all the earths free energy and will surely run out at some point. It sounds wrong. All man we as inhabitants of planet earth have done is to facilitate the conversion of energy from one form to another, which eventually and inevitably will be converted back to another form. Forming part of a well established cycling to which the narrator makes no reference. It is true,  that we might be running out of practical sources of energy if all is converted into forms which are very impractical to harvest or use.

Nonetheless, we all agree there is a problem, but fixing this problem should not be guided by self interest alone. What complicates the environmental and climate debate, is the shear amount of lobbying and self interest that has engulfed a pressing issue. More often than not, documentaries like this one, or books on climate change, or theories are part of the theocratic way of scientific thinking when dealing with the popular press – “science for dummies”. This approach loves people believe what makes them feel good, and gives the scientist in question something in return in the form of endorsement. It is therefore reasonable that some theories are pushed way to hard to promote a new technology or drive funding in specific areas of research. Such mentality does not help the debate.

Opinionated colleagues(me included) allude that “Our planet is warming up” , “that evidence suggest that we have just 10 years or less on this planet” But truth be told, these is just one side of the story. All we have are numbers. But we cannot consider numbers alone ignoring the fact that numbers in themselves are governed by numerical laws, as well as taking into consideration broader scientific facts, a few of which are discussed above. In the same lines, another burning conclusion from this video, is the narrator depicts human beings (homo sapiens) as prime movers, creators or even gods of the planet earth. This is a careless theme, and points to the very rampant theories of the scientific revolution. A revolution which promotes, at the very least, a high level of propaganda.

We are not the only animals to modify our environment to make it suitable for our needs as the narrator seems to point out, (and modifying our environment by no means makes us creators.) As Barry Schuler concluded in his TED talk on Genomics .. nature has given us a toolbox, we scientist believe in molecules, we are not creating anything or inventing anything, but using the resources that were available to us, to find combinations and variations which satisfy our survival instincts, and fair enough, any output of our messing about with these tools is not “unnatural”.

A better narrative in discussing environmental issues, should be based on the disruption of this cycle of energy conversion, molecular recombination, which could disrupt or already has disrupted the environmental balance of planet earth and could have detrimental consequences. For example, gross deforestation, and excessive pollution leads to the presence of more toxic gasses in the environment at any given time. So what should we do? Its one thing to actively warn about a problem and yet propose absolutely ridiculous solutions.

What these scientist fail to lecture us on based on their numbers, is how to maintain this balance. Given the gross nature of their assumptions and conclusion, how many trees should you plant in your back yard for every car you buy? this should not be too much to ask for, right? Well enjoy the video