Absalom Media :: CSS design and accessible CMS support

I've managed to get involved in the latest Barcamp incantation at Brisbane today, after helping co-ordinate the Joomla! Melbourne User Group and networking with Tequp, another unconference. Notes, presentation slides and photos to follow as it gets pushed out to the wider web stream.

This is a good opportunity for the wider web design community in Queensland to focus on quality design, development and training, having come from my interactions with the Web Standards Group, the Australian Web Industry Association and the Guild of Accessible Web Designers. As GAWDS is an international body, it doesn't have a local chapter in Brisbane or the greater South East, either in the Gold or Sunshine Coast. Yet both the WSG and AWIA are national bodies, and neither seem to be greatly encouraged or represented in this state.

Perhaps it's time for a change.

To help develop professional artwork and press collateral for clientele, you need to understand  the development of independent publishing in general. The online space is driven primarily by open source, open standard principles in order to build networks.

Community matters. People who use the products of Absalom Media to increase the value of their online presence are respected. That does beg the question, however. What is the Joomla! community ?

Just a quick note to say we're investigating an issue between IRC Maxell's Page Cache tool and Bad Behaviour. We apologise in advance if the site 403s unexpectedly.

Need to create a professional template in Joomla! ? Need a course in CSS design ? Then the Joomla! Template Design book from Packt Publishing will help get you started.

Like the title suggests, this post is about the benefits of creating non-GPL compatible works, regardless of whether or not people get them for cost. So commercial and proprietary by and large have no place in this discussion.

The aim of an open source product is to allow certain freedoms for the end user or client. The aim of the open source community is to allow disemmination of  those  freedoms so others can benefit. Yet it must be asked. Does this allow a democratic community to be built?

This is a very short, simple, right of reply to this developer post made by Louis Landry after I suggested that there was an organisational business plan in place concerning GPL compliance that resembled a puppet regime. Such an adjective was an appropriate artistic metaphor, and it did it's job in getting the attention of those involved.

To put it simply, the person ultimately responsible for the monies going into Joomla! coffers is the perfect person to ask regarding the legal and financial accountability that comes with a change in policy direction.

It is entirely logical and rational to follow the money. Government bodies such as the ACCC in Australia regularly prosecute organisations for not honouring correct business practices, and if the OSM Board, with Elin Waring as it's current president, cannot give a straight answer as to how the monies regarding 'voluntary compliance' with the legal change in policy will be spent, then nobody can.

Simple, isn't it ? As for the record, I found Louis' whole take on it cute, but misdirected, so I'm not offended by his post. In that light, here's a cat for him.

Need to create your first application for Joomla! 1.5 ? Have no idea how to do it ? Then "Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development" is for you. This book, written by Joseph Le Blanc, who has produced component tutorials for Joomla previously, covers the basics of extension development.