And maybe more importantly, “Why should you care?”
Joomla Is A Tool
More specifically, a tool for building websites, also known as a Content Management System (CMS). And it’s FREE! You can download it for free, and learn to use it if you’re willing to take the time to do so. Understanding the underpinnings of Joomla is not easy for most people, as it’s built using PHP and MySQL and of course, HTML and CSS. But, and this is the beauty of Joomla, using it is not difficult to learn. In fact, most people who use computers probably already have most of the knowledge they would need to be able to use Joomla to add content to their sites. The basic operations of writing and posting an article are very similar to using a word processor like Word. If you can type, point and click, you’ve got it.
So, that brings us back to “why you should care?” Well, if you’re one of the millions of people who have a website or want to have a website, using a tool like Joomla could be a great facilitator for getting your website built in such a way that you can update it anytime you like. One of the drawbacks to having a website built for you the old “static” way was that if you wanted to make changes to the site typically you had to have your designer make them for you, as most people did not have the capabilities to make their own changes. Joomla changes that. You probably still don’t have the capabilities of making the site, but if you have a dynamic, CMS site built for you using Joomla, you will be able to make changes, add photos, even add new pages and so on. The learning curve is pretty small.
Open Source
Joomla is what is called Open Source software, which means that it’s not owned by anyone who will charge you to use it. There is a Joomla organization that oversees the development of Joomla, including managing security issues and new releases. There are thousands of people, developers, involved in improving it and creating thousands of extensions that add functionality to the core software. This large community of developers, not to mention users, makes Joomla a very popular tool for website development and design.
So this free, Open Source, website development tool, that is easy to use, therefore empowering its users, and that is so widely supported by an organization and large community of developers and users makes a pretty compelling argument for why you should care.
Shameless Plug
If you’d like to learn more about this or think you might need some help with your website, I invite you to get in touch with me to discuss this further.
