Jobs.Joomla.org
Steve
We've started some brainstorming about what a potential
jobs.joomla.org might look like. This would be a listing of design /
coding / site building projects that Joomla developers could bid on.
One thing that definitely won't work is getting ourselves involved in
actually running the projects (taking the Escrow money, mediating
between the two parties in case of disputes etc).
We have come up with two possible solutions but I'm sure there are
more ideas to consider:
Possibility One:
# We clone JoomlaConnect and get job boards to submit their Joomla
jobs via RSS Feed
Possibility Two:
# We put the site out to bid via RFP and select an existing freelancer
website to run it
Is jobs.joomla.org a good idea in general?
Are either of these two possible solutions good ideas?
Steve
Andrew Eddie
Regards,
Andrew Eddie
http://www.theartofjoomla.com - the art of becoming a Joomla developer
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Steve
take over and have suggested a third route:
Possibility #3:
This becomes a resource for people looking to enter the commercial
side of Joomla, either buying or selling work. It wouldn't list jobs
but it would have detailed resources and guides for both buyers and
sellers.
Steve
Jobs.Joomla.org is a good idea but should educate rather than take the
risk of increasing low-balling:
"Rather than talking about how to push jobs to developers, I'd like to
talk about how to create a market demand for developers.
When you push jobs to developers, you have a single job and many
developers bidding on it. This tends to drive prices down.
Even though the freelance type sites offer "certified devs" to do the
work, the devs still charge $15/hr for their services. Throw in the
cut for the freelance site and the take home goes down too low for
most countries to compete. What's more, these sites drive down rates
for developers all over the world. It turns our services into a
commodity, sold to the lowest bidder. We wind up being a bunch of
button clickers.
A far better approach is to generate demand for Joomla. Clients should
ask for Joomla by name.
However, supporting this approach is a lot harder than just throwing
up some RSS feeds on another joomla.org website. This impacts the
whole message Joomla sends, and it means addressing audiences
joomla.org has never bothered to serve before.
Joomla.org must start serving the end user, the people who own Joomla
sites. We're talking about people who had someone build them a
website, and the website was built in Joomla. This type of client may
not have much of a technical background. However, they're making a
buying decision on what they've heard from a bunch of developers who
are bidding on their project.
I would suggest the following as a start, to start making Joomla a
product clients will ask for by name.
1. Construct the www.joomla.org home page *primarily* for end users.
Fine to link off to other sites to serve other audiences, but most of
the home page should be all about people who are considering Joomla.
These people might include managers, business owners, non-profit
organization leaders, and others who want to know what Joomla is and
how it benefits them in a non-geeky way. You should not be serving
those developers who are thinking about moving to Joomla on the home
page. Push them to the dev site, where you can speak geek to them.
Push the less technical who want to build with Joomla to the demo
site. The home page needs to focus on tangible, non-geeky benefits of
using Joomla.
2. Provide answers to typical client questions when they encounter an
open source product for the first time. How does open source make
money? Is it secure? Why is it free? How can I trust that Joomla will
be around in 5 years? How do I get support? Why is the community
behind Joomla so important? This could appear on the home page as a
rotating question, linked to an answer, or it could be a FAQ page.
3. The demo site is a fabulous improvement for joomla.org. So we
should build on it! Rather than having people just sign up for an
account so they can try it (with little or no obvious direction),
provide a series of quick, 10 minute sets of tasks for them to try on
the demo site. For example, create an uncategorized article, link it
to a menu, assign a module. Explain what each of these items are
(article, menu, module). You could have a series of 6 of these and
call it "60 Minutes to Joomla". Each 10 minute task would be
progressively more involved. Have a separate "try it" section where
they can try a variation on the activity. For example, ask the client
to assign a module to two pages, or all pages, rather than to one page
of the site.
4. Create a new section for developers about how to sell Joomla. What
is the marketing story you want devs to tell about Joomla? Right now,
most developers are saying it's one of the top 3 open source CMSs in
the world, but it's the one we like for (insert geeky reason here).
Client eyes just glaze over at this. Joomla needs a clear, concise,
compelling story about why it's the best OS-CMS in the world, that any
dev can remember and tell their client if they are asked. That story
should be all over the website. Collect stories about clients who
switched from Drupal to Joomla and how much happier they are.
Please don't commoditize the skills we have as developers by
encouraging a marketplace for Joomla developers. Let's boost the brand
instead and create good paying jobs for everyone all over the world,
rather than encouraging a race to the bottom that benefits very few."
Andrew Eddie
as in "why a jobs board". This can be asked in contexts of both what
problem is trying to be solved (there you go Brian) or the counter of
what opportunities are trying to be raised?
What's the background to the brainstorming Steve?
Regards,
Andrew Eddie
http://www.theartofjoomla.com - the art of becoming a Joomla developer
Brad Baker
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Louis Landry
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Steve
What a lot of people have been asking for is ways to strengthen the
commercial side of Joomla.
Louis and the others who have commented elsewhere might be right.
It may be that really improving the Resources site and building around
the existing business listings there might be a good option. We could
ask the business community what would help them to sell projects
and win bids and enlist their help to build those resources.
Steve
Ryan Ozimek
I'm totally swimming in my own email inbox right now (nothing to do with
this topic at hand), but I think that the following is an _outstanding_
point made by Steve:
"We could ask the business community what would help them to sell projects
and win bids and enlist their help to build those resources."
Every event I go to, I ask folks this question, and I've been collecting
some great feedback. If we can build this statement into something tangible
and actionable, I would be strongly behind the effort. Huge win-win
potential, tons of upside, and I'd get some awesome materials to hawk at my
speaking engagements on behalf of the Joomla community.
Sorry Steve, I hope that this doesn't take your main discussion point
off-track. =)
Best,
Ryan
----------------------------------------
Ryan Ozimek
President
Open Source Matters (Joomla's non-profit organization)
Email: ryan....@opensourcematters.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cozimek
Steve
No, not at all. In fact that seems to be the initial flow of the
feedback from you, Louis and others. To sum it up:
- a jobs board would expand opportunities, but mainly at the lower-end
- the focus should be on expanding opportunities at the higher-end, by
creating better marketing materials that business people can use to
sell Joomla
- those resources would be best located on resources.joomla.org
Would love to hear what others think on this.
Steve
Mark Dexter
thread. In my experience, the best marketing materials you can have --
especially for high-end sales -- are third-party "independent"
articles that say good things about Joomla!. IMO, the top priority for
the PR firm should be to help get positive stories published (print or
electronic) about Joomla! successes.
It is a key point that these must be published by someone else, not by
J.org. That is what gives them credibility.
There are many, many positive case studies that would be great to get
published in this way.
Mark